Hollywood films in the 1940s reframed anti-Semitism as un-American

Evidence

The media was also instrumental in countering anti-Semitism. Numerous Hollywood films in the 1940s portrayed Jewish characters in a positive light. Two films in particular, Crossfire and Gentlemen’s Agreement, swayed public opinion to associate anti-Semitism with un-Americanness. By 1962, 75 percent of Americans stated they would reject a presidential candidate solely on the grounds that he was anti-Semitic. This was a dramatic change from 1918, when The Races of Europe, an essential work on race at the time, categorized Jews as a separate, inferior race. — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 453

Categorization

• SEED: An essay angle: how mass media shifted public moral framing of a racialized group within two decades — and what that implies for Muslim Americans today.
• XREF: Connects to the book’s earlier argument about the media’s role in racializing Muslims; the Jewish case offers a positive control case of media-driven de-racialization.