Graffiti artists wrote "Homeland is racist" in Arabic on the show's set. Nobody noticed.

[portlander23]

Graffiti artists wrote "Homeland is racist" in Arabic on the show's set. Nobody noticed.
Caroline Framke
Vox

Late on October 14, a trio of artists called Arabian Street Artists revealed that when Homeland hired them to "lend graffiti authenticity to a film set of a Syrian refugee camp on the Lebanese/Syrian border," they graffitied slams against the show instead. In the fifth season's second episode, which aired on October 11, Claire Danes and company walked right past insults against Homeland.

The gist, as seen in the below image: "Homeland is racist."



The Arabian Street Artists trio — composed of Heba Y. Amin, Caram Kapp, and Stone — wrote a thorough explanation of why they take issue with the series. They write that they were hesitant to take the job until they realized they could use it as a platform to quite literally air their grievances:

We considered what a moment of intervention could relay about our own and many others’ political discontent with the series. It was our moment to make our point by subverting the message using the show itself.

They then emphasized how they believe Homeland has misrepresented Middle Eastern issues from the very start, like its first season's implications that "Al Qaida is actually an Iranian venture ... not only closely tied to Hezbollah, but [that it] even sought revenge against the US on behalf of Iran."

[MADem]

1. People who look to "Homeland" to be an accurate reflection of life in the Middle East are wasting

their time. When their "ethnic" characters mispronounce basic words and names, you know you are in pot-boiler territory.

I think it is possible to enjoy a work of fiction, based very loosely on "Hey, it could happen" (Judy Tenuta-style), without assuming that it is an actual depiction, fictionalized to protect the guilty, of events. The entire idea of a tall blonde, blue eyed woman who is a head turner no matter where she goes being a CIA agent in that region is absurd, unless her cover was as an international businesswoman of some sort. A successful covert operative would look more like Golda Meir. You want to blend in, from the haircut on the top of your head to the very shoes and shoelaces on your feet, not stand out.

[kiva]

2. Tony Hillerman wrote that in the movie

Cheyenne Autumn, when Native Americans spoke in their language it was generally dirty jokes and comments about anglos. He said that's why the movie was so popular with Navajos in the Four Corners area, particularly at drive-ins.

Don't know if that is true, but I'd like it to be