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Mosby

(17,643 posts)
Tue Jan 31, 2023, 12:24 PM Jan 2023

(JEWISH GROUP) "You People" Normalizes Farrakhan's Views On Jews

The following movie review began with angry texts I sent to friends and colleagues yesterday, as I was watching You People, the number one movie now streaming on Netflix. It premiered on Holocaust Remembrance Day, and I’ve got to hand it to them on the timing: nothing says #neveragain like #rightnow.

There are numerous spoilers below, but when a movie starts out so rotten, it is impossible to ruin it. If I had to sum up the most basic problem with You People, it wouldn’t be the abundant Holocaust jokes, like Ezra buying a small diamond for his fiancé, and deciding that he’ll lie that it’s his grandmother’s “from the Holocaust.” You know, “the Holocaust” – the get out of jail free card for every Jew.

It’s also not that the Jewish parents in the film are played by actors whose families used to be Jewish, generations ago, but then assimilated into extinction. No, the main issue with You People is that everyone in the film loves Black culture and no one in the film loves Jewish culture. In fact, they hate it.

In an age of celebrating marginalized identities, how could it be that that one identity would be lauded while the other would be highlighted for its guilt (Ezra’s grandmother in the opening Yom Kippur synagogue scene (incorrectly) tells him that he can’t be buried in a Jewish cemetery due to his tattoos), its shame (Ezra refuses to wear a yarmulke during Yom Kippur services after his mother asks him to), its sexual violations (after services, Ezra’s orthodontist offers to examine his genitals, other members of the synagogue say sexually inappropriate things), its big-nosed Jews (both of the Jewish women Ezra dates have prominent noses), and its money-loving Jews (in his first date with a Jewish girl, she comments how exciting it must be that he gets to work with so much MONEY everyday!)?

Because in You People, Jews are not considered a marginalized group. Instead, they are white, rich, privileged and responsible for the suffering of marginalized people in the world. And the way they get to this reality is by continuously lying and misrepresenting the Jewish past and present. So let’s jump right into the lies and misrepresentations. There is no room to mention them all. I will mention the most glaring ones:

https://jewinthecity.com/2023/01/you-people-normalizes-farrakhans-views-on-jews/

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(JEWISH GROUP) "You People" Normalizes Farrakhan's Views On Jews (Original Post) Mosby Jan 2023 OP
How can we register our disapproval of this movie? raging moderate Jan 2023 #1
I'm not black, or Jewish and found the movie entrely offensive. likesmountains 52 Jan 2023 #2
While making overt claims to the contrary, the pemise and plot of this film are demonstrably devoid Beastly Boy Jan 2023 #3
Netflix Hit 'You People' Branded 'Horribly Damaging' to Jewish People Behind the Aegis Feb 2023 #4
I've never heard of Lauren London Mosby Feb 2023 #5
Message auto-removed Name removed Feb 2023 #6

raging moderate

(4,518 posts)
1. How can we register our disapproval of this movie?
Tue Jan 31, 2023, 12:36 PM
Jan 2023

I grew up in a neighborhood where Jewish people were actually in the majority at that time. I had so many wonderful experiences with my Jewish friends and neighbors! By the way, nobody in that neighborhood was rich, and some of us were actually poor, and many of us poor people were Jewish. And I always speak up when I hear the Jewish people slandered. I have told people about the times I experienced or observed great kindness, friendliness, generosity, and willingness to stand up for somebody being mistreated. There surely must be many people like me, who will stand with the Jewish people.

likesmountains 52

(4,179 posts)
2. I'm not black, or Jewish and found the movie entrely offensive.
Tue Jan 31, 2023, 01:09 PM
Jan 2023

I watched the first half, and waited a few days to finish it, hoping that it wasn't as awful as I remembered...it was . Every character was a caricature of their culture. I can't believe such drivel was produced.

Beastly Boy

(11,319 posts)
3. While making overt claims to the contrary, the pemise and plot of this film are demonstrably devoid
Tue Jan 31, 2023, 02:10 PM
Jan 2023

of any direct contact with Jewish experience in America.

Anyone who gets offended by the use of "blackface" in the Jazz Singer or Birth of a Nation, or the portrayal of black servants in Gone with the Wind, or the mockingly simplistic stereotyping of Hollywood's blaxploitation genre, or the awkwardly out-of-place projections of white family values onto a black family in the Cosby Show, should be equally offended by the cartoonish negative (despite occasionally implied claims to the contrary) stereotyping of Jews in this movie.

Behind the Aegis

(54,926 posts)
4. Netflix Hit 'You People' Branded 'Horribly Damaging' to Jewish People
Thu Feb 2, 2023, 12:29 AM
Feb 2023

Jonah Hill's new Netflix comedy, You People, has been branded "irredeemable" and "horribly damaging" through its depiction of Jewish people.

The Kenya Barris–directed movie, which was released last month by the streaming giant, stars Hill as Ezra Cohen, a Jewish man who embarks on a romance with Lauren London's Amira Mohammed, a Black Muslim woman.

Their relationship is seen being tested through their respective families' reactions and the cultural differences between the two, with jokes that in many cases lean on stereotypical viewpoints.

In the days since its release, the film—which also stars Eddie Murphy, Nia Long, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and David Duchovny—has received mixed reviews, though it is currently the most popular movie on Netflix. It also has been met with outcry from some viewers, including U.S.-born British comedian David Baddiel.

more...

Again, demonstrating sometimes an "enemy" is the one from one's own group.

Mosby

(17,643 posts)
5. I've never heard of Lauren London
Thu Feb 2, 2023, 10:59 AM
Feb 2023

So I don't know anything about her, but what the hell is she trying to say here?

"I just wanted to make sure that is a story that I wanted to contribute to. I [also] asked them, 'OK, well, why her and him?' Because she was written like hella stylish and he was like this... very low-key [guy]. So, to me, it had to be about their soul connection and not what we saw appearance-wise or [why] we would assume these two people would date."

https://www.newsweek.com/you-people-movie-netflix-eddie-murphy-cast-fan-reaction-reviews-1777127

Response to Mosby (Original post)

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