Family Guy is so racist, it’s not racist

For those of you who aren't aware, Family Guy is an animated series featuring the Griffins, a very dysfunctional family. It has been going on for a while. Seth MacFarlane has produced 11 seasons so far. This show has attracted the attention of many viewers and also the critics who labeled it as offensive and immoral.

First of all, as a personal fan of this sitcom, I believe that those critics need to get a sense of humor. People should stop ignoring the big elephant in the room and start accepting that blue comedy is becoming a part of our lives. We get it, children get it, and everybody gets it. Honestly, the less taboo these topics become, the less intriguing they become and the more mature and astute kids become.

As for the offensive part, I think MacFarlane was clever by featuring racist and stereotypical representations of all ethnicities and religions on this show. They are so stupid and offensive, they make us reflect upon our own perceptions of other people and help us realize how silly these things look like.

One thing I learned in sociology class that was all too new to me is that the terms race and ethnicity mean different things (shocking, I know). Race is a group of people who share genetically inherited physical features that distinguish them from other people. On the other hand, the ethnicity of a group of people refers to how they identify with one another on the basis of common ancestry, nationality, or cultural heritage. I could look like someone, but identify with the culture of someone else more than the person I look like. Which is cool. But the existence of different ethnicities creates stereotypes, prejudice and descrimination that we socially construct.

Stereotypes are inaccurate generalizations about a group of people. We hate stereotypes when they are about us, yet somehow manage to create dozens when they are about other people. In every culture we have the main group and “the other.” It’s the people of the city and the foreigners who live in it. Here in Qatar, for example, we have Qataris and non Qataris. In the US, you have white people and then the other colored people who tend to have beautiful babies.

Movies and TV shows play a huge role in shaping those stereotypes of “the other.” They subconsciously let us behave towards them in a certain manner and therefore, discriminate them. What people try to do now is create this “new racism.” Basically, “we are colorblind, racism doesn’t and shouldn’t exist, we’re all the same.” Sounds sweet. But the problem with that concept is that it fails to recognize that people are different, that we are not the same, that people were treated differently “back then” and might still be treated in that manner.

Now this is where Family Guy beats the rest (at least in my opinion). The show is a social commentary of how people behave and think about others. In order to show that, through comedy, they employ all sorts of stereotypes. “They make fun of jewish people, dorky white people, hispanic people, arab people, catholic, homosexuals … if you can think of a race or religion it has been made fun of on that show.” My personal favorite is Consuela, the Hispanic maid:

When people see those things, they laugh. Yes, we get offended, but eventually, we realize how stupid it would be if we actually viewed people in that manner. The show also makes fun of racist people by having racist characters. Brian, who is a white dog, doesn’t pick up black guys in his cab. The constant bombardment of those representations remind us of our differences, the racism that we face and the discrimination we have towards others. When we start to see how ridiculous it looks like, we start to change our views but respect and accept differences.

You should definitely check out the show if you haven't. I have personal DVDs of most seasons because I just love this show so much. It's so funny.

Social Inequalities in Qatar

Qatar is one of the richest countries in the world, but when looking carefully at its social class system one would find a lot of social inequalities. When studying the definition of social inequalities I realized that there are different elements that contribute to those discriminations. Things such as wealth, social status, education effects the treatment of a person. However, in Qatar I noticed that race is a huge marker of social inequality. To be specific, social inequality refers to the arrangement of recourses and/or “social goods” in a systematic way that people of different backgrounds have unequal access to them. 

Although I didn’t actively detect racism with in my circle of acquaintances, I realize that racism exists in Qatar. I came to this conclusion based on the different treatments people of different races face on day-to-day basis. For example, in Qatar, one would think that any Indian man walking in the street is a worker. This is based on the preconceived idea that most workers in Qatar are Indian men. 

Social inequalities in Qatar appear in the form of education and jobs. For example: if a Qatari and an Egyptian are applying to the same job and the Egyptian has more qualifications, the Qatari would be hired. Furthermore, Qataris get better treatment in the office space. On another note, Qataris get free education while other races pay for theirs. Another example is that a Qatari would be picked as the top of their class in school although another race deserved it. These kinds of choices are made to show the public that Qataris have what it takes. And although I agree that a lot of Qataris have what it takes, I believe that there are certain inequalities that make it hard for others to have access to what they deserve. In the Human rights watch world report of 2012, the unfair treatment of workers was said to be a “serious problem” and that “forced labour and human trafficking” is a part of it.

I once visited the home of my Pakistani/ Qatari friend. After we had dinner, my friends and I were helping out with cleaning. When I went into the kitchen, I noticed a Pakistani maid cleaning up so I put the dishes and left. However, my friend asked me why didn’t I say hi to her mother so I told her I didn’t see her mother. As it turns out, the woman I thought was the maid is actually her mother. Personally, I don’t think of myself as racist. However, I recently found out that because of my preconceived notions that I’ve learned from observing things in Qatar I became a racist, something that I don’t approve of.

Maids Abuse in Qatar

The phenomenon of maids took over Qatar and the Gulf countries in the past 20 years. Since the majority of the Qatari citizens are from the middle upper social class or the higher upper social class, they all tend to have one maid or more in their property. These maids are assigned to different duties, starting from cleaning and cooking to driving children to schools and friend's house.

Indonesia, India and The Philippines are the country who usually train their maids and send them to the gulf to work. Yet human rights are violated in all Gulf countries, but it does not include the whole population. For example, Al Jazeera English report established that Indonesians maids receive training before heading out to work in someone's house, but lately, they received a lot reports about violations of human rights. Some maids got tortured by the people that they work for. These forms of torture start with hitting and end in burning skin or popping out an eye.

According to these maids, they were tortured because could not do a certain duty because their physical body could not handle it, or because they wanted to get paid for the past couple of months. Three Journalism students, Abir Bouguerra, Angel Polacco and Sara Al-Darwish did a report about maid abuse in Qatar. The story concluded that maids from different nationalities get abused physically, verbally and physiologically. All these abuse forms are added to their low salary. Bouguerra, Polacco and Al-Darwish mentioned laws that were established by the Emir of Qatar that protect labors rights. What grabbed my attention in these laws is that maids are not allowed to work more than eight hours a day, freedom of religious practices and having the Friday off.

In sociology, treatment based on nationally and race is a form of racism and different social classes. Social Mobility is a term that means "if you work hard you go one level up", but for these maids who are located in the working class are unlikely to go up even one level. Yet the middle class such as students and people who attend schools are more likely to move to the highest class only if they work hard. In Qatar, most people get treated based on their position in the society and what they do. Although families in Qatar tend to teach their children to respect the maids and the drivers, these kids tend to disrespect their maids and yell at them for silly reasons.

Maids should be respected as humans, and should be treated the same as we treat anyone else. If they do a mistake one should forgive because at the end of the day we are all humans. 

Separate but Equal

A paradox in the making of the world has shone light on a topic that the world suffers most from, Racism.

Racism is the belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others. For this blog post, I’m not only talking about Racism in the area of Race, but also in the area of stereotypes.

How can one be called a racist? Well, one must not tolerate the other race. Anyone can be called a racist these days. This is because everyone has ideas about other people. They are all socialized to believe that they are of one race and the others around them are different. Some people teach their children not to socialize with other children from different ethnicities or even races due to the fear of “Identity loss”.

How can one have an identity when one lives in such a diverse world? There are people in the same family that are of different races, let alone your next-door neighbors or your friends. Everyone is different; people need to seriously start realizing that!

My latest project in my major class was about Labor workers in Qatar and how they live their social life. Out reporting for hours on end in this mild spring weather, I realized that there’s a lot that people don’t know about this place.

The workers had one day to socialize and they use that day to do their shopping, play cricket with friends and make the longest phone-call to their home country.

They are seen as single workers who are not allowed in on Fridays to Malls. Well, in this country, Friday is Family Day. They are seen as the workers who people don’t want to associate themselves with all the time, unless they have to.

If we actually think about it, these people are the ones putting their sweat and blood into building our nation and we repay them with what?! Little money! One day off! Living in poor housing, complexes outside the main city. They’re fine with all of that trust me! But then you even take away their privilege of being free to roam in the country they are building? Why?

An anthropologist, Ms. Rico said that it is “Violent” that these workers cannot enjoy the privileges that they are building for us. It really is a sad image to see when a worker builds the mall and when it is finally open, he is not allowed in to see his work complete.

Sociology has played a huge part in making this issue come to reality. The more people are socialized from their birth to be with the people they look like; this would never be a world with no discrimination, racism or hate!

Stereotypes are given to everyone from all races, there are even jokes made about these stereotypes. Humor and movies are used to shine light that not everyone is equal, but not everyone is separate either. I guess that’s what the workers would witness time and time again, they are equal with people, the citizens, but they are also very separate and living separate lives.

Prejudice & Racism

Racism is a certain kind of prejudice, based on faulty reasoning and inflexible generalizations toward a specific group. The word prejudice comes from the Latin noun praejudicium, which means a judgment based on previous decisions formed before the facts were known. If a person allows their prejudiced beliefs to block the progress of another, it is discrimination. Those who exclude all members of a race from certain types of employment, housing, political rights, educational opportunities, or a social interactions are guilty of racial discrimination.



Racism is an unmerited fear or dislike of a people because of their ethnic heritage. When colour is not a reason, other reasons such as language, religion, nationality, education, sex, orage become the reason of prejudice.

Sociologists, believe that racial discrimination happens more often and most harshly when two groups with different skin colours and unique physical features come into contact with each other and the two compete for the same thing. A insult directed at a particular ethnic group is likely to get these results in a confrontation: pain, anger, shame, hostility, guilt and embarrassment. Students admitted that they had used racial slurs when angered.



Race hatred often leads to violence. People whom form groups to defend America from a minority takeover fall into the category of extremists. For Example, Mooz-lum is a 2010 American independent film written and directed by Qasim "Q" Basir and starring Danny Glover. Mooz-lum (i.e. "Muslim") tells the story of an African American Muslim family whose lives are changed by the September 11 attacks and their aftermath. The plot is about Amid a strict Muslim rearing and a social life he has never had, Tariq Mahdi (Evan Ross) enters college confused. New peers, family and mentors help him find his place, but the 9/11 attacks force him to face his past and make the biggest decisions of his life.

Michael Jackson Internalized Racism Misconceptions

“I’m a black American. I’m proud of my race, I’m proud of who I’ am,” states the legendary King of Pop, Michael Jackson, in an interview with Oprah Winfrey in his Neverland ranch in 1993. If this was really the case, then why did Jackson turn himself white? Why did he modify his face with all of these plastic surgeries that made him look more like a White European? Why did he marry white women and adopt white children? Was Michael Jackson suffering from internalized racism?

To get close to the answers of these highly complicated questions, it’s worth knowing some of the popular stereotypes of African Americans. This ethnic group was claimed to be violent, poor, engaging in crimes, lazy and fat. Since Michael Jackson was in this minority group, he feared that he would be denied equal access to positions of power, privilege, and wealth. He appeared to assume that his dark skin and big nose would be perceived as stigmas by all of the upper class privileged figures in the music industry and therefore he would not be able to reach his full potential as an artist.

For instance, in 2002, the late pop icon made a very controversial speech at the Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network in New York's Harlem neighborhood accusing the Sony Music Chairman, Tommy Mottola, of being racist and part of a racist conspiracy against black artists. The following video shows Jackson’s speech against Mottola:



It seems that “absorption assimilation,” which is the process, by which members of a minority group adapt to the ways of the dominant culture, was the solution for Jackson’s own race embarrassment. But apart from simply adapting to the lives of the superior class, Jackson adopted much more radical means and that rests on his remarkable altered appearance through skin bleaching, a nose job, a forehead lift, thinned lips, a cheekbone surgery, a chin cleft and hair transplants.

One may assume that Michael Jackson was trying to distance himself from the African community. Nevertheless, after his physical transformation, Michael’s hits continued to call for equality, peace, humanity and love among all different races and ethnic groups. For example, one of his most powerful lines about this message is in his song “Black or White,” which says “It doesn’t matter if you are black or white.” Some of his tracks which contribute to these principles are “Heal the World, We are the World, and They Don’t Care About Us, Human Nature, The Earth Song and Man in the Mirror.”

Michael Jackson was deprived of his childhood, abused by his father, accused of crimes that he did not commit, had mean headlines in the tabloids and simply did not live a normal life. Considering all of these disturbing factors, we should really stop judging the man and appreciate the extraordinary music and fabulous dance techniques that revolutionized the music industry.

That leads me to leave you to enjoy Michael’s last rehearsal performance from his documentary, This Is It, which includes all the performances Michael was rehearsing for his comeback concert tour in London, which never happened due to his sudden death from an overdose of the prescription drug propofol on June, 25th, 2009.

Bombers, Belly dancers and Billionaires

Arabs have been stereotyped as sub-human throughout history and still are today to the west. They have been portrayed as barbaric, vicious and even as terrorists. Ironically enough, the power of the media industry still embraces these false mythologies. The power of both the media industry and Hollywood play a massive role in portraying these false images of Arabs to the western world at most times. Media tends to be a tool of propaganda as it is another means of expressing stereotypical and discriminatory views.


As a result of discrimination and stigma, Arab-Americans tend to be targeted the most. In this case, being an Arab is deeply discredited as it over-shadows all the other attributes they possess. In most cases, the stigma of being an Arab dominates interactions and the way others think of them. They are the minority group that are systematically excluded from participation in the American community and denied equal access to valued resources at most times. Sociologist Peggy McIntosh identifies a number of privileges that the members of the dominant group take for granted, however, the one that stood out the most was, “ I can be late to a meeting without having the lateness reflect on my race [or ethnicity].” This may be one of the greatest examples, as Arabs are stereotypically known for their bad timing, especially in the eyes of the west.



Racism against Arabs has increased along side the tension between the American government and the Middle East. Discrimination and racial violence increased towards Arabs following the September 11, 2001 attacks. The proposed development of building a mosque near Ground Zero of the former World Trade Centre site was another contributory factor that provoked the American community to anti-Arabism.



In reference to the documentary of “Reel bad Arabs,” by media analyst Jack Shaheen, Arabs have always been the “butt of a cheap joke.” Within the entertainment industry, Arabs have been looked at as the stupid but rich, wanting to buy chunks of American land. They’re often associated with not only living in exotic places where the men enjoy their time and money with the company of belly dancers, but also where the population is uneducated and surrounded by massacres. For instance, Dr. Shaheen insists in his documentary that the movie of “Wanted: Dead or Alive (1986),” portrays one of the worst images of Arab stereotypes. The movie represents Arabs as terrorists who want to set the place on fire, while killing millions of people and being ‘America’s most wanted’.



As once said by director of media relations for the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee Mazin B. Qumsiyeh, “ Arabs in TV and movies are portrayed as either bombers, belly dancers, or billionaires.” More often referred to as “the three B syndrome.”

Some Americans have gone as far as removing nine Arab-Muslim passengers from flying with AirTran Airways in 2009. Is this the real democracy promised? What happened to equal rights?

A Sociolog-ized Mind

When watching the world through the silver screen, many don’t notice how our minds are being subjected to social change. We are all being brainwashed through those mediums we call ‘entertainment hubs.’ How? Well, when watching a children’s show, or even a Disney movie, are all the characters the same? I never noticed how racial stereotypes could be implemented so early on in the human brain until recently.

Watching Aladdin earlier today, I’ve noticed the start of the movie was of eastern music and then when the lyrics started, it all made sense. The movie is portraying Arabs as those who are greedy, living in tents and are in tolerant. The lyrics go:

“Oh I come from a land, from a faraway place
Where the caravan camels roam
Where they cut off your ear
If they don't like your face
It's barbaric, but hey, it's home

When the wind's from the east
And the sun's from the west
And the sand in the glass is right
Come on down
Stop on by
Hop a carpet and fly
To another Arabian night

Arabian nights
Like Arabian days
More often than not
Are hotter than hot
In a lot of good ways

Arabian nights
'Neath Arabian moons
A fool off his guard
Could fall and fall hard
Out there on the dunes”

In other shows also racial stereotypes and profiling has a big impact on our minds as human beings. We have become used to it being a normal thing when trying to understand the characters in a film or show, that we forgot we are being racist. Lets take on another approach. The comedy movie “Harold and Kumar” stars two males, both equally American, yet what they go through is simply due to their ethnicity. Harold goes through an episode where Asian’s are considered to be smart and would do anything besides have fun. That is not true, but many think it is. Kumar, on the other hand, gets a ‘random’ security check at the airport and is perceived to have possession of illegal drugs and weapons. Watching all this in the movie, many just laugh at the irony, but we never notice how it is not funny when it happens in real life.

In sociology, we learn that there is a reason to why things exist in the world. We learn how people can be treated differently due to certain characteristics or features. We learn that it is not always aware of how much sociology is around us. I bid this day very productive, I learnt that sociology has shaped my life and learning it as a subject, only opened my eyes to things I never imagined are happening to me. You should take a step back and look at your life that way too.

Disney's "stereotyped" land!

If you’ve watched any of Disney's classical animated movies then you probably haven’t noticed some of the misleading elements that appear within some characters.

If you’ve watched any of Disney's classical animated movies then you probably haven’t noticed some of the misleading elements that appear within some characters.

Disney corporation is one of the seven enormous companies that have a wide control over the mass media today. These cultural industries reproduce social inequality by reinforcing stereotypes in countless images for the mass market. So, as silly and childish these Disney characters may be, some of their descriptions could be listed under racism or social inequality. Examples of these inequalities and racism are shown in Disney's most famous movies such as; Aladdin, The little Mermaid, Pocahontas and Peter Pan.

When I was young, after watching Pocahontas and Peter Pan, I assumed that there was a gang called the Red Indians. The image that was drawn in my mind about those people was similar to the image of pirates. It wasn’t until I’ve studied them in history that I found out that Red Indians are native Americans, but the style which the movie portrait them in made it hard for me to think of them as civilized people.

However, native American or Red Indian characters were not the only ones accused of showing a racist image among Disney's cartoons. Aladdin is mainly taken from the Arabian Nights famous stories, but nothing in those stories mentioned that Arabs cut off your ear if they don’t like your face! Thats what the theme song of Aladdin says. As well as the represented image of the Arabian cities which was reintroduced in the movie Transformers. This stereotyped image that the Middle East is a piece of desert occupied by barbaric people is very common in most of the movies made by big corporations.

Its obvious that some of Disney’s characters portray different races and cultures in a negative way. Though these types of shows and movies are perceived as innocent entertainment products, they are successfully absorbed by children; making their knowledge of these real-life characters nothing but the negative stereotyped image they have portrayed.

This could be explained through the critical approach to popular culture, as it proves that radio and movies are no longer considered art, they are just business  made into an ideology to justify the rubbish they produce.