Profs look at black, Jewish lit

Two University professors spoke at the Hillel Foundation Tuesday night on the parallels between black and Jewish literature, including issues of common racial stereotypes in movies and literature. Assistant English Professor Herman Beavers said that most black figures that society commonly identifies with are entertainers. "Even in the 1990s, blacks seem to have a hard time functioning in mass American culture unless they can make white people laugh," said Beavers. Beavers and Assistant English Professor Elisa New explored both real and mistaken racism directed towards the Jewish and black communities. New warned against "the temptation of extracting characters [in both movies and books] from their particular context." She explored the tendency for people to "mistake the part for the whole." New said that while prejudice towards Jews was certainly evident in past books and movies, recently some films have been branded that are legitimate depictions of Jewish and black life in America, including the movie Driving Miss Daisy. New discussed film director Spike Lee's claim that Driving Miss Daisy is a racist movie. "Lee complained that Hoke acted as the typical black man in his place," New said. "To me, however, the film wasn't about individual places, but about what we were as a society at a certain point in history." New went on to describe Lee as a "young turk," explaining that he is fast to criticize films for being racist, without basing his criticisms on rational arguments. Beavers spoke largely about the misrepresentation of blacks in movies and in literature, saying that blacks are depicted as the "brute negro." "The wheels in the head of the brute negro aren't really turning, except around the idea of getting sex, sex, sex, usually from white women," he said. He condemned this and other stereotypes, and praised Lee for challenging racist notions and realistically depicting blacks in his films. Beavers and New teach a course in the College on the same topic of American black and Jewish literature, sub-titled "Exodus and Memory." "It's a fun course," said Beavers. "We both incorporated stuff that we love to read." The discussion in the Hillel Lounge and was sponsored by The Einstein Cafe, described by student co-director and College senior Alyssa Sepinwall as a forum for discussing issues affecting Jews.

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