University of Wisconsin’s “East Coast Jewish Honeys” Not Laughing at “Coastie Song”

(video after the jump)

"The Coastie Song" video, racking up hits across the Web, is a catchy, clever and pointed farceof a small butunmistakably visible portion of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s student body: Jewish American Princesses living in private dorms like the Towers and Statesider. Yet, under their large Gucci sunglasses, North Face parkas and Ugg boots these Jewesses aren’t laughing over rappers Beef and Quincy’s "east coast Jewish honey" spending daddy’s money lyrics. According to the New York Times, the song "raised complaints of anti-Semitism, shed more light on a cultural divide among students and renewed complaints about a long-standing housing policy."

However you personally take it, what you see in this video is the commonly shared (and accepted) stereotype of the Jewish female for many UW Badgers. In fact, the majority of the student body, hailing from the rural Midwest, have little or no direct exposure to Jews in their upbringing and sadly, their bite-sized understanding of our culture gets boiled down to a pair of fuzzy boots and a Lawng Aylind accent. Just like the video says.

With their witty tome, Quincy and Beef raise a microcosmic framing of the Borat Question: does good-naturedsatire do more harm or good when most of the audienceisn’t in onthe joke?

Text by Matt Kaftor, (matthaze *at* gmail dot com) Wisconsin Alum ’06

What do you think?

About The Author

41 Responses

  1. benj

    As a jewish madison-born student at UW, I and all of my peers were perplexed by this group. it had nothing to do with judaism, but rather their mono-culture wealthy lifestyle and the question why they all went to this university. but the anti-semitic ref

    Reply
  2. Puck

    My favourite bit is when the anti-semites pull out the “I had a Jewish ancestor once” line…it never gets old or cliched *cough*
    If you need to preface sentences with “I’m not an anti-semite but…” Benj, you probably are.
    University of Wisconsin…*sm

    Reply
  3. CarltonVanNostrand

    You know what I think never gets old, Puck? Accusing other Jews of anti-Semitism because they disagree with your paranoid interpretation of something. The song is harmless and funny, and your lame, classist “community college” swipe suggests that the ra

    Reply
  4. iconic

    I have to agree with Puck here.

    Always amusing to see which degree of separation the anti-semite uses.
    “I had a Jewish ancestor once”…. “I had a Jewish neighbor once”….I had a rugelah once.”

    Reply
  5. Puck

    You’re right, Carlton…it never gets old ;)
    And I wouldn’t say taking a swipe at community colleges is classist, it’s more elitist given that arguably someone from any socio-economic background could feasibly attend either (though certainly the demograp

    Reply
  6. Puck

    <---had a bagel once. <---has no idea where Wisconsin is and only a vague idea of what a 'community college' is. Ah sitcoms, they've taught me everything I need to know about the US :P I wasn't actually accusing anyone of anti-semitism, merely pointing

    Reply
  7. jewdar
    jewdar

    As I see it, the usual depiction of JAPS, courtesy of the Jews, is that they are materialistic, spoiled, and unattractive. These goyim, by contrast, see them as materialistic, spoiled, and hot. Given my choice of depictions, I’ll go with the latter. An

    Reply
  8. Puck

    We don’t have JAPS here…the sooner American Jewry realise they’re not the definitive paradigm of Judaism worldwide the better.

    Reply
  9. jewdar
    jewdar

    By definition, JAPS are American, though I suppose one could substitute “Australian” for “American” in a pinch. I don’t know that JAP has to be taken as a universal, or even as applying to all American Jews, only to a type within the American Jewish comm

    Reply
  10. Puck

    I think regardless, it’s time American Jewry started to understand they represent American Jewry…and that’s it. Australian Jews are not like American Jews, nor would we ever have any desire to be…we have our own culture and traditions and beliefs and

    Reply
  11. godelhador

    If you want to see what a REAL anti-Semite thinks about Jewish women, go to my church.

    Reply
  12. Anonymous

    Wisconsin is good for cheese and beer and humor editors–that’s it!

    Reply
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