See how complicated it is to be Jewish? Now, so many people are angry (or indifferent) about Bradley Cooper’s prosthetic nose. At the end of the day, if a non-Jew feels comfortable enough playing Jewish, they should be able to do so without prosthetics. One of the reasons so many Jews are offended by Bradley’s nose isn’t just because he barely even needs it to accurately portray Leonard, but because it harkens back to offensive cartoonish imagery of Jewish stereotypes.

During the Holocaust and other periods of widespread antisemitism, Jews were often portrayed with large, hooked noses as a way to differentiate them from other people. As we said, Jews can look very different from one another, and they don’t all have the stereotypical big noses. But if it’s necessary to add this prosthetic to make Bradley’s performance believable, he must not be a very good actor.

However, calling this “Jewface” is also insensitive to the history of Blackface and co-opts the term. It’s not nearly the same thing. Blackface was first used to portray offensive stereotypes of Black people at a time when Black people weren’t allowed to work in the entertainment industry.

While we definitely shouldn’t conflate the two terms, wearing a prosthetic nose that isn’t even really necessary does stir up historically offensive stereotypes for some Jewish people. And even though Leonard Bernstein’s kids might be okay with Bradley’s portrayal — and let’s remember that they are also benefiting from the film — they don’t speak for all Jewish people.

Because many Jewish people are white and because many moved away from their home countries because of heightened antisemitism, they were forced to assimilate. This means that over multiple generations, many of us have grown desensitized to potentially antisemitic instances. There’s no right answer, but in my opinion, a fake nose is a step too far.