I Prefer Raghead
According to the IMDb and some cookie-cutter journalists, that means Muslims are “outraged” by the movie’s title. Here we go again… those crazy Muslims – always yelling and pumping their fists over something! While I may not be outraged -neither as an Arab nor as a Muslim- I do have mixed feelings about all this…
I can understand Native Americans being outraged by the name of DC’s football team or Cleveland’s baseball team. I can even (grudgingly) understand some Muslims being outraged over the incident with the Danish cartoons (though reactions were overblown, to say the least). But even though I don’t particularly like the name of the movie/novel I don’t see what’s so outrageous. Had it been written by a non-Arab I might understand, but this is the work of an Arab.
“It is unfortunate that a major film studio would choose to exploit an ethnic slur as a sensational promotion for a movie. Mainstreaming a bigoted term in this manner will only serve to legitimize and normalize anti-Muslim prejudice in our society.”
I don’t like the name much – Raghead would have been better, especially given some of the themes of the story – and I wonder what people would think if some other ‘minority’ had written something with a similar title. But the fact that most other US minorities have already assimilated into Hollywood culture means that they don’t necessarily have to. For Arabs and Muslims, that is not the case. We are still portrayed through the lens of that Hollywood culture and we have yet to make our voices heard as loudly as they should be. That’s why there is some validity to the charges of “sensational promotion” here.
Still, I can’t hate. But I will have to see the movie before I make up my mind (not particularly interested in reading the book even though I’m sure it gives a better sense of Eiran’s perspective and purpose). What worries me most is how Hollywood handles the story and whether anything important is lost. Eiran did not work on the script adaptation – this was left in the capable hands of Alan Ball (I really enjoyed American Beauty). I don’t have particularly high expectations, so maybe I’ll be impressed.
Jack Shaheen is a renowned professor who’s written extensively about how Arabs are portrayed in Hollywood. His book, Reel Bad Arabs is a handy reference to see how dirty they’ve been doing us over the years. But as far as I know, he hasn’t written anything yet about this latest movie featuring an Indian actress playing the part of an Arab… I’m interested to hear his take on it, but I won’t wait for it to see the movie (although I’ll wait for the director’s cut – the film that will be released in theaters is 20 minutes shorter than what was screened at Tornoto and Sundance). The last movie I saw that dealt with Arabs was Rendition and I was pleasantly surprised… at least it was better than The Siege, True Lies, and my favorite – Delta Force. I’ll let you know what happens this time around but if you’ve already seen/read it, please share your thoughts.
