The public image of Arabs in America has been radically affected by the 'war on terror'. But stereotypes of Arabs, manifested for instance in Orientalist representations of Sheherazade and The Arabian Nights in Hollywood and American popular culture, have prevailed for much longer. Here Somaya Sami Sabry traces the powerful effects of racial discourse and nineteenth-and twentieth-century American Orientalism on the Arab-American experience, setting the stage for a discussion of contemporary Arab-American women's responses. She shows how Arab-American women writers and performers confront and subvert racial stereotypes in this charged context, which is further complicated today by hostility towards Arabs in post-9/11 America.