Al Jolson from “The Jazz Singer” (1927) Last Purim, Brooklyn Assemblyman Dov Hikind “blacked up” in an incredible display of bad taste. Jews in particular were appalled, but there’s a subgroup of Jewish professors who may have felt vindicated. Practitioners of “the whiteness school”—prominent names include the late Michael Paul Rogin, Edward L. Goldstein, Jeffrey Melnick, and Karen Brodkin—argue that for performers like Al Jolson applying burnt cork was a strategy of ethnic assimilation. Not only Jewish performers but their first- and second-generation Jewish audiences are supposed to have derived a sense of belonging to the superior white American majority by application of burnt cork that heightened the contrasting white skin color beneath the black mask. Of course, the Jewish practitioners of “whiteness studies” are highly critical of the prejudice and conformism of other, lessened enlightened Jews, then and now. Yet while they may reject the Jewish version of what H. L. Mencken in the 1920’s called “boobus Americanus,” the whiteness profs are very much conforming to an American tradition that goes back at least as far as Herman Melville who made Captain Ahab’s pursuit of the White Whale a metaphor for the sickness of the American soul. Unfortunately, Melville may be a bit of an embarrassing model for the “whiteness profs.” For while critiquing the national obsession with whiteness, Melville personally combined a stereotypical infatuation with lithesome Polynesian girls he visited as a sailor with a classic loathing of old world, crooked-nosed Jews he described in his European travel memoir. (more…)
UC Santa Barbara logo Here’s an important new success story: The University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) has pledged to implement recommendations from the Brandeis Center, and in return the Center has agreed to withdraw its U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights (OCR) Title VI complaint asserting that the university had created a hostile environment for Jewish students. The Brandeis Center has been impressed with UCSB’s responsiveness to its concerns over the course of the last several months. “We are pleased with the university’s response, and look forward to see it implemented so that all students – regardless of religious or ethnic identity – are protected from civil rights violations on campus,” LDB President Kenneth L. Marcus has said. The university, represented by University of California Chancellor Henry Yang, committed to several specific steps, based on LDB recommendations: Hosting on-campus educational programming conducted by the Anti-Defamation League on anti-Semitic hate and bias; and adopting a neutral observer program for on-campus events, especially those that could stoke intense debate and conflict. UCSB also issued formal statements that explicitly condemned anti-Semitism on campus and restated the school’s commitment to mutual respect, civility, tolerance, and decency. Chancellor Henry T. Yang In a formal statement issued this morning, Marcus said the resolution of the complaint was welcome, as LDB prefers to work with universities to avoid future incidents. “We were quite concerned with prior incidents at UCSB and the initial reactions of university staff with regard to the safety and welfare of Jewish students. However, after working with UCSB to address these infractions, we feel that the school is taking the necessary steps to provide a campus life that is safe and welcoming for not just Jewish students, but all students,” said Marcus. Marcus emphasized his favorable impression of Chancellor Yang and his senior staff. “I would like to thank and commend Chancellor Yang and UCSB’s Counsel Nancy Hamill for their diligent attention to this issue,” he added. “We hope that this serves as a model for other universities facing similar challenges.” (more…)