(Image: Drake. Source: Jewish Views)
The following excerpt is from Jonathan Branfman’s Millennial Jewish Stars: Navigating Racial Antisemitism, Masculinity, & White Supremacy (NYU Press, 2024). The book delves into how Jewish celebrities portray Jewish identity on screen and how their personas can confront antisemitism or perpetuate issues like misogyny.
This excerpt is from the introduction of the book titled “Getting Racy.”
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Beware of the comments on YouTube, as they often showcase viewers’ most biased opinions. For example, below many videos of the biracial Jewish rap superstar Drake, you can find remarks like “OMFG, I found the first Black Jew!” This surprising reaction is mirrored in my college classes where students express astonishment upon learning about Drake’s Black Jewish identity. Similarly, students are equally shocked to discover that the blue-eyed, sandy-haired heartthrob Zac Efron is also Jewish. There is a common perception that Drake looks too Black and Efron looks too white, and both are too muscular and attractive to “look Jewish.” Despite these preconceived notions about Jewish appearances, many students clarify that Jewishness is not a physical trait but a religious identity. The realization of their own racial perceptions about Jewish bodies is as eye-opening as having those perceptions shattered by Drake and Efron. These reactions only intensify as we explore how these stereotypes stem from centuries of religious, artistic, and racial biases against Jewish bodies. Through the examination of millennial Jewish stars, students start to acknowledge their conflicting definitions of Jewishness, preconceived notions about Jewish bodies, and the historical antisemitism that shapes them.
The realizations in my classroom reflect the prevalent racial contradictions surrounding Jewishness in twenty-first-century America. While many assume all Jews look white, this erases Jews of color like Drake. The racial antisemitism perpetuated by US media contributes to these contradictions, depicting Jews as physically different and inferior to white non-Jews. Despite this, many Americans do not categorize Jews as a “race,” but these stigmas fuel racial stereotypes about Jewish bodies and raise questions about racial definitions of Jews. These questions gained attention in 2019 when reports surfaced that Donald Trump was considering reclassifying Jewishness from a religion to a “race or nationality.” This controversy highlighted the racial contradictions that many Jews face daily. For example, growing up in the 1990s, I encountered questions about whether Jews are a religion or a race without a clear answer. The discrepancies in Jewish racial identity were also evident in my family’s experiences of being labeled “white” on school forms while facing racial violence from white supremacists who saw us as “nonwhite.”
Although far-right violence can target Jews of all colors, it particularly showcases the complex relationship Euro-American Jews have with white supremacy and white supremacists. White supremacy grants privileges to those identified as white, including many Jews, but self-proclaimed white supremacists view all Jews as nonwhite “race enemies.” This hostility is evident in incidents like the 2017 Charlottesville rally where participants chanted “Jews will not replace us!” and the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting. These events underscore the ongoing presence of antisemitism within the ecosystem of hate intertwined with anti-Blackness, Islamophobia, xenophobia, homophobia, and sexism.
These contradictions make it crucial to challenge racial antisemitism in America today. While many Americans do not explicitly consider Jews a “race,” the impact of racial antisemitism on Jews of color like Drake is significant. Understanding these paradoxes is essential to combat antisemitism and comprehend how race functions in America. It is vital for American Jews to decode their racial statuses and address racism within and outside Jewish communities. Until these questions about Jewishness and race are clarified, they will continue to perpetuate misinformation and misinformed activism.
This book sheds light on how America perceives Jews racially by examining how millennial Jewish stars present their bodies on screen and how audiences consume these representations, similar to classroom discussions about Drake and Zac Efron.
Analyzing millennial Jewish stars provides valuable insight into how racial antisemitism is ingrained in American racial beliefs in the 21st century. This is important because there is a lack of tools to analyze antisemitism, especially in educational settings. Oversimplifying Jewish racial status can hinder progressive social activism, as seen in the Women’s March controversy in 2018. Feminist, queer, and critical race scholarship often overlooks antisemitism, leading to gaps in understanding how multiple oppressions intersect. Efforts to challenge antisemitism are sometimes dismissed as distractions or rationalizations. By examining millennial Jewish stardom, this book aims to deepen the understanding of racial ideologies and racial antisemitism in American society.
Many scholars fail to recognize the threat of antisemitism due to oversimplified views on Jewish racial status. This also discourages Euro-American Jews from acknowledging their white privilege. The experiences of Euro-American Jews highlight the complexities of racial identity, as they navigate a gap between legal and social race. Acknowledging antisemitism and conditional whiteness does not negate white privilege but rather helps in understanding the nuances of racial identities. Ignoring racial antisemitism only perpetuates misconceptions about Jewish racial status and hinders efforts to address white privilege within Jewish communities. When confronted with individuals denying the existence of Jewish stigma and danger, many Jews may feel a dual response – a rightful acknowledgment of antisemitism and a wrongful desire to avoid feeling white guilt. These conflicting reactions can lead some conditionally white Jews, like Fortgang, to completely reject antiracist perspectives. However, by accurately recognizing how antisemitism intersects with white privilege and color-based racism, it paves the way for Jews and non-Jews of all races to come together to dismantle white supremacy.
This book aims to help readers understand how Jewish racial identity is portrayed in US media. While these racial complexities may appear abstract, they are actually quite prevalent in American culture, often seen in popular sitcoms and celebrities.
Jonathan Branfman is currently serving as the Eli Reinhard Postdoctoral Fellow in Jewish Studies at Stanford University.
For further exploration of this topic, you can listen to episode 49 of the Revealer podcast titled “Jewish Bodies and Jewish Celebrities.”
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