Well – just as in the case of the Ferengi it was the name that acquitted them – in this case, the character’s name is probably the most damaging piece of evidence that there is. So what is it that causes this greed-driven to trip my antisemitism alarms. Didn’t I myself already point out that there are plenty of people other than Jews that have had greed associated with them? I even pointed out how in some of these cases, the association of greed is far more reasonably applied than when it is applied to Jews. This is a villain driven by a motive that the most virulent antisemitic tropes have always (albeint, as I explained, unreasonably) associated with Jews – that motive being plain, unadulterated greed.īut wait, you say. So – what is it that tripped my alarms – alarms that are unconcerned with the Ferengi, or the Gringotts goblins, or even the evil wizard Gargamel? The answer is the principal villain of the Underdog children’s cartoon from the late 1960s and early 1970s – a villain who regularly develops high-tech weapons and/or attempts to hoard common resources in order to steal money or force people to pay him money. For that reason, when I take issue of a particular depiction in entertainment, I hope that I am worth hearing out. I know that there are people who make these accusations without good reason – but I hope I have made it clear that I am not one of those people. So, being desensitized by all these false alarms, you might roll your eyes if I were to tell you that I have identified a cartoon character from the late 1960s and early 1970s who is indeed an antisemitic representation.

Refutations of the other accusations are not as strong as the refutation of that accusation against the Ferengi – but it is nonetheless highly unlikely that the Gringotts goblins are a resurgence of old antisemitic trope, and there really isn’t as much to ground that accusation against Gargamel as it might seem at first glance either. But that is beside the point – the point is that the claim that the Ferengi are a representation of Jews is a claim that fails to check out. Now – considering how European colonists have ransacked so much of the world, this stereotype is far more reasonable when held against them than when held against Jews who were only into the money trade due to being legally barred from making a living any other way. We ask you to be rich.” So basically – what is seen as the dominant characteristic of Westerners is the desire to be rich – in other words, to turn a profit. It is especially used on the Portuguese, though in the incident of usage that I encountered it, it was being used as an Englishman.Īnd what view did the characters have of Westerners? Well – that question is answered a few paragraphs earlier when the character who is about to be referred to as a “Feringhee” asks what is wanted of him and is told “We only ask you to do that which your countrymen come to this land for. It is a disparaging term used in India to refer not to Jews, but to Westerners. The very name “Ferengi” is very obviously a re-spelling of “Feringhee” – a term whose resemblance to that of the Star Trek aliens in question shocked me when I first encountered it when reading the Sherlock Holmes novel, The Sign of the Four. For example, the Ferengi in Star Trek are almost certainly not in reference to Jews. You also may have actually investigated some of these claims of antisemitism and found some of them to be less than convincing. You’ve heard that complaint made about the Ferengi from Star Trek, about the goblins of Gringotts Bank in the Harry Potter series, and even about Gargamel from the Smurfs – so there is nothing new about the idea of someone claiming to identify a character or group of characters in entertainment as an antisemitic portrayal.

You’ve heard a lot about different characters in entertainment being iterations of tired old antisemitic tropes straight out of the Middle Ages.

Blinkk sg bar sinister