COLUMN: America's new favorite 'other'

From Daniel Septimus', "I Know My last Name is Septimus," Fall '00 From Daniel Septimus', "I Know My last Name is Septimus," Fall '00Recently, Yemen requested that all the states in the 22-member Arab League boycott the new film Rules of Engagement. Samuel L. Jackson stars as a Marine officer who orders his troops to fire on civilians after they surround the embassy and begin to shoot at those inside. Yemeni officials claim that the film depicts their countrymen as "killers and terrorists." And of course, they are absolutely correct. Rules not only capitalizes on the loud-and-scary-Arab-dressed-in-Islamic-garb stereotype, it takes it a step further by casting a young girl in this role as well. Hussein Ibish, spokesman for the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, went so far as to say that the film was "probably the most racist film ever made against Arabs by Hollywood." Paramount Pictures responded to the allegations by universalizing the message of the movie. The studio claims that the film depicts the tragedies that can result from extremist behavior in general. "The film is not an indictment of any government, culture or people," a spokesman said in a statement. "Rather, it explores the human tragedy and consequences that can result when people of any society are put in extreme situations." But one question remains -- if any government, culture or people could have fit the role assigned to Yemen, why was Yemen chosen? Basically, why are Arab extremists consistently the bad guys of choice in Hollywood? It might be as simple as being at the right place at the wrong time. During the Cold War, communism was clearly the official enemy of the U.S. But as the Elian Gonzalez case has shown, this has most definitely changed. The ease with which the government and general public were willing to consider sending the young boy back to Cuba is indicative of this shift. Indeed, public opinion toward communism in general -- and Cuba in particular -- has drastically changed over the last few years. According to U.S. News and World Report, the embargo on Cuba -- first imposed in 1962 -- was supported by 60 percent of Americans two years ago. Now, it is supported by only 47 percent of the American public. Last month, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) -- a staunch supporter of the embargo in previous years -- allowed a bill to pass his committee that would legalize the sale of medicine and food to Cuba. The fact is that communism is no longer the perceived enemy of the United States. It has lost its status as the official "other." With the fall of the Iron Curtain, American society needed to find a new enemy. And while the depiction of Muslims in the media is usually deplorable, Islamic fundamentalists have given us just enough material from which to forge a rivalry. The World Trade Center bombing and the 1997 plot to bomb a New York City subway station are examples of incidents -- which although not reflective of Arabs in general -- helped create the terrorist stereotype. Yemen did not help its cause when Al-Sahwa, the official newspaper of the Islamist Islah Party, proclaimed that Rules is a "continuation of a Zionist campaign against Arab and Islamic culture." Had they left out the word "Zionist," they may have been seen as innocent victims of defamation; but by positing a Jewish conspiracy, they undermine their own defense. Indeed, our rivals have changed, but there is a stable concept at work. In an attempt to mold an identity, we tend to define ourselves in terms of others -- others who are often made out to be more extreme than they really are. We can learn a lot about ourselves from the people and nations with which we contrast ourselves. We are no longer a people insecure about our political process, willing to do anything to support and maintain democracy. Now, you may say, we are a people insecure about our relationship to extreme commitment, to orthodox religion -- to fighting for what we believe in. And so, my final thought for the semester is not so different from many others which I have shared over the past four months: The times they are a-changin', and with the times we are a-changin', too.