If you’re like us and rewatching The Golden Girls in honor of Betty White you may have come across this powerful moment in season 3.
@jewishunpacked The Golden Girls showed the world the best way to respond to an antisemite. ##goldengirls ##tv ##bettywhite ##hate
♬ original sound – Unpacked
In episode 15, Dorothy’s new author friend is a bit of a pretentious snob and causes a rift between Blanche and Rose. But things really get heated when Sophia (Dorothy’s mom) brings Murray Guttman, a nice Jewish boy, home.
The group is supposed to be going to Miami’s fanciest country club for dinner but we soon find out that the club has a no Jew policy.
Dorothy’s friend then gives a great example of passive antisemitism saying “besides it’s their policy not mine” when challenged on why she belongs to such a club.
Dorothy’s response is perfect: “but you tolerate it.”
The scene ends with Dorothy telling her now ex-friend to “go to hell” with the in studio audience breaking out into applause.
Bea Arthur, the actress who played Dorothy in the series, was raised in a Jewish home and faced antisemitism while growing up saying that she was treated as a “misfit” in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
“I’m not playing a role,” she once said in an interview. “I’m being myself, whatever the hell that is.”
That’s what makes this scene all the better. Dorothy, Bea, a Jewish woman, is speaking for all of us when she told the antisemite off.
Sometimes it takes a village and good friends to combat antisemitism, something the Golden Girls exemplified on national television on Jan. 16th, 1988.
Originally Published Jan 6, 2022 12:02AM EST
