Entertainment

Miley Cyrus Insults Another Ethnic Group

by Maitri Suhas

Today in "What shitty thing is Miley Cyrus doing?" news: In an interview with Hunger.TV online, Miley Cyrus may have just insulted the entire Jewish race while dismissing some old Hollywood fuddy-duddies: "With magazines, with movies, it’s always weird when things are targeted for young people yet they’re driven by people that are like 40 years too old. It can’t be like this 70-year-old Jewish man that doesn’t leave his desk all day, telling me what the clubs want to hear. I’m going out, I know what they want to hear."

Ah, yes, those old Jewish men! Because Jewish is just another descriptive that can be thrown around like "70" and "old." (Cyrus' publicist has not immediately responded to Bustle's request for comment.) Interestingly enough, Hunger printed the quote, not noting its offensive nature. As Jenny Maier said over at Crushable:

Calling an old guy Jewish in this context isn’t about pointing out his religious preferences, it’s about calling out certain, unflattering characteristics. This one, no doubt, goes back to the idea that Jews run the media. Which isn’t necessarily an insult until you realize the insinuations that go along with that idea... Even though I don’t think she’s currently out and about smashing menorahs and protesting Chanukah, it’s a Paula-Deen-type slip that makes me think that this isn’t the first time she’s used the word “Jewish” in a negative context.

Precisely. Just because it's a subtle anti-semitic comment doesn't make it any less anti-semitic. In fact, it's almost worse, because it shows just how ingrained Cyrus' skewed (not to mention incredibly outdated) stereotype of Jewish people in the media is; she tosses the word around as though it's neutral and doesn't harken back to anti-semitism in American Hollywood. But it's not the first time Cyrus has showcased her gross misunderstanding and overgeneralization of a group of people and their cultures. When she was making her new album, she told songwriting duo Timothy and Theron Thomas "I want urban, I just want something that just feels Black.” And that, not to mention her most recent quote, just feels offensive.