I beg your pardon if it wasn't this obvious

[sovay]

I have been enjoying David Cairns' film criticism for at least a decade, but I was catching up on his latest installment on Chaplin's A King in New York (1957) and the record scratch of his sign-off stopped me cold:

Also, it never occurred to me before, but looking at Sid's frizzy hair, I wonder if he was mixed race. Though his broad nose is probably the result of his failed boxing career rather than genetics.

My dude, Sid James was born Solomon Joel Cohen. Have you never seen a Jewfro in your life? I'm not saying there's not precedent for confusion—Mezz Mezzrow in Really the Blues (1946) credited his own "nappy" Ashkenazi hair for getting him successfully transferred to the Black side of Riker's after his arrest for possession of a stupendous number of joints at the 1940 New York World's Fair—I am most definitely not saying that Black and mixed-race Jews don't exist, but I am saying that in this case no passing narrative is needed to explain the frizz unless you count the name change, which I doubt anybody does. (Please hold for my household's inevitable quotation of Sesame Street: "I am the Count. They call me the Count because I love to count things!" – "Wonderful! I'm Guy Smiley. They call me Guy Smiley because I changed my name from Bernie Liederkrantz!") It's just such a weird thing to speculate on when the information is out there. I don't have that hair, but I sure know people who do.

Comments

[minoanmiss]

BWEE I have bonded with Jewish people over our 'fros . I want to be shocked that Mr. Cairns never saw a Jewfro in his life but people often have amazingly small reference pools. As an example, there are a fair number of Black people in the US but we are not evenly distributed, so in high school and again in college I met quite a few White people who earnestly told me I was the first Black person they'd ever met (... oy, as it were). I can but imagine how many non-Jewish people may have, or may think they have, Not Met Their First Jew[tm] until well into adulthood.

[sovay]

BWEE I have bonded with Jewish people over our 'fros

This form of solidarity makes me really happy.

As an example, there are a fair number of Black people in the US but we are not evenly distributed, so in high school and again in college I met quite a few White people who earnestly told me I was the first Black person they'd ever met (... oy, as it were).

Definitely oy. I have been the only Jew in a group, but I don't think I've ever been anyone's first, or at least if so they didn't tell me.

I can but imagine how many non-Jewish people may have, or may think they have, Not Met Their First Jew[tm] until well into adulthood.

Data points in comments suggest many more than I thought. I wonder if it's a weird thought to me because I've just never had the option of not meeting non-Jews.

[liv]

I have been lots and lots of people's First! Ever! Jewish person!, and that's just the ones who make a point to tell me so. The first time I remember was my kindergarten teacher, and my memories are pretty fuzzy before that.

It's a pretty normal part of the Jewish experience in the UK outside London and a couple of other urban centres – last year I had a whole bar mitzvah class who all reported being the first real live Jewish person their various teachers had met (they all go to different schools), and being put on the spot to explain stuff.

FWIW I am pretty Ashkenazi in appearance but not in a way that's obvious to people who hold vague ethnic stereotypes, since I have slightly wavy light brown hair and that's what people tend to notice.

[sovay]

It's a pretty normal part of the Jewish experience in the UK outside London and a couple of other urban centres – last year I had a whole bar mitzvah class who all reported being the first real live Jewish person their various teachers had met (they all go to different schools), and being put on the spot to explain stuff.

Check. I am learning that I have overestimated British Jewish visibility. I have certainly had the experience of being put on the spot to explain stuff, including the all-time hits of "rituals which are not part of my observance" and "politics of a country I don't live in." (I have not had my grandfather's experience of students dropping by my office hours to check on my horns.)

Thank you for your data.

[minoanmiss]

"I wonder if it's a weird thought to me because I've just never had the option of not meeting non-Jews."

This was definitely my reaction in high school when I got "I've never met a Negro before" AND watching my roommate get "I've never met a Jew before". By col;ege I was resigned to it.

[davidgillon]

My secondary school - 1,000 pupils - had precisely two Black pupils in the seven years I was there. And as we were a Catholic school, and given African Catholicism, we probably had a higher Black population than was locally typical. The significant local minorities were Italian and Gypsy/Traveller. But that was a small market town up in the hills, and in the late 70s/early 80s. Percentages are higher when I go back, but still not high.

There must have been someone who was my identifiable first Black person to hold a conversation with that wasn't more than in passing, and my best guess would be a guy on my course at Uni - nice bloke, hadn't thought about him in ages.