7500: The Continued Harm of Unneeded Stereotypes
AMAZON
In January 2020, the airline Delta was fined $50,000 for discrimination against three Muslim passengers who were refused entry onto their flight; there was no apparent reason other than their ethnic and cultural difference. This event adds to a countless number of incidents where Muslims, especially people of Arab origin, have been racially profiled as a result of fears dating back to the events of September 11th, 2001. The story coming out of the horrific attacks of the day, for many, was focused on the ethnic and religious identity of the attackers leaving a long-lasting scar on Muslim communities, who are wrongly looked down upon. Nearly two decades later, it is a scar these communities feel the effects of everyday. Whether it is being unfairly kicked off of airplanes to a dealer's choice of other hate crimes, or the unfair and hurtful stereotypes that lead to these events, it is a situation everyone should actively be trying to change wherever they can. Some however still choose to sadly play into these hurtful stereotypes as is the case with Patrick Vollrath's feature film directorial debut 7500.
Following an American co-pilot named Tobias Ellis (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) as his plane gets taken over by violent hijackers, 7500 sadly decided to go for the poorest option in filling the terrorists’ part, which was portraying Muslims. It seems clear that the film decided to make this casting decision trying to play into the cheap tension from the stereotypes associated with the Muslim community, as it serves no larger purpose to the plot. This is not only an extremely weak method of building tension, but is completely ignorant to the harm that it could inflict.
Even if 7500 probably isn’t a piece of media to plant these unhealthy ideas in any individual's head, it keeps these toxic stereotypes alive, and pushes the concept that they are acceptable even in a 2020 setting. The pain and suffering caused to the community has openly been discussed and represented in both non-fiction and fictional media, such as the TV show Ramy, which explores the topic deeply in the 4th episode of the 1st season titled "Strawberries". While the filmmakers might have had a different goal or vision for the film, this conscious choice shows a poor understanding of the function of media, and how deeply such portrayals can hurt certain communities.
The inclusion of harmful stereotypes a toxic habit, but the lack of positive representation is the core of the problem. Not only does the lack of positive representation hurt the minorities being portrayed, but it also fails to expand the minds of viewers.Meryam Joobeur is the director of the short film Brotherhood, which was nominated in the Best Live-Action Short Film category at the 2020 Academy Awards, and in an interview I conducted with her earlier this year, talked about the impact her short film had on audiences, due to the unique representation featured in the film. "I was hoping that by casting these brothers whose faces are considered different from how Arabs or Muslims are normally represented, as that it could break the stereotype which has always been something audiences have commented on. Even in Italy, which is so close to Tunisia that you can see it from the coast, they were commenting about how they didn’t know that there were faces like that in Tunisia, which to me was super important. I think even if you can break even a basic level stereotype, it allows people to start to question deeper held predigests they have towards the Arab or Muslim world."
If a short film can have a real-world impact like this, imagine what a feature film on the level of 7500 could accomplish. Where there undeniably is a lot to praise within the film, it also is impossible not to point out to the casting decision of the terrorists as disappointing. If society is really going to move on from these biases , lazy acceptance of these is unacceptable, and needs to consciously be avoided and criticised. Simply not thinking about the potential negative consequences of the message you are putting out to the world is not enough of an excuse to continue perpetuating stereotypes that can lead to real-world violence and discrimination.
