Journal Review – Ethnic Archetypes and the Arab Image

Journal Review – Ethnic Archetypes and the Arab Image
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August 11, 2018
Throughout the history of civilization, forms of stereotyping have always existed in one way or another. As discussed by Stockton (1994), this process where people are ‘taken out of history’ could happen either for either hostile or non-hostile purposes. This has been laid out and discussed by the author through an analysis of two infamous cases of stereotyping – the Africans and the Jews. Consequently, he argued that images (e.g., of Arabs) should be seen with an external context that evolves and changes through time. Upon a reflection of the author’s thoughts, I strongly agree that modern-day stereotypes have their roots coming from thousands of years of history. However, I believe that the analysis should also determine the dominant forces that influence the inception of these stereotypes. Take for example how Westernized media and thinking portrays Arabs as inherently violent people. Even though there are about 1.2 million Arabs in the United States in 2000, most of them are viewed as inherently violent (Cosgrove-Mather, 2003)...