Jack George Shaheen Jr. (Arabic: جاك جورج شاهين; September 21, 1935 – July 9, 2017) was an American writer and lecturer specializing in addressing racial and ethnic stereotypes. He authored Reel Bad Arabs (adapted to a 2006 documentary), The TV Arab (1984) and Arab and Muslim Stereotyping in American Popular Culture (1997).^[1]

Early life and education

Shaheen was born in Pittsburgh to Lebanese Christian immigrants, and grew up in Clairton, Pennsylvania.^[2][3][4][5]

Shaheen graduated from Clairton High School in 1953. In 1957, he graduated from Carnegie Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. In 1964, he received a master's degree from Pennsylvania State University. In 1969, Shaheen received a PhD from the University of Missouri.^[1][6]

Career

Shaheen's work focused on racism and orientalism, particularly in popular culture such as Hollywood films. He delivered over 1,000 lectures on the issue across the United States and on three continents.^[7][5] He described his life's work in 2015, to Tavis Smiley, as "dedicated to trying to humanize Arabs and Muslims and to give visibility to American Arabs and American Muslims — to have us being projected no better, no worse, than anyone else."^[5]

Shaheen was also a former CBS News consultant on Middle East affairs, U.S. Army veteran, and professor emeritus of Mass Communications at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville.^[1][4]

Shaheen's seminal "Jack Shaheen versus the Comic Book Arab" (1991) has been cited by a multitude of scholars. Jehanzeb Dar, for instance, cited Shaheen as a secondary source for the observation that "Batman speaks Farsi in Beirut" in a comic book storyline. Shaheen additionally contended that, in this same storyline, Batman searched for a " 'Shiite Extremist Group.' " Early Hezbollah's influence in the Beqaa Valley, Batman/Bruce Wayne's destination, thus made the organization a candidate for the vilified "radical Shiite captors" as "bandits-in-bedsheets" in "Death in the Family." Shaheen also first pointed out that the Joker, garbed in "Arab" attire depicted as "Iranian," referred to the "insanity" of Iran.^[8]

Honors

Shaheen received two Fulbright teaching awards^[1] He was also the distinguished visiting scholar at New York University's Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies.^[9]

Personal life

Shaheen was a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers, often walked along the beaches of Hilton Head Island and was a former member of the Hilton Head Orchestra board of directors.^[4] He also attended, as one obituary describes, "services at Holy Resurrection Greek Orthodox Church in Bluffton. He married Bernice Rafeedie, a Palestinian-American, in 1966 and had two children, Michael and Michelle, along with several grandchildren.^[4][5]

Death

Shaheen died on July 9, 2017, at the age of 81.^[10][11] People who praised his work include Ralph Nader, who said that Shaheen "provided the incriminating evidence directly from the biased media, unedited", and Ali Mirsepassi, director of New York University's Iranian Studies Initiative, wrote in 2012 that "Jack Shaheen approaches his critical work with little personal or intellectual bitterness, moral arrogance or intellectual superiority."^[5]

Works and publications

• Shaheen, Jack G. (1979). Nuclear War Films. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press. ISBN 0-8093-0843-6. OCLC 317396635.
• Shaheen, Jack G. (1984). The TV Arab. Bowling Green, Ohio: Popular Press. ISBN 0-87972-309-2. OCLC 581867731.
• Shaheen, Jack G. (2012). Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People (Revised and updated ed.). New York: Olive Branch Press, Interlink Publishing Group. ISBN 978-1-62371-006-4. OCLC 928572276. – originally published in 2001
• Shaheen, Jack G. (2012). Guilty: Hollywood's Verdict on Arabs After 9/11. Northampton, MA: Olive Branch Press, Interlink Publishing Group. ISBN 978-1-62371-020-0. OCLC 828794510.