Book Review - Epic Encounters

Melanie McAlister’s book, “Epic Encounters” explains how different media representations have produced specific meanings that inform Americans’ understandings of the Middle East. She begins her discussion by arguing that America exhibits “benevolent supremacy.” While policy makers claim that America is ardently anti-colonialist, the United States have continually intervened in foreign affairs in order to spread its own ideology of marriage and civil rights and to display its power, all under the guise of helping nations to overthrow colonial powers. These policies have been informed and supported by religious epics, such as the movie The Ten Commandments. The anti-colonialist, anti-slavery stances of this epic drew U.S. support to back Egypt in the Suez crisis and condemn Britain and France’s support of Israel, which was linked to colonialist, racist interests. However, the U.S.’s military victory over Israel also solidified American power in the region, allowed Americans access to Middle Eastern resources, and let America feel ideologically superior to other nations.
Because of the ties between pro-civil rights and anti-colonialist beliefs and also due to he growth of Islam in African American communities, African Americans became supportive of Arab cultures during the 60s. The founder of the Black Panthers, Eldridge Cleaver, linked African American struggles with those of the Muslim Algerians who were oppressed by French colonizers. The media re-publications of Fanon’s philosophy on the destructions of colonialism and endorsement of violence as a possible “cleansing force” fueled not only the black power movement, but also African American rejections of colonialism abroad (112). Furthermore, this led to the masculinization of African American male, ardent anti-Semitism, and challenged “the very notion of a national identity” (formerly determined by white American males) and theories of benevolent supremacy as African Americans began to identify as a different culture within an oppressive nation of colonizers (124).
In the late 70s, Americans became obsessed with Egyptoloty, could buy King Tut paraphernalia, and could watch Steve Martin sing about King Tut mania on SNL. Americans began to view Middle Eastern influences as exotic and, as McAlister notes, “something longed for, something that, in the proper context, could be possessed and circulated” (154). Furthermore, the appeal of the Egyptian looked was linked to blackness in the King Tut SNL skit and other media representations, leading to new definitions of “blackness,” which came to also signify “hipness, cool, masculinity, and ultimately national identity” (152). Unfortunately, blackness also began to be viewed as a commodity to be overtaken by white men.
The media’s representations of terrorism and military conflict helped to inform American opinions on Palestinians and Israelis. The author first argues how in order to regain respect lost after the loss in Vietnam, the United States aligned itself with Israel, an emerging military power. McAlister discusses how “Israel, or a certain image of Israel, came to function as a stage upon which the war in Vietnam was refought – and this time, won” (159). The media descriptions of the Palestinian killings of Israeli Olympic athletes focused on the Palestinian brutality and irrationality, while largely ignoring the missteps of the West German response and Israeli government. Cartoons showed an Israeli Superman figure, while films such as Black Sunday depicted the Palestinian terrorist as a ruthless, sexual manipulator. These depictions of Palestinians came to represent Iranians, Iraqis, and Arabs in general depending on which group the United States created as the “enemy” in the war on terrorism of the 80s. Furthermore, television representations of Desert Storm showed the United States as a moral force, creating positive change and few casualties in the Middle East. Furthermore, in movies such as Delta Force, television was portrayed as representing the truth, without bias (261).
After September 11, 2001, the United States’s relationship to the Middle East became even more complicated with media images of Osama bin Laden’s threats, proliferation of military propaganda about the support of the local Iraqis in the toppling of the Saddam Hussein statue, and photographs of torture at Abu Ghraib. In Epic Encounters, McAlister succeeds at presenting the types of media that have helped to formulate American opinion of the Middle East. Specifically, her descriptions of media after 9/11 were especially effective in describing how media not only represents, but, more importantly, constructs American opinion on the Middle East. Further descriptions of the experiences of Middle Easterners in America would allow for a more thorough analysis of the American perception of the Middle East.