Black and Jewish? So Are They!

Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
Funny or Die
“Yeah, uh huh, you know what it is. My nose and ass — they’re both big” is the catchy refrain to this outrageous yet endearing Funny or Die parody, celebrating the idiosyncratic joys of being both black and Jewish.
It’s hard to be put off by the video’s many offensive Jewish and Afro-American stereotypes, for a couple of reasons. First, the parody’s creators, James Davis and Rachel Goldenberg, have done a great job of weaving all those offensive stereotypes together. Second, who can resist the lovely Kali Hawk (“Bridesmaids”) and Katerina Graham (“Vampire Diaries”) cruising through South Central and Pico-Robertson in their minivan (“looks cheap, but we roll deep”)?
This take-off on Wiz Khalifa’s “Black and Yellow” is a shout out to the numerous celebrities who are both black and Jewish. You know, like Lenny Kravitz, Rashida Jones, Sophie Okonedo, Jenny Lumet and, of course, Sammy Davis, Jr. See how many you can name as they whizz across your screen.
My favorite line? “No paper planes, but I’m taking flight. I got a free trip to Israel — Birthright!”
Watch ‘Black and Jewish’:
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
