I’m not going to lie — when I saw the preview for the Netflix film You People, starring Jonah Hill and Lauren London, about a white Jewish man and Black Muslim woman who fall in love, I was both curious and maybe a little hopeful that You People would be a modern Black/Jewish retelling of Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.
The acclaimed 1967 film, starring Sidney Poitier, Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, illuminated the struggles even nice white liberal couples like Tracy and Hepburn had when their daughter brought home her accomplished Black physician fiancé (Poitier). I hoped that You People would depict a Black/Muslim/Jewish storyline full of the contemporary conversations and cultural expressions unique to what happens when Black and Jewish people fall in love.
As I settled in to watch You People, I was particularly looking forward to seeing depictions of Jews of color. I anticipated a modern movie set among the racially diverse Jewish communities in Los Angeles, with a story that expressed the diversity and authenticity of both Jewish Americans and African Americans.
All of my optimism was dashed in the opening scene, set at Yom Kippur service at the Skirball Cultural Center in Bel Air. As soon as the camera pulled back to reveal that the congregants were all white, I knew that You People was not going to genuinely depict what American Judaism looks like in 2023.
There has been significant criticism of You People due to its antisemitic portrayal of Jewish Americans and racist portrayal of Black Americans. Yet there hasn’t been enough focus on one of the biggest misses of all: that an entire film about the relationship between Black and Jewish communities, a film informed by a paid “Jewish consultant” no less, omits the very Black Jewish people the film had a responsibility to explore and include.
I’m not going to lie — when I saw the preview for the Netflix film You People, starring Jonah Hill and Lauren London, about a white Jewish man and Black Muslim woman who fall in love, I was both curious and maybe a little hopeful that You People would be a modern Black/Jewish retelling of Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.
The acclaimed 1967 film, starring Sidney Poitier, Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, illuminated the struggles even nice white liberal couples like Tracy and Hepburn had when their daughter brought home her accomplished Black physician fiancé (Poitier). I hoped that You People would depict a Black/Muslim/Jewish storyline full of the contemporary conversations and cultural expressions unique to what happens when Black and Jewish people fall in love.
As I settled in to watch You People, I was particularly looking forward to seeing depictions of Jews of color. I anticipated a modern movie set among the racially diverse Jewish communities in Los Angeles, with a story that expressed the diversity and authenticity of both Jewish Americans and African Americans.
All of my optimism was dashed in the opening scene, set at Yom Kippur service at the Skirball Cultural Center in Bel Air. As soon as the camera pulled back to reveal that the congregants were all white, I knew that You People was not going to genuinely depict what American Judaism looks like in 2023.
There has been significant criticism of You People due to its antisemitic portrayal of Jewish Americans and racist portrayal of Black Americans. Yet there hasn’t been enough focus on one of the biggest misses of all: that an entire film about the relationship between Black and Jewish communities, a film informed by a paid “Jewish consultant” no less, omits the very Black Jewish people the film had a responsibility to explore and include.
The notion that all Jews in the United States are white is a myth which can easily be dismantled by data dating back to the 1700s. Today, according to a 2020 Pew Research Center survey on American Jewry, 17% of American Jews are part of multiracial families, and 8% of American Jews are people of color. Those numbers increase every day.
I understand producers have the creative license to depict as little or as much of the depth and truth as they wish. But the reality is that Hill’s character — a young Angeleno Jew who hangs out with Black people, and with a Black lesbian best friend (Sam Jay) — would definitely know Black and brown Jews. Wouldn’t it have been far more interesting to watch conversations between the characters with Jews of color in the mix? Wouldn’t the opening scene of Yom Kippur service at the Skirball Center also be more interesting and more realistic if it included Jews of color among the congregants?
With all of the stereotypes, inaccuracies and historical regressions present in the film, perhaps the saddest and most ironic part of You People is that London knows something of being a Jew of color, as she has a white Jewish father (her mother is Black and not Jewish). While London was raised by her mother and identifies as a non-Jewish Black woman, her existence as the progeny of a relationship between a Black American and Jewish American defies the normative mass of white Jewish identity portrayed on screen. Jews of color are not mysterious and unknown, and yet their erasure from You People, when an actual Black woman with Jewish heritage is in a leading role, is painfully paradoxical.
In 2023, when there are ample data sets available to inform movie producers about U.S. Jewish racial diversity, and dozens of efforts, programs and organizations supporting and celebrating the racial diversity of the American Jews, You People reinforces harmful stereotypes. It simplifies the depiction of both Jewish and Black Americans, and tells an inaccurate tale of who we are as Jews by omitting racially diverse Jews from the storyline.
Netflix had the opportunity with You People to tell a Black Jewish story of 2023. Instead, old stereotypes and reductive characters were rehashed, forcing us into the way-back machine of 1967.
Correction: This article has been updated to correct population percentages of Jews of color in Los Angeles, Jews of color nationwide and Jews who consider themselves part of multiracial families.
