Bro-Mitzvahs: The Black-Jewish Dialogue on TV

REGISTRATION CLOSED, WALK UPS WELCOME: ABOUT THIS LECTURE: In performances of Jewishness on TV, white Jewish characters regularly draw black characters or tropes about blackness into the frame at those moments when they seek to challenge their status as white people. Many scholars have written about how Jews historically engaged with blackface minstrelsy and related performative impulses as a means to express their Jewish identities. But is the inverse also true? When black performers engage with ideas surrounding white Jewishness, what are the motives and outcomes? With examples from sitcoms and sketch comedy, this talk exposes how Jewish performers rely on blackness to explore their Jewishness, whereas black performers rely on Jewishness to expose Jews as the epitome of whiteness.

ABOUT THIS SPEAKER: Professor Shaina Hammerman