Arab-Americans Call Christmas TV Show Racist
- Share via
DETROIT — A national Arab-American organization wants the animated Christmas program “The Little Drummer Boy” pulled from video stores; and television lineups, saying it contains racist stereotypes.
The half-hour children’s show, produced in 1968, portrays Arabs; as money-grubbing, fat, ugly, hook-nosed kidnapers, the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee said.
“We are particularly concerned that this film feeds the wrong message about Arabs to children. How would this look if you had a little Arab drummer and the bad guys were money-grubbing Jewish men?” said Zana Macki, director of the Detroit office of the committee.
A spokeswoman for Viacom, the program’s distributor, said no complaints about the program have been received, but any that come in will be reviewed.
Sign up for Essential California
The most important California stories and recommendations in your inbox every morning.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
