Stretch Cunningham, We Hardly Knew You: Seeing Jews and “Others” through Archie Bunker’s Eyes

Abstract

ABSTRACT:All in the Family’s Archie Bunker was a mouthpiece for 1970s white working-class men. Theirs was an anxious decade. Peddling stereotypes, “othering” those unlike them, enabled this group to assert their threatened authority. Analyzed as popular media texts, the show’s many intersections with bigotry and anti-Semitism reveal unique insights into 1970s American life, especially the Jewish American experience. During the series’ decade-long run, Bunker gradually confronted and softened his prejudices. However, this was not the case among all “Archies,” a reality still visible in current times. Surveying the show’s racialist meditations against the backdrop of “tiki torchers” and Trumpism reminds viewers about the fraught nature of American identity, explaining why some Jews may elect to pass.