Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

UG#545 - Linguistic & Cultural Hierarchy (Reel Bad Arabs/Translation in Wartime)

Robin Upton | 21.04.2011 19:36 | Analysis | Anti-racism | Culture | Sheffield | World

Language is a technology that reflects our thinking on a deep level, yet most of us use it without a thought. Similarly, many people watch commercially produced movies without noting how they support an ideological agenda. First this week we adapt Jack Shaheen's film, Reel Bad Arabs on Hollywood's Anti-Arab bias. Next, a few words from John Taylor Gatto on how Henry Ford introduced the metaphor of USA as a 'melting pot' to introduce a complex lecture by Vicente Rafael entitled Translation in Wartime on the connection between translation and imperialism.

ug545-hour1mix.mp3 - mp3 27M

ug545-hour2mix.mp3 - mp3 27M


In our first hour we adapt for radio Jack Shaheen's film, Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People, an insight into Hollywood's painstaking creation and commercial exploitation of a series of anti-Arab images. Lecherous, violent, incompetent, religious fanatics - he cites a range of the degrading stereotypes perpetuated by movies, all of which facilitated the launching of the war on terror. He concludes by noting that in the last decade or two, more realistic images are starting to emerge, and says that he is optimistic especially of younger film makers, that they will have the courage to challenge Hollywood's legacy of anti-Arab images.

We conclude our first hour by examining the history of the phrase "cultural melting pot". John Taylor Gatto cites its origin as the work of Henry Ford, whose efforts to promote Americanism were not limited to making English teaching compulsory for his workers. Another of his efforts was choreographing a performance which featured a large and prominently marked black 'melting pot' in which immigrants in national dress were transformed into flag waving uniformed American workers. Using the personal defense weapon (a hand-held weapon more dangerous than a sub-machine gun) as an example, we consider how a language embodies certain ideas, and how attractive they are to many in the 'under-developed world' once they have internalised the hierarchy which places US English and associated ideas at the top.

In our second hour, linguist Vicente Rafael speaks in 2008 on Translation in Wartime, on the relation between language and empire, scrutinizing political rhetoric to expose the underlying attitude of linguistic hierarchy. He reviews the history of the US as a polyglot nation, its creation of a unique and simplified form of English, and of the public perception of translation as a labour of rendering intelligible the same basic ideas as are found in US English. He concludes by reviewing the difficult position of translators in Iraq, helping the occupying power.

Robin Upton
- e-mail: unwelcome [at] unwelcomeGuests [D0T] net
- Homepage: http://UnwelcomeGuests.net

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech