You know, it’s funny how people say perception is reality, because I do not agree with that statement at all. I mean, I’m from Lebanon, and the way that I am sometimes perceived in the U.S. is definitely not a true reality. But it’s not just me; I believe that this is something much bigger than that, something that’s becoming a nationwide stigma: Islamophobia. Yes, we have all heard that term, mostly relating it to terrorist groups like ISIS, but sadly it doesn’t stop there. It broadens to include anyone with an “Arab” appearance to be pigeonholed as a terrorist.
It was easy for me to think that only the previous, older generation was racist, but it is slowly trickling down into the millennials. We are the binge-watching, TV-loving generation who will watch pretty much anything. My family and I, we love watching TV, and two shows that are on our current watch cycle are NBC shows, "The Blacklist" and, more recently, "Blindspot." They are two crime drama/action shows that go by a case-by-case basis to solve bigger crimes. Both are very good shows, but with one problem: almost every criminal in both of those shows happen to have “Arab” names; i.e. Ahmed, Mohammed, Amir, Khaled, or Omar. They are all princes with money that use it to murder the good guys, kidnap, rape or deal in drugs.
The problem with this is simple: it is instilling in the minds of this new generation that “Arab people are bad.” And if you speak that or portray that enough on popular TV shows, perception really does become reality, turning into a giant movement that makes Arabs/Muslims “evil.” Why is the villain never Caucasian, I ask myself? Why must we always be typecast as the bad guys? Eventually, that will make us so in the eye of the beholder.
I know that pop culture isn’t the sole blame in this scenario, but we are in an age where the media has so much influence, both good and bad. If the previous generation feared Muslims because of rumors and/or preconceived notions, this generation will because of the TV shows that infiltrate all our devices and screens, all day, every day. At the end of the day, I don’t want it to come to a point where the U.S. is repulsed and terrified of people based purely as a misconception. It’s not fair, and they don’t really leave us much wiggle room for rebuttal. I would love to see an episode of any crime-based TV show where at the end of the day, the heroes are helped by someone Middle-Eastern, instead of hindered. Is that too much to ask? We are supposed to be moving forward as a nation, not backwards, and with the consumption of this entire media influencing our daily lives and shaping our opinions, I really want the world that I live in tomorrow to be better than the one that I live in today, not worse. I’m not a conspiracy theorist, just a realist, and all I want is equality.
