The Equalizer Takes Easy Way Out on Antisemitism
David Lange
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Warning: this post contains spoilers.
Last week, I asked the question Is The Equalizer About to Tackle Antisemitism in an Accurate Way? By “accurate way”, I meant tackling the issue in the right way, “rather than just focusing on the low-hanging fruit of right-wing antisemitism.”
I was optimistic, given star Adam Goldberg’s statement that it is also important to expose “Jewish hate in all its colors” to audiences, and “I think showing this stuff in its grizzly, grizzly reality is essential and mainstreaming the hell out of what’s been going on, because some of this stuff doesn’t end up on the news.” Plus he has acknowledged antisemitism on the Left in his social media posts.
As I wrote:
If the show wants to tackle the topic really honestly, the perpetrators will be African American, given the backdrop is a “string of antisemitic crimes that hit a New York City neighborhood,” and most of the recent antisemitic crimes in New York have been perpetrated by members of that community.
although I would have been content had the culprits been Leftists or other non “neo Nazi” antisemites.
Well guess what. The show took the lazy route and the culprits were neo Nazis.
Not only that, but the show used cringey cliches to portray the Jewish Adam Goldberg character.
Queen Latifah is one of the executive producers of the show, so perhaps she would not have been willing to tackle the thorny issue of antisemitism from within her community or from the Left. Not that any shows or movies seem willing to do so – with the exception of South Park.
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David Lange
