May 04, 2004

Look at the evil arab, how evil he looks
posted by marx 20 years ago
  • Well, upon reading the story and subsequently in defense of the court sketch artist, he actually *does* seem to be evil.
  • C'mon -- stabbing a guard in the eye does rack up the evil points. Here's an photo of Salim for reference.
  • Hmmm... sorta looks like this guy, mixed with maybe some of this guy, but with a touch of something like this? And hey, one man's evil points are another man's street cred points. So, you know, he's kinda got that goin' for him.
  • Jesus! He's married to my best friend.
  • I was thinking the drawing looked like the evil Vizier from Aladdin.
  • In the drawing he appears to have Klingon blood, I'd say.
  • Well, upon reading the story and subsequently in defense of the court sketch artist, he actually *does* seem to be evil. jb, you beat me to it. Check it out.
  • That's awful. What, we can't take the mundane existence of evil so we have to dress it up in racial caricatures? It's not like she was poking fun at someone in an editorial cartoon. Unless, of course, his skin did shed at the trial and he was a red skinned, hooknosed, etc. Did anyone see the bottom of the sketch? Does he have cleft feet?
  • i dun getit
  • He is swarthy, he is hook-nosed, and believe it or not, his eyebrows do have that Satan wingy thing going. In short, he fucking looks like that. I'm sorry that everybody's left knees are jerking in sensitivity for the oppressed peoples of the world. Guess Norman Rockwell wasn't available to do the perp sketch on short notice.
  • This post aint nuthin' but a troll. I refuse to bite.
  • This post aint nuthin' but a troll. I refuse to bite. You've got to admit that picture's pretty damn funny, surely.
  • I second the troll call.
  • I think there's a subconscious thing going on the ilustrator's mind, there's clearly an exageration of facial features and for cripes sakes the color of his skin is not even reddish. Now, I don't believe it has anything to do with racism. The guy was clearly evil, he deserved the caricaturization.
  • well, kirk kerkorian sure liked his. he even bought a few.
  • keep it on metafilter, marx :)
  • wait... at least finish the rest of your haiku, marx.
  • This is the only photo I could find of Mamdouh Mahmud Salim. As expected, he doesn't look very much like that court drawing. Yes, he certainly sounds like he's evil. But, as Iwanttogiveyoubabies points out, evil people usually don't have that stereotypical evil look. I agree with marx here. This is just a nasty caricature of the "evil arab."
  • Is goetter the only sane one here? Marx, a bad person (regardless of his ethnicity or religion) goes to jail for doing a bad, illegal thing. What's your problem with that? Please stop projecting your own personal, subjective paranoia into completely irrelevant, abstract, and obtuse things.
  • Perhaps folks would prefer a sketch of the perp by the same court artist with less dramatic lighting and coloring. Or perhaps you would prefer a photo of the victim, instead.
  • brother goetter! now 'thaswhatimtalkinbout! kek.
  • What would a photo of the victim have to do with anything? No one's saying that Mr. Salim isn't evil, that he didn't do something horrible, or that he shouldn't rot in jail for a very long time. The issue is that the court sketch artist seems to have drawn not Mr. Salim, but some stereotypical "evil arab." Maybe it's comforting to think that you can spot evil people just by looking at them (swarthy face, hooked nose, must be evil), but that's not the way the world works. It can be very damaging to decent people who just happen to kind of look like that to be perpetuating this sort of stereotype. Look at the photo in the article I linked to above. Unless that's a really atypical photo of him or he's changed a lot since then, the sketch just isn't very accurate. And all of the inaccuracies are in the direction of making him look more like a certain stereotype.
  • Marx, a bad person (regardless of his ethnicity or religion) goes to jail for doing a bad, illegal thing. What's your problem with that? I have no problem with that. What klausness said.
  • Actually the evil arab looks more like a handsome villian in goetter's photo while in real life he looks more like your average drug dealer (the arab, not goetter).
  • Marx: I don't understand how you could have read the CNN article, glazed over every single shitty thing about the incident, bypassed the victim's trauma, and focused on a fucking picture of the criminal. Your vague cry of "stereotype! stereotype! arabs are drawn badly!" is completely irrelevant. And I
  • Your vague cry of "stereotype! stereotype! arabs are drawn badly!" is completely irrelevant. Bullshit. quantitative fact I do not think this word means what you think it means.
  • Is goetter the only sane one here? Thats a little harsh, considering Fes, boo, the pete best collective, shotsy, rocket and Zemat all said similar things. Or perhaps you didn
  • Isn't all this bile directed at marx a little excessive? He's just stating that the picture was an unwarranted caricature, when it should have been an objective portrayal (or as objective as the artist could do). The issue of him being an evil person is moot. What marx is bringing to our attention is a rather salient point, actually: Is it ethical to portray a person in an official record not meant for propaganda purposes as something demonic (pointy beard and red skin and so on)? Yes, he is a bad bad man, and he did some horrifying stuff, and if I were the victim/victim's wife/relative and so forth, would definitely think of him as the Spawn of Satan. But should a court artist do the same? Is a person entrusted to make official records beholden to try and be objective?
  • I think its only naxosaxur who is directing any bile at marx, Alnedra. But it is excessive, I agree. (Man, my 1400th comment is pretty bloody lame. Just like most of my others. Anyway, now is when I make good on my promise, and disappear for a month or more. Goodnight, everyone. Goodbye.)
  • Cheerio, dng!
  • If you are decieved by the misdirection, then you are a dupe. If you continue to believe your deception, even when the mechanism of the trick is displayed, then you are a fool. Yes he is a bad, bad man. Yes, the artist's representation is a caricature. But it makes no difference. What have we learned? [Nostrildamus looks around, at the crowd, at the silent viewers, and finally at himself. He shakes his head.]
  • I've learned that I should never lend Satan my comb.
  • Ahem. Maybe let me try again. What have we learned? I have learnt to think about whether, as a so-called civilised person, I should demonise those who have done evil deeds. Surely the punishments in place in our laws should be enough? Yes, we can castigate the man, but should official records also be skewed to portray him as a demonic being? Shouldn't factual accounts prove sufficiently that he is a bad man who deserves whatever punishment that will be placed on him? What I worry about is the integrity of the records, and the opinion that distorting them seems to be ok so long as everybody knows the defendent is an evil evil man. If, hypothetically, new evidence should surface to prove him innocent, should we still retain the caricature? But he looks like an evil evil man, so it's ok, isn't it? Is that the message? Man looks evil, therefore man is evil? yes, yes, I am misdirected and therefore a fool, a dupe etc... so sue me. No, forget it, I quit.
  • Right, Al. It's not dude's job to editorialize, and I resent having my conclusions drawn for me. What the evil man did, should (and does), speak for itself. We don't need this shit spoon fed to us. :::APPLAUSE:::
  • Why they still use drawings in courts when it's obvious that the artist renditions are always subjective and could end hurting sensibilities? Paintings always talk more about the artist than the subject being portrayed. Marx, why the minimalist judgemental post? On my manual that's called trolling even if you didn't inteded to cause a flame war. I got nothing against you, man. You are a fine poster. But this FPP is as much a caricature as the drawing you are criticizing (Look, look, a nazi caricaturist is intentionally misportraying an arab!). What I have learned: Single sentenced posts are evil.
  • BLEEP! Godwin invoked: you lose, Zemat!
  • But, but, but... awww!
  • I still think that y'all are overreacting to a sketcher playing with color. Look at the blue in the background. in real life he looks more like your average drug dealer Not any more, not since I cut my hair, Z.