 In the 1987 indie film Hollywood Shuffle, Robert Townshend noted (maybe a few years too late) the lamentable lack of roles for black males; men of his age and race seemed doomed to forever play thugs, pimps and servants. That’s pretty bad, but it’s two more roles than are available to today’s Arab-American actor. I’ve noted before in this space the sorry history of Arabs on film, and if a recent article in the L.A. Times is to be believed, things aren’t getting much better. There are more roles for Arab actors these days in Hollywood, but they’re all for the same character; author Ashraf Khalil speaks to a number of actors of Arab descent about why they take the roles and how they deal with them, as well as their horror stories about changing their names and being asked to speak with thicker accents. — Leonard Pierce
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