EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK: Brando’s Jews
July 9, 2004
The Forward is a major Jewish newspaper in New York City
The death of Marlon Brando last week revived painful memories of the actor’s controversial appearance on “Larry King Live” on April 5, 1996, in which he criticized Jewish Hollywood moguls for their seeming insensitivity to blacks and other minorities. The interview, coming at a time when public criticism of Jewish influence still was mercifully rare, caused shock and outrage. Community leaders charged that in saying “the Jews” ran Hollywood, Brando was resurrecting a dangerous canard. Mortified, Brando offered a tearful public apology the next day.
This editorial reminds me of my review of Whiteness of a Different Color: European Immigrants and the Alchemy of Race by Matthew Frye Jacobson.
http://www.interracialvoice.com/powell11.html
The multiracial white is condemned by Hollywood (“Imitation of Life,” “Pinky” and numerous television episodes) for not immediately identifying himself with a false racial identification (“Black”). His Jewish counterpart, by contrast, is EXPECTED to “pass” or avoid and/or deemphasize his Jewish identity in favor of a generic, public “white” identity.