Arab Americans: Stereotypes, Conflict, History,
Cultural Identity and Post 9/11
Gaby Semaan
University of Toledo, USA
Abstract: This paper provides a comprehensive literature review of published
scholarly and academic research on Arab Americans. It groups the research into four
main categories based on the focus and provides background information about the
methodology. It also looks into the circumstances and history that made this diaspora
group visible in the United States. Supplying the groundwork for future research on
this ethnic group, this paper attempts to provide scholars and researchers who are
interested in Arab Americans an overview of previous research and to accent the need
for more work about this understudied minority group. The paper also suggests certain
directions and areas of interest for future research of Arab American identity and
factors that influence them.
Keywords: Arab, Arab American, Arab Diaspora, minorities in the US, stereotyping
Arab Americans
1. Introduction
This paper provides a comprehensive review of the scholarly research about the Arab diaspora
in the United States. While research about Arab Americans can be traced back to 1923,
scholars increased their attention to this minority during the last half of the past century with
a steady flow to the present. The research can be grouped into four main categories: the first
widely studied topic is their stereotyped image in the Western media. The second topic area
concerns the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The third category is the history and cultural identity
of Arab Americans, and the fourth section examines some major surveys and other studies that
focus on the implications of the 9/11/01 attacks against the United States. While these four
categories are not mutually exclusive, they do correspond to the major trends in the research. A
final concluding section will identify some of the most recent developments and project some
prospects for future study.
2. The Stereotyped Image
Much of the research about Arab Americans has examined the stereotyped image of Arabs in
the American and Western media. Shaheen (1983) presented how the American media’s ugly
and negative stereotypes of Arabs accompany a child from his early years to graduating from
college. Through “editorial cartoons, television shows, comic strips, comic books, college and
school textbooks, novels, magazines, newspapers and in novelty merchandise” (p. 328), Arabs
were dehumanized and presented as the “bad guys.”
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Intercultural Communication Studies XXIII: 2 (2014) Semaan
Focusing on this stereotyped image of Arabs in American media, Suleiman (1988)
addressed different aspects of this stereotyping and presented a longitudinal study of American
press coverage of the 1956, 1967, and 1973 Arab Israeli conflicts and showed how the
negatively stereotyped Arab was used as a weapon in the American media in favor of Israel.
Zaharana (1995) examined the portrayal of the Palestinians in Time newsmagazine from 1948
to 1993; this research showed that the Palestinian image went through total transformation
from invisibility to high visibility after the signing of the Israeli-PLO Accord in 1993. Hashem
(1995) did a content analysis of news articles published in Newsweek and Time magazines
between January 1990 and December 1993. Hashem’s analysis showed that most of the time
Arabs were portrayed as lacking democracy, unity, and modernity in addition to having a
heritage of defeat and fundamentalism. However, he found some coverage to ref
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