Brando’s Comments Draw Fire, Support : Everybody’s Hurt by Stereotyping

Two Jewish men sat on a park bench reading newspapers. One man, reading the Jewish Telegraph, was astonished to see his friend reading the Nazi Press.

“How can you, a Jew, read that garbage?” he questioned.

“Why not?” replied the other. “When I read Jewish newspapers, all I read about is anti-Semitism, vandalism and how everybody hates us. But when I read the Nazi newspaper, I see only good things. We Jews own Hollywood, we control the media and we are all doctors, lawyers and bankers. I really start to feel good!”

This joke, although updated, goes back more than 100 years to the pogroms of Russia and was later retold during Nazi Germany. What’s important is that the joke is as pertinent and meaningful in America today as it was back then in Russia. Not to imply that America is anti-Semitic, or even resembles Russia or Nazi Germany--it’s not and it doesn’t--but the fact remains there is still a strong perception (as clearly stated by Marlon Brando on “Larry King Live”) that Jews are the people in power (“Brando Apologizes to Rabbis for Talk-Show Remarks,” Metro, April 13).

What’s frightening, though, is that many people who heard Brando’s comment, “Hollywood is run by Jews. It’s owned by Jews. . . ,” think that his statement shows Jews in a positive light and that Jews should be flattered rather than view his comments as ignorant. The above joke should help clarify why many Jews don’t want this flattery.

Within the last few months, Calendar has run several articles voicing the opinion that Muslims and Arabs have been unfairly and unrealistically stereotyped by Hollywood films. That led into the same type of complaints by people in the Latino community, which finally segued into Jesse Jackson’s charge that Hollywood is racist and his subsequent boycott of the Academy Awards.

If Hollywood is racist, as many people purport, and, if Jews own and run Hollywood, as many people believe, then wouldn’t that mean that Hollywood’s Jews are racists?

What also was bothersome, though, about Brando’s later comment “We see [racial and derogatory slurs] but we never see the kike” was not his use of the word “kike” so much as his implicit meaning that we never see a Jew negatively portrayed.

Maybe Brando never sees the “kike” in film because he’s not Jewish. I, as a Jew, on the other hand, have a built-in “kike-sensor” that is as finely tuned and sensitive as Jackson’s ability to spot racism.

Two films that clearly illustrate that the “kike” is alive and well are “Quiz Show” and “Mixed Nuts.” In “Quiz Show,” every television executive, producer, lawyer, advertiser and contestant that is conniving, back-stabbing, immoral and money-grubbing is Jewish. The one Jew that isn’t has enough self-hating Jewish qualities to spare him full Jewishness while also being married to a non-Jewish woman. And, the few people in the film who deal with the ethical and moral questions of right and wrong, and play to almost heroic proportions--including quiz cheater Charles Van Doren--are all non-Jewish.

In the opening scene in “Mixed Nuts,” Steve Martin, while holding a Christmas tree, is evicted from his apartment by a heartless and uncaring landlord, played by Gary Shandling--not exactly the poster-boy for the Aryan race. It would have been just subtle stereotyping if Martin’s landlord had only been played by a “Jewish-looking” actor such as Shandling. However, after the landlord forced Martin into the streets during Christmas, Martin let fly the line, “You don’t care, Stanley Tennenbaum! You’re one of the people who don’t care.”

Stereotyping, and sometimes hurtful characterizations, of minorities in film is plentiful and takes no prisoners. Everybody is a target but most people are generally sensitive to only their own group’s concerns. What is problematic, though, and worse than Hollywood’s overall stereotyping, is when minority-rights crusaders such as Brando perpetuate ignorant stereotypes of other minorities, all in the name of their own cause.

Brando’s search for the “kike” in Hollywood is no more than his own, and much of society’s, perception of what a Jew is. And what’s most interesting and ironic about Brando’s comment that “we never see the kike” in Hollywood is we just did--and it was in his own words.