The hypocrisy of Hollywood, you, me, and the world.  
With the release of Bruno at the cinemas I couldn’t help but be reminded of a few things  that were
sort of brought to the front of my mind when the other Sacha Baron  Cohen character, Borat, was
released. The first thing I thought when I heard of the whole Borat movie being released was
“Al Jolson”. Now Al Jolson for anyone who doesn’t know was a white dude who used to put on black
make-up and paint his lips white, essentially to look like a “Nigger” a “coon” a “black Fella” or a “darky” well 
that’s what us, the white dominant race used to call these people back then. Why am I using this
sort of blatantly racist language? Well because I thought it would be fitting to re use these ridiculous
derogatory terms to prove my point. We don’t use these terms anymore because we realise they are
degrading, racist, and are expressive markers in our language that carry negative connotations, have
been used by dominant members in society to degrade, refuse entry to, keep down, humiliate and
suppress the equality of other nationalities and races (in this case, specifically people of African heritage).
In the USA, and other parts of the world many people fought hard to push down, and rip apart these
symbols of racism, and inequality. Thankfully some (but probably not all) have been achieved. One
visible example of the overcoming of some racist obstacles is the election of an American with African
heritage as President. American comedians would no longer dream of donning black face paint and
imitating a    black man…so why is it ok for Sacha Baron Cohen to do so?



“Oww he didn’t imitate a black man” you say. I guess that’s ok then. I guess it’s ok to stereotype another
nationality, paint them as backwards, ignorant, stupid, sexually obsessed, dirty, inbred and old fashioned.
 The exact same things “blacks” were labeled as back in the days. Now I’m not the first to mention this,
but for some reason whenever Sacha Baron Cohen releases a film, these issues are brushed aside.
Why? Is it ok to make fun of a minority group? because you are a prominent comedian? Or is it because
he has a massive PR company that sets the questions that reporters can and can’t ask Sacha Baron Cohen?

Questions Like:
“Do you think you are any different to Al Jolson” or
“How would you feel if a comedian portrayed people of Jewish faith within a false stereotype?” maybe they could ask
“Sacha, do you feel comfortable if a comedian of non-Jewish or Israeli decent portrayed Israel as a backwards,
racist nation along with other blatantly false, yet embarrassing stereotypes?”
Again the similarities of Borat and Bruno to Al Jolson and the creation of “comedy” through the use of
stereotypes is blatantly obvious, except this time it’s hidden behind a veil that assumes “education of racism,
and racist ways through the identification of prejudice through the mirror of mockery”…or the excuse goes
something like that.
….”IS IT ‘CUZ I IS JEWISH?”
There’s a line in the new Bruno film where Bruno states that he swapped his African adopted kid for an mp3 player.
Well I guess this would be funny for some people. But here in Australia, I’m kind of expecting the Gay lobby groups to
go up in arms over this. Why? Well a predominant majority of people that identify as Gay have shown disapproval of the
Channel Nine’s “Footyshow” antics of dressing up as women and the Mathew Johns scandal of his sketch for
returning a “defective” gay kid. The similarities of the “defective” kid and the “unimportant” African kid are quite
similar. They both portray another social group as being either “defective” or inferior/replaceable/non-important”
Yet I haven’t seen the Gay community go up in arms over a straight guy making fun of the Gay community through
the use of blatantly false, old fashioned, insulting, and ridiculous stereotypes. Are we to assume all gay people are
flamboyant? Again the similarities of Borat and Bruno to Al Jolson and the creation of “comedy” through the use of
stereotypes is blatantly obvious, except this time it’s hidden behind a veil that assumes “education of racism, and
racist ways through the identification of prejudice through the mirror of mockery”…or the excuse goes something like that.


….”IS IT ‘CUZ I IS JEWISH?”
“What’s your problem?!” I hear you ask, “Stop being so P.C!” That’s not the point. The point is that it’s hypocritical.
It’s hypocritical for someone who is of a cultural and religious background that has suffered the pains of ridicule,
prejudice and racism to now be making a living out of ridicule, prejudice and racism.
“It’s only a joke!” I hear you say. No, that’s not the point either. The fact that the American Jewish Lobby went up in arms
over Michael Jackson’s use of the word “Jew” in his song “they don’t care about us” and Michael’s subsequent need
to say sorry, and re-write the lyrics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They_Don't_Care_About_Us shows the hypocrisy and
over zealousness from the lobby group of one culture, and social group compared to others. The fact that Michael
was labeled as Anti Semitic, (a rather strong and powerful term considering the history of this term), shows that there is
certain protectionism and possibly even over zealousness within some circles of certain Jewish lobby groups.
Respect and understanding needs to be shown on all sides, yet you can’t achieve this when cultural stereotypes of the
gay man, the black man, and the foreigner are continually fomented by Hollywood. Individuals are prone to hypocrisy,
none of us are perfect, but lobby groups should be vigilant to these things. It is the role of the lobby group to not only
protect their own interests, but it is also the role of lobby groups to uphold basic social and human principles, such as;

   -Equality
   -Understanding
   -Fomentation of acceptance of other groups
   -Dismantling of racist elements in popular culture.
Considering that there are some prominent Jewish people in Hollywood, you would assume that there would be a greater
understanding of the perils of the fomentation of stereotypes (the black man, the dumb blonde, the poor Mexican
employee who works illegally), or the dangers of scapegoating (as with the token bad guy Arab in most Hollywood movies).
Yet this doesn’t seem to have been observed by most prominent  Jewish Hollywood producers, directors and actors. Why?

…”IS IT’CUZ I IS JEWISH?”

I THINK THIS IS WHY….
Sometimes it’s hard to accept racism when it’s someone of your own Nationality, Race, or Religion who is promoting the
prejudice. Maybe the influential players in Hollywood who are Jewish need to realise this, and stop other talented Jewish
directors, actors and comedians from re-enacting the crass humour styles of Al Jolson.
Is it ok for me, a non Jewish person to say “is it ‘cuz I is Jewish?” what about if I say “is it ‘cuz I is black?” If I pretended
to be an ignorant Black South African, painted my face, put on makeup and did everything that Borat did, how would
you perceive it? If I didn’t have the power of persuasion of a massive Hollywood PR company behind me cleaning up all
the odds and ends, and strategically avoiding the sticky questions so that you, the viewer were not exposed to confronting
questions about Racism, and offensive stereotypes I bet you wouldn’t think about it. If everyone in the media said I was funny,
and mentioned how I come from an immigrant background (as I do) and hence indirectly insinuated to you that it was
ok for me to make these sort of jokes, would you feel safer as a viewer to laugh at my racist“ignorant black man” character?
Black or White, African or Kazakhstan, Gay or Straight. It’s still prejudice. No matter how much the well-oiled wheels
of a PR company gloss my joke over.