# "Jews totally run Hollywood" **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 4, 2010, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jews-totally-run-hollywood/556058 "2010-10-04T22:41:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2010, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jews-totally-run-hollywood/556058/81 "2010-10-07T03:01:40Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > The fact remains that a number of people (including some posters here) see this as proof of Jews Running Hollywood To Benefit The Jewish Agenda. It would be nice to hear that you don’t buy into this garbage. Of course I don’t. “Jews” as a group don’t do anything. Well, except for the quilting bees. It would also be nice to hear you admit there is a Jewish good-old-boys club in Hollywood. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2010, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jews-totally-run-hollywood/556058/82 "2010-10-07T03:39:47Z")
> [@Todderbob](#): > > I guess we Jews figure if we make you unclean masses (Gentiles) laugh enough, you’ll stop trying to enslave and/or kill all of us. It’d be nice also for some acknowlegement of the irrational hysteria on the Jewish side here as well. In twenty-first century America, y’all really think all Gentiles have any predisposition whatsoever to enslave and/or kill all Jews? You may have been joking, but it sure sounds like you’re joking through gritted teeth there. Good advice to any angsty goth teenager may apply here as well: Relax. The world doesn’t care about you, or is even aware of your existence, nearly as much as you think it is. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2010, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jews-totally-run-hollywood/556058/83 "2010-10-07T03:50:08Z")
My only observation is that Jewish people seem to be overly represented in Hollywood, to the point I was surprised to find out how rare they are in real life. I mean, yes, they are rare here near the former KKK capital, but I figured that was made up for in other places. I also admit that Jews are the only minority for which I have never in real life seen someone be racist toward. I think if Sanchez had said that Jews, while a minority, seem to be much better accepted as of late, I think he’d have been fine. I mean, the Mel Gibson was the first time I’d heard of modern antisemitism that wasn’t some extremely fringe group or wasn’t making fun of the concept. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2010, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jews-totally-run-hollywood/556058/84 "2010-10-07T04:22:57Z")
> [@Spoke](#): > > > [@Jackmannii](#): > > > > The fact remains that a number of people (including some posters here) see this as proof of Jews Running Hollywood To Benefit The Jewish Agenda. It would be nice to hear that you don’t buy into this garbage. > > Of course I don’t. “Jews” as a group don’t do anything. Except for the “disloyal” ones you’ve railed against in past threads (i.e. the Secret Cabal in Washington plotting to pervert foreign policy whose existence is unconfirmed but about whom we must be _vewy vewy careful_, and Israel Lobby no-goodniks who are responsible for American bridges collapsing). But hey, it’s good that you reject _some_ nuttiness. > [@](#): > > It would also be nice to hear you admit there is a Jewish good-old-boys club in Hollywood. Show me evidence rather than innuendo and I’ll be happy to. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2010, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jews-totally-run-hollywood/556058/85 "2010-10-07T04:35:05Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Except for the “disloyal” ones you’ve railed against in past threads (i.e. the Secret Cabal in Washington plotting to pervert foreign policy whose existence is unconfirmed but about whom we must be _vewy vewy careful_, and Israel Lobby no-goodniks who are responsible for American bridges collapsing). But hey, it’s good that you reject _some_ nuttiness. I will exercise restraint of which you seem incapable, and simply say that your statement is false, and a weird distortion of anything I have ever actually said. Rather than engaging the discussion at hand, you are engaging in your usual argument by smear. You are a sad little man. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2010, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jews-totally-run-hollywood/556058/86 "2010-10-07T06:09:00Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Except for the “disloyal” ones you’ve railed against in past threads (i.e. the Secret Cabal in Washington plotting to pervert foreign policy whose existence is unconfirmed but about whom we must be _vewy vewy careful_, and Israel Lobby no-goodniks who are responsible for American bridges collapsing). But hey, it’s good that you reject _some_ nuttiness. I don’t know where this came from, but it is not a response to anything posted in this thread and looks very much like a veiled personal insult. Back off. [/Moderating] ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2010, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jews-totally-run-hollywood/556058/87 "2010-10-07T13:17:02Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > My only observation is that Jewish people seem to be overly represented in Hollywood, to the point I was surprised to find out how rare they are in real life. I mean, yes, they are rare here near the former KKK capital, but I figured that was made up for in other places. > > I also admit that Jews are the only minority for which I have never in real life seen someone be racist toward. I think if Sanchez had said that Jews, while a minority, seem to be much better accepted as of late, I think he’d have been fine. > > I mean, the Mel Gibson was the first time I’d heard of modern antisemitism that wasn’t some extremely fringe group or wasn’t making fun of the concept. In North America, hatred of Jews is a fringe opinion, barely on the public radar, and only brought there by things happening in other parts of the world or by rants like Gibson’s. This change came about in my parent’s lifetime - when they were growing up, there was still official anti-Jewish discriminatin firmly in place. My grandfather actually had a small hand in reducing that. He was, in his day, a famous amateur swimmer, and a good one - at a time (the 1920s) when Jews were not widely thought of as athletes. In those days, in Toronto, swimming competitions, even national ones paid for by public money, were all run by private athletic clubs - none of which admitted Jews. The clubs extended this rule to cover the races they ran, and so Jews could not compete. Part of the stated reason for this, to assauge those who might have thought this a trifle medieval, was that Jews were not natural athletes. My grandfather thought this vastly unfair and was determined to put a spoke in this. So he decided to sneak into a race. The race was a long-distance swim - around the Toronto Islands - and gramps waited until everyone else had started and the official’s backs were turned before jumping in himself. In spite of that handicap, he easily won, and made the front page of the paper with a news story entitled “JEWBOY WINS RACE”. 😃 This prompted a rule change and Jews, at least _some_ of whom were recognized to be athletes, were allowed to compete. In my parent’s generation, rules like restrictive covenants forbidding the sale of houses to Jews were lifted, but educational discrimination remained. My mother’s brother was a doctor, and in his day the requirements for getting into medical school were significantly more difficult if one was a Jew (in that you needed more “firsts”). The reason was that, like in this thread, there was a general feeling that there were “too many Jewish doctors” - that they “dominated medicine”, and thus that discrimination was necessary to address this. The inevitable result was that only the best, most qualified Jews, the ones with the highest marks, became doctors, which had the effect of re-enforcing the notion (also widespread) that Jews just naturally made better doctors. ---
**Author:** ![cuberdon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/45deac/32.png) [@cuberdon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cuberdon)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2010, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jews-totally-run-hollywood/556058/88 "2010-10-08T03:48:43Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > It probably has something to do with the fact that it’s easier in California to round up a whole bunch of people who can pass for German than it is to round up large numbers of people who can pass for Japanese. There is also the theory that blames racism; the idea that most Americans never got as outraged over Japanese atrocities because we considered them inferior in the first place and so didn’t expect any better; they were inadvertently playing into our stereotypes. It isn’t _that_ hard. The state is 12.7% Asian as of 2009. cite: [http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/06000.html](http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/06000.html) ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2010, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jews-totally-run-hollywood/556058/89 "2010-10-08T07:27:33Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > I’d actually say the most obvious example of the similar backgrounds of studio execs isn’t particularly the prominence of a Jewish perspective as the prominence of a New York perspective. Almost all of the studio execs aren’t just Jewish, they’re Jews of European ancestry from particular parts of New York City, which is part of the reason New York City is the only city in the world in many US movies. I agree. I also believe that in the US, our popular concepts of “Jews” and “New Yorkers” overlap more than we want to admit. Saying that “New Yorkers run this or that” is not nearly so incendiary. In fact it has a kind of inevitability to it. As you suggest - what if Jews were so prominent _because_ so many of them were New Yorkers? ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2010, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jews-totally-run-hollywood/556058/90 "2010-10-08T16:58:56Z")
This observation originally struck me during the recent Rick Sanchez-Jon Stewart flap. No one much remarked on it, but I think it might even be harder for people to get their minds around - whether they’re bigots focused on conspiracies and cabals, OR openminded folks who think it’s natural for New York to be the birthplace of ideas and the people who create them. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2010, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jews-totally-run-hollywood/556058/91 "2010-10-08T18:19:09Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > It would not surprise me if some “motivated” person came up with a list of leaders/executives in interior design and breathlessly announced that they were all homosexual, and that this dominance was part of a sinister plan to introduce the Gay Agenda into American homes and turn our children gay. Or that at least it proves discrimination. [Boy, **that** takes you back!](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homintern) ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2010, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jews-totally-run-hollywood/556058/92 "2010-10-08T18:23:57Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > > [@BrainGlutton](#): > > > > …Could be that the whole thing is too divisive in America to dwell on (making movies about Apartheid South Africa was all right, everybody this side of the pond agreed who the bad guys were)… > > And there were how many of those while Apartheid was in place? Or even after? Actually, I was thinking of stuff like [_Lethal Weapon 2_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lethal_Weapon_2) (1989), indicating a Hollywood period-culture where it was perfectly acceptable to treat white South Africans (those in government, at least) as one-dimensional stock villains. Nobody in Hollywood ever would have thought of using Israelis **or** Palestinians in that way. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2010, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jews-totally-run-hollywood/556058/93 "2010-10-08T18:42:58Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > > [@Nava](#): > > > > And there were how many of those while Apartheid was in place? Or even after? > > Actually, I was thinking of stuff like [_Lethal Weapon 2_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lethal_Weapon_2) (1989), indicating a Hollywood period-culture where it was perfectly acceptable to treat white South Africans (those in government, at least) as one-dimensional stock villains. Nobody in Hollywood ever would have thought of using Israelis **or** Palestinians in that way. In entertainment generally, Israelis _are_ stock characters - they could be good or evil, but in either event, are portrayed as badass heavies. It is their bad-assness, as it were, that is their definingly useful (for dramatic purposes) characteristic. Obligatory TV tropes link: [Badass Israeli - TV Tropes](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BadassIsraeli) Palistinans tend to have less presence, being subsumed in the general category of “Arab” for entertainment purposes. > **[Middle Eastern Coalition - TV Tropes](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MiddleEasternCoalition)** > > A frequent occurrence in 20 Minutes into the Future settings, especially those with some version of The War on Terror. A strange coalition that seems to consist of most Islamic and/or Arab nations or just of numerous terrorist organizations ( … ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2010, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jews-totally-run-hollywood/556058/94 "2010-10-08T21:00:50Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > > [@Jackmannii](#): > > > > It would not surprise me if some “motivated” person came up with a list of leaders/executives in interior design and breathlessly announced that they were all homosexual, and that this dominance was part of a sinister plan to introduce the Gay Agenda into American homes and turn our children gay. Or that at least it proves discrimination. > > [Boy, **that** takes you back!](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homintern) \*Hmmm…\*I was listening to my Ipod on shuffle yesterday and practically the first tune to come up was [this one](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThUeXb6FOKs). Coincidence? I think not. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2010, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jews-totally-run-hollywood/556058/95 "2010-10-08T22:16:29Z")
> [@Spoke](#): > > It would also be nice to hear you admit there is a Jewish good-old-boys club in Hollywood. Is Roman Polanski in the club ? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2010, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jews-totally-run-hollywood/556058/96 "2010-10-08T22:44:23Z")
xxx ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2010, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jews-totally-run-hollywood/556058/97 "2010-10-08T23:01:35Z")
ooo Seeing as nobody wants to touch the New York theory, perhaps someone will feel empowered to speak out on (Jewish playwright-screenwriter) David Mamet’s positing his fellow-ethnics as ideal for the picture business due to supposedly high incidence of [Asperger’s syndrome](http://books.google.com/books?id=RPzHYNLwUk8C&printsec=frontcover&dq=bambi+vs+godzilla&hl=en&ei=XaKvTNeqDoK8lQexlcmMBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=asperger's&f=false)? ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2010, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jews-totally-run-hollywood/556058/98 "2010-10-09T03:59:18Z")
> [@Beware\_of\_Doug](#): > > I also believe that in the US, our popular concepts of “Jews” and “New Yorkers” overlap more than we want to admit. OK, I’ll bite. I disagree with this. I think most people think of New York as an ethnic mish-mash, and not as a peculiarly Jewish place. I _have_ noticed a tendency of some folks to perceive any criticism of New York as coded anti-Semitism, though, which I put down to hyper-sensitivity. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2010, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jews-totally-run-hollywood/556058/99 "2010-10-09T05:00:23Z")
I > [@Spoke](#): > > > [@Beware\_of\_Doug](#): > > > > I also believe that in the US, our popular concepts of “Jews” and “New Yorkers” overlap more than we want to admit. > > OK, I’ll bite. > > I disagree with this. I think most people think of New York as an ethnic mish-mash, and not as a peculiarly Jewish place. I think it comes down to whether someone has direct experience with New York. If Joe Shmoe in Idaho only knows NY from movies and TV, which in turn are made by primarily Jewish writers and producers, and they in turn stick primarily to “writing what they know” – there’s no conspiracy at work to depict NY as a giant Jewish enclave, but the net result may be the same. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2010, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jews-totally-run-hollywood/556058/100 "2010-10-09T15:09:04Z")
> [@Koxinga](#): > > > [@Spoke](#): > > > > I have noticed a tendency of some folks to perceive any criticism of New York as coded anti-Semitism, though, which I put down to hyper-sensitivity. > > I think it comes down to whether someone has direct experience with New York. If…primarily Jewish writers and producers…stick primarily to “writing what they know” – there’s no conspiracy at work to depict NY as a giant Jewish enclave, but the net result may be the same. I haven’t noticed either of these things occurring (maybe I’m not sensitive enough). Could we see some concrete examples? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jews-totally-run-hollywood/556058.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jews-totally-run-hollywood/556058.md?page=6)