Bomb Story #1: The Arab, the Bomb, and the Website

This is about a writer in cyberspace, and telling it involves another confession: I play trivia games online. I play every morning at a website called Boxerjam. It’s how I start my day.

Now you know.

Boxerjam provides players with a range of free trivia and word games and supports itself by selling ads. The ads pop up while Boxerjam members are playing our games, and, although we try not to look at them, we can’t help seeing them, at least peripherally. Many are of the “hit a moving target and win a cell phone” variety.

One morning, I was on a roll when the moving target caught my eye and spoiled my game. The ad was offering me a free phone if I “hit Osama.” I was supposed to aim through cross-hairs at a target: a bearded man in a caftan and kaffiyeh, carrying a bomb with a lit fuse.

The thing is, the trivia games aren’t part of my real life. They’re not about writing or activism, which take up most of my time; they’re how I gird up for writing and activism. The last thing I want is for the boundary between them and reality to blur.

It had just blurred. I finished the game I was playing, then clicked on Boxerjam’s “report a problem” button and informed them that I found the ad offensive. I had done my duty. The boundaries could be firm again.

The next morning, I went back to the Boxerjam website and to the old rules: Play the games. Don’t look at the ads.

But I didn’t get a response from Boxerjam, and the bomb-wielding Arab was still there. I couldn’t persuade myself that I had done enough. A couple of days later, I fired off another problem report to Boxerjam, more strongly worded. It said, “Problem Description: The problem is the racist, offensive ad you carry with the caricature of an Arab holding a bomb. You wouldn't run an ad with a similar caricature of a Jew or an African-American, yet you feel free to stereotype Arabs negatively and offensively. Please stop carrying the ad!”

Within an hour, to my surprise, I got a response from Boxerjam’s Customer Support Manager, who told me that Boxerjam, like most sites, uses “third-party banner advertising.” She added, “We are limited in what we can specify will be displayed. I have forwarded your message to our Advertising Department.”

I thought, if the ad department is really getting involved, maybe they should have a more precise explication of the problem. I sent her another note. “Thanks for responding,” I said. “Please forward this to your ad department: Would you feel unable to refuse an ad showing an African-American behaving like Step'n Fetchit? Would you feel unable to refuse an ad showing a bearded man in a yarmulke caressing his money? The Arab-with-a-bomb ad is at least as bad--that is, all other things being equal, it would be morally equivalent, but all other things aren't equal, and at this moment both Arab-Americans and Arabs in the Muslim world are enduring real damage because of the credence given to such stereotypes. Thank you.”

Later that day, I was at a meeting at the office of the War Resisters League, where I used to be on the staff and where I now volunteer. After the meeting, I checked my email.

There was another note from Boxerjam’s Customer Support Manager. In its entirety, it said, “Just to let you know that we have disabled that particular banner ad.”

A writer’s life doesn’t get much better than that.

©2008 by Judith Mahoney Pasternak