University of Toronto Law Professor Mohammad Fadel gave the Third Annual Sharjah Chair in Global Islam Lecture on September 29, 2015. You can follow him on Twitter and read some of his papers.
Parts of his talk focusing on the dismal political conditions in predominantly-Arab countries leading to the heresies of ISIS reminded me of Umberto Eco's novel In the Name of the Rose.
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CW's Containment Will Make You Scared of ... Brown People!
These comments are based on watching the first two episodes of The CW Network series "Containment."
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Within the first several minutes of the first episode, we learn that an undocumented Syrian had left the hospital with symptoms. I stopped watching and Googled "cw containment syrian illegal alien" to see if anybody besides me found this troubling. That's when I found the xenophobic article below.
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Islamophobes use @CWContainment, where infected Syrian illegal immigrant=Patient 0, 2 spread fear of brown ppl http://www.rightpundits.com/?p=12742
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I should preface the remainder of this by emphasizing that I'm not attacking any of the actors who appear in this series. If I was offered a 10 second non-speaking role in a basic cable drama series as a suicide-vest wearing terrorist Arab playboy with a sombrero riding a donkey made up in blackface with a stack of TVs behind me while eating watermelon, I'd jump at the opportunity. I know it's that bad for non-white actors in Hollywood.
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I then searched in Twitter to see if anybody else noticed this. Thankfully, several others found the association of a deadly outbreak with an undocumented immigrant troubling.
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In @CWContainment, a black kid knocks up a white teen; a #Syrian refugee brings a #WalkingDead virus to USA; a #wall protects.. Wow...
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And now illegal Syrian Muslim immigrant brought vial of bio-engineered virus into US. We're not sufficiently xenophobic? Ugh #Containment
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First 3 mins of Containment.. It takes place in Atlanta and an illegal Syrian immigrant started it. Cancel this shit.
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It's unfortunate they went with the illegal immigrant vector. He could has been anything. #Containment
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#Containment wow what a shocker, they made the arab the terrorist. cool.
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i hope @CWContainment doesn't go the hella racist route and blame everything on the "illegal middle eastern kid" 🙃
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I watched the remainder of episode 1, and I thought other aspects of the show promoted anti-Arab sentiments.
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When police go to Sayid's house in @CWContainment, the Arabs hoot & howl, just like the irrational savages racists portray. Thanks, @TheCW
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.@CWContainment had option of showing @AtleastLevesque or @Ronny_Mathew in aggressive phase of disease. Brown guy provokes fear much better
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Khadijah Ennazer reviewed episode 1 of the show, mentioning her fear that the show would promote hostility towards Arabs and immigrants. One of the show's writers, Julie Plec, promises that the series will not go that route.
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really disappointed with @julieplec at the writing in #Containment ... you had the chance to change perceptions and you did not
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@deejapples If you keep watching you will see that we make a point of exactly that. I promise.
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I do some ranting against Hollywood, this time for how it employs actors to play "ethnic" roles.
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Should Hollywood, when plot uses ethnic stereotypes, employ actors of that ethnicity? @Ronny_Mathew @CWContainment https://twitter.com/aymanfadel/status/728965890121867264 …
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I started to watch episode 2.
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Ep1, @CWContainment uses @Ronny_Mathew 2 demo zombie phase of disease. Ep2, it uses his autopsy 4 gross special effects. Brown ppl scary
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Ep2 @CWContainment White girl @TheElleRoberts too friendly with Syrian boy, gets sick outside of cordon sanitaire. Dangers of miscegenation
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Here's an attempt to evaluate the show from a public health perspective. Sadly, it leaves out the ethnic, xenophobic bias at the center of the plot.
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Watching @CWContainment? Wondering how close it is to an ethical response? Read my blog http://www.bioethics.net/?p=59003 @bioethics_net _net
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I hope you're not going to react to this by thinking, "It's a TV show. Nobody takes this seriously. Chill."
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Raed Saleh, head of Syrian Civil Defense, denied entry at U.S. borderRaed Saleh, head of the Syrian Civilian Defense, a 2,800-strong team of volunteers who aid Syrians affected by shelling and barrel bomb attacks, arrived at Washington's Dulles International Airport on Monday after a 10-hour flight from Istanbul. Saleh was due to receive the 2016 Humanitarian Award from InterAction, a Washington-based alliance of more than 180 international NGOs. -
Syrian Refugee With Valid Medical Visa Denied Entry Into U.S., #CAIR Says Local Muslim leaders are demanding the... http://fb.me/2IZCAJd8p
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#CAIR-LA: Family Members Make Plea for Amputee Refugee (VIDEO) A double-amputee Syrian refugee was denied entry... http://fb.me/37X3mOTFC
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Anti-refugee bill S.997 comes up for a second subcommittee hearing this Thursday. Voice your opposition.... http://fb.me/50mav6JWZ
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I've written about ethnic, racial and religious stereotyping in numerous TV shows and movies.
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Muslim Media Review: TV ShowsIn "Un-American Graffiti," episode S3E16 of Veronica Mars, a brother of a veteran wounded in Iraq vandalizes "Babylonian Gardens," a restaurant run by naturalized US-citizen "Arabs," no nationality mentioned. There are a number of ethnic stereotypes and tropes the episode uses which I hope producers and writers will avoid in the future. -
Finish this by listening to the Public Enemy classic, "Burn, Hollywood, Burn!".
