ADL takes on Ali G
With reference to our earlier discussion of Borat’s song In My Country There is a Problem on HBO’s Da Ali G Show… The ADL has taken up this issue in a letter to comedian Sacha Baron Cohen.
While we understand this scene was an attempt to show how easily a group of ordinary people can be encouraged to join in an anti-Semitic chorus, we are concerned that the irony may have been lost on some of your audience – or worse, that some of your viewers may have simply accepted Borat’s statements about Jews at face value.
I’m still conflicted about this, and I’m not sure an organizational response in this form was appropriate. In fact, I sense that the ADL would see a better payday if it used the clip as an educational, eye-opening tool rather than confronting Cohen, whose message is clearly in line with their own.
Update: Sacha (out of character) was interviewed by Howard Stern and apparently discussed the issue with him. They agreed that they cannot live in a country that caters to stupid people above all others. If I come across a transcript of the interview (or an audio file), I will post it. More Here
i think most if not all of Ali G’s remarks concerning things Jewish are amazing. They take Jewishness into a courageous space, one where European, African American, and Jewish aesthetics intermingle. By demonstrating that he can play a gay German fashionista, a Kazakhstani tv host, a West Indian/African American/Eurotrash hipster with an Arab name while in reality being a Jew who makes young people laugh at the absurdity that not only pervades their lives but also the lives of their elders is something noble. The ADL doesn’t realize that this man pushes the boundaries of what it means to be Jewish – conventionally we are to represent only ourselves as Westernized Jews in our cultural mielieu, Ali G uses the other minorities cultural space to exhibit his own – a Jew who can successfully and individual represent his Judaism not through his actions, but his words. (ha ha)
This ain’t very PC, but their are times when the ADL, UJA, etc., appear to get overly excited about things to justify their huge operating expenses. And yes, I worked for CJA.
I think that the ones in the bar would sing along to anything that Ali G made up, whether it was “Throw the Jews down the well” or “Throw the Eskimos down the well” or “Throw the pool cues down the well.” That’s what happens in a room full of shickas.
Ali “Cohen” G loves to cause jewish mayhem!
Yitz,
Do you think the same could be said if Ali G replaced “Jew” with the “N” word? Just wondering. And while I think the ADL needs to chill, it does seem fashionable to blame the Jew…uh, I mean Zionists for most of the ills in the world.
It’s all fun and games ’till someone blames the Jews.
att: jewish mayhem, spam the site again and i’ll ban your entire IP range
Typical of the ADL who are sad American Jews, who don’t understand the irony of it.
Still, i guess it shows that Abe Foxman is doing something for his $300,000 a year he earns as chief prick.
Jeff: if you read the letter, it is clear that the ADL did understand the irony– their concern was that your average American Joe wouldn’t get it, or would now feel comfortable singing anti-Semitic lyrics. A lot of people in America are just like those people in the bar, and that’s the concern.
Do you think the same could be said if Ali G replaced “Jew” with the “N” word? Just wondering. And while I think the ADL needs to chill, it does seem fashionable to blame the Jew…uh, I mean Zionists for most of the ills in the world.
Did you see those drunken rednecks and their glazed-over looking faces in the bar where this “incident” took place? They were not there for any kind of political meeting. They were there to drink and have fun. They would have sang along with Ali G to anything, even the “N” word. Mr. G was just trying to be agent provacateur, which is his whole shtick. No need to make a whole tsimmis out of it.
Once again, the ADL embarasses itself and its fundamentally sound mission. Instead of focusing on real anti-Semitism, the ADL goes out of its way to condemn a satire show?
When Mark Twain wrote Huck Finn, I wonder if the ADL, had it existed back then, would have written him a letter telling him to re-write his masterpiece because of its sensitive contents. Huck Finn, possibly the most anti-racist book ever written, was full of irony, and yes, even included the word “nigger.” To complete fools and simpletons, the book may have come off as a racist. But to anyone with a dime’s worth of intelligence, the book was an astonishingly clear condemnation of racial prejudice.
Satire is one of the most powerful weapons we have against injustice. Irony often allows us to see through injustices in a way that might be impossible with outright sincerity. There may be a few idiots out there who are convinced by Borat to burn down a synagogue, but the vast majority of people who see this will be reminded of the absurdity and danger of anti-Semitism and racism, and likely have their convinctions to fight against these evils strengthened.
Mobius…
The dude should be banned for the quality of his site alone. Yuch.
still, Borat is pretty funny!
the adl is making a presentation at my law school in a few days.. rumor is this will be brought up. ughh.. you must grab them by their horns– so my country can be free
This Forward article sheds some light on the background to the Borat segment. For one thing, the brilliance of Sacha’s work lies partly in the clever editing. He had played for 2 and a half hours that night, and according to one woman in the audience (who was Jewish), the crowd knew he was a comic. According to her, they were laughing with the joke, not with the Jew-hating sentiments of the song. I think Sacha’s a comic genius, but I think it would be rash to rush to conclusions about the crowd based on the edited final product. I guess that’s one of the challenges/difficulties with this type of “reality tv” comedy — but still, it’s pretty funny. And Abe Foxman should get a job.
http://forward.com/main/article.php?ref=popper20040812140
I just read the ADL’s letter to Cohen. Bullshit. By asking him to add in a “nudge-nudge, wink-wink, get the joke?, we’re actually exposing hate, not supporting it!” after the bit, it only dilutes the point of presenting the racism in his unique voice. Not many others are doing this effectively. And let the rednecks out there get a kick out of it if they want. At least we’ll know who to avoid when we hear them walking down the street, singing the song gleefully (and without the slightest bit of irony).
I’m amazed by this – quote – “I think that the ones in the bar would sing along to anything that Ali G made up, whether it was “Throw the Jews down the well” or “Throw the Eskimos down the well” or “Throw the pool cues down the well.” That’s what happens in a room full of shickas. ”
First of all: shicksas, not shickas, and even that’s a mistake. This word refers to female gentiles only; the correct term would be “goyim.” Second, and most important: maybe all these would sound the same to them, but I’d like to watch their reaction if (and I REALLY wish he’d done that in some other bar of the same area) he’d sing “Throw the redneck down the well” or “Throw the hillbilly down the well” or go as far as singing “In my country there is problem, and that problem is rednecks. They have sex with all our goats, ’cause they get drunk and think it’s their sister” or something like that. Do you really think those same people would happily sing along to that – or maybe there would have been a bloody riot there?
You can’t make a person think a certain way just by singing a song – if people “accepted Borat’s views” after that day it just means they’ve been quiet about that until then. Thank you, Sacha, for unveiling the snakepit that’s right under our nose, so we won’t accidentally step into that – and it’ll be too late to regret…
i wonder if we would be laughing if an arab ali g got a bunch of settlers in the west bank to chant “throw the arab down the well”? cohen goes around doing everything he possibly can to confirm the preconception he (and perhaps many other jews) has that all working-class goyim are rabid redneck jewhaters. unfortunately, his condescending attitude towards goyim only plays to the stereotypes real jewhaters have about jews (im not trying to exculpate those who sang along, btw). i think that this is might be the unstated reason that the adl tried to get him to tone it down.
as an american, i am particularly resentful of cohen for his blatant lack of sensitivity to the situation of jews in this country, particularly in middle america. there is a tremendous amount of resentment towards jews in america at the moment, particulary as a result of the war in iraq. this resentment tends not surface in the mainstream media, as the purveyors of such resentment usually self-censor when in public (pat buchanan might be one of the few exceptions), but if you scratch below the surface, youll be surprised (and terrified) of what you will find.