I don't GET anti-semitic remarks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm half Jewish and I don't like for people to state negative things about any group as a whole. But, I do find it odd anytime anyone says anything vs. Jews or blacks -- everyone jumps all over it. But, when people degrade women in general -- no one gets in any trouble.

I really really really agree with this statement. It's like there are some groups that it's totally okay to be insulting towards on the basis of their membership in that group, and some groups where if you say anything about the group that is not glowingly positive, people freak out about it.

[Anonymous]

Stop the presses. "Jip/jipped" is derogatory?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Stop the presses. "Jip/jipped" is derogatory?

"Gypped" is a slur against Gypsies.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/iphone/#define?term=gypped

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I really didn't mean to imply that anti-Semitic behavior/remarks do not exist, or that my life was so grand, etc. I think, like many of the PPs, that I was aware of it in a broader context growing up, but I certainly didn't encounter it in my life. To be clear, I had racists as family members (thankfully not immediate family members); they just directed their racism at African Americans. I certainly heard plenty of negative things about AAs growing up, in my family, at school, etc. so I wasn't completely sheltered. There were Jews in my neighborhood and school, just not a ton.

No, I've never heard the term, "Jew me down." The first time I ever heard the term "JAP" I was lying on the beach 3 of my closest college girlfriends. 2 of them were half Jewish. One of them said to the other, something to the effect of, "Oh Ally, you know her, she's super JAPY." The other friend said, "Nice. I really hate that term." Seriously, I thought it was a derogatory term for New Yorkers! I didn't figure out what it stood for until a few years later, when I read it in a book.

This is positive people!

OP, I can't find your ignorance, cultural illiteracy, and lack of critical thinking skills to be positives. Sorry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop the presses. "Jip/jipped" is derogatory?

"Gypped" is a slur against Gypsies.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/iphone/#define?term=gypped

Yes, and there are lots of the Romani around to get pissed about it when you use this term.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop the presses. "Jip/jipped" is derogatory?

"Gypped" is a slur against Gypsies.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/iphone/#define?term=gypped

This is a good example of people repeating things that are racist (or biased against some group) without realizing it, which is what I think the PP who referred to a friend of hers using the term "jewed him down" unknowingly was referring to. That is, the friend likely didn't realize that the term either referred to jews or that the stereotype was negative. I see "gypped" all the time, but usually as "jipped," and I'm 90% sure that 90% of the time, the person has no idea the term refers to gypsies.

I first heard the term "jewed him down" in the movie School Ties. I had to ask my parents what it meant, which was when I learned that some people didn't like Jews (I grew up in a rural area where there were very, very few) and the sorts of stereotypes that exist with respect to Jews.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't GET anti-semitic remarks in the sense that I don't get why it matters. Why are the Jews a protected class? Have you heard of anyone in this generation being denied any public or merit-based benefit because of Jewishness? Nope. (Admission to country clubs and other private institutions is different. I know that happens, and I think it's evil.)

Where is the great hue and cry about all the redneck jokes? The irish jokes? The blond jokes? Calling women "witches"? There is none (or very little, readily dismissed), because being a redneck or being irish is no longer any kind of social detriment. None of these insults should hold any power whatsoever. It's anachronistic, akin to "your mother wears army boots". Deserves nothing more than "huh?"

Actually I complain about redneck jokes.

Remarks are hurtful because they filter down to children, for one thing. I found them hard to understand growing up. When I heard my first college roommate's boyfriend refer to Visa as a "damn Jew company" because he couldn't afford to pay his bill, I was 17 -- and completely floored. No, it didn't hold me back from accomplishing my dreams or turn my world upside down, but language is powerful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop the presses. "Jip/jipped" is derogatory?

"Gypped" is a slur against Gypsies.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/iphone/#define?term=gypped

Yes, and there are lots of the Romani around to get pissed about it when you use this term.

Well, a lot of Gypsies didn't survive Auschwitz. Way to go on cultural sensitivity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I really didn't mean to imply that anti-Semitic behavior/remarks do not exist, or that my life was so grand, etc. I think, like many of the PPs, that I was aware of it in a broader context growing up, but I certainly didn't encounter it in my life. To be clear, I had racists as family members (thankfully not immediate family members); they just directed their racism at African Americans. I certainly heard plenty of negative things about AAs growing up, in my family, at school, etc. so I wasn't completely sheltered. There were Jews in my neighborhood and school, just not a ton.

No, I've never heard the term, "Jew me down." The first time I ever heard the term "JAP" I was lying on the beach 3 of my closest college girlfriends. 2 of them were half Jewish. One of them said to the other, something to the effect of, "Oh Ally, you know her, she's super JAPY." The other friend said, "Nice. I really hate that term." Seriously, I thought it was a derogatory term for New Yorkers! I didn't figure out what it stood for until a few years later, when I read it in a book.

This is positive people!

OP, I can't find your ignorance, cultural illiteracy, and lack of critical thinking skills to be positives. Sorry.

Not OP, but what?! It is culturally illiterate to not be up to date on derogatory terms for Jewish women? Are you up to date on slurs for every ethnic group? I doubt it. I think this a regional thing in some ways - if you are from the south, and parts of MD could be included in that, nobody thinks about or talks about the various "white" ethnicities (Jewish, Italian, Irish, what have you). There are many racist/offensive terms for various ethnicities that I never heard until I moved north as an adult. Similarly, I bet many people on here have never heard the various slurs or stereotypes that are directed at Punjabi people or "native" Argentinians. Doesn't mean anyone who is not aware of that species of racism is ignorant or lacking in cultural literacy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I really didn't mean to imply that anti-Semitic behavior/remarks do not exist, or that my life was so grand, etc. I think, like many of the PPs, that I was aware of it in a broader context growing up, but I certainly didn't encounter it in my life. To be clear, I had racists as family members (thankfully not immediate family members); they just directed their racism at African Americans. I certainly heard plenty of negative things about AAs growing up, in my family, at school, etc. so I wasn't completely sheltered. There were Jews in my neighborhood and school, just not a ton.

No, I've never heard the term, "Jew me down." The first time I ever heard the term "JAP" I was lying on the beach 3 of my closest college girlfriends. 2 of them were half Jewish. One of them said to the other, something to the effect of, "Oh Ally, you know her, she's super JAPY." The other friend said, "Nice. I really hate that term." Seriously, I thought it was a derogatory term for New Yorkers! I didn't figure out what it stood for until a few years later, when I read it in a book.

This is positive people!

OP, I can't find your ignorance, cultural illiteracy, and lack of critical thinking skills to be positives. Sorry.

Not OP, but what?! It is culturally illiterate to not be up to date on derogatory terms for Jewish women? Are you up to date on slurs for every ethnic group? I doubt it. I think this a regional thing in some ways - if you are from the south, and parts of MD could be included in that, nobody thinks about or talks about the various "white" ethnicities (Jewish, Italian, Irish, what have you). There are many racist/offensive terms for various ethnicities that I never heard until I moved north as an adult. Similarly, I bet many people on here have never heard the various slurs or stereotypes that are directed at Punjabi people or "native" Argentinians. Doesn't mean anyone who is not aware of that species of racism is ignorant or lacking in cultural literacy.

I don't see the analogy with Punjabis or Argentinians. In the story OP tells, half of the people present were Jewish or half Jewish and a term that is offensive to Jews was used. OP thinks it is "positive" that she did not know what that term meant when it was used, and avoided any degree of curiosity about that term, failing to ask or to find out. Again, this iisn't about some obscure tribe in the Andes, or Punjabis, or Argentinians. It's real life. It's somebody with their head in the sand. Whether this is about anti-Semitism or some other aspect of American life, I don't see that as a positive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I really didn't mean to imply that anti-Semitic behavior/remarks do not exist, or that my life was so grand, etc. I think, like many of the PPs, that I was aware of it in a broader context growing up, but I certainly didn't encounter it in my life. To be clear, I had racists as family members (thankfully not immediate family members); they just directed their racism at African Americans. I certainly heard plenty of negative things about AAs growing up, in my family, at school, etc. so I wasn't completely sheltered. There were Jews in my neighborhood and school, just not a ton.

No, I've never heard the term, "Jew me down." The first time I ever heard the term "JAP" I was lying on the beach 3 of my closest college girlfriends. 2 of them were half Jewish. One of them said to the other, something to the effect of, "Oh Ally, you know her, she's super JAPY." The other friend said, "Nice. I really hate that term." Seriously, I thought it was a derogatory term for New Yorkers! I didn't figure out what it stood for until a few years later, when I read it in a book.

This is positive people!

OP, I can't find your ignorance, cultural illiteracy, and lack of critical thinking skills to be positives. Sorry.

Agree.

[Anonymous]

I'm just going to assume this thread is being pumped by the Chantilly delegation and suggest that folk go and discuss this further over appletinis at Applebees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm Jewish and I never heard anyone say anythng anti-semitic until I was well into adulthood. I was quite shocked, having really felt during my childhood that such views were from a bygone era. I remember arguing this point with my grandfather, whose family fled Polish pogroms in 1909. Sadly, I have now heard of innumerable instances of anti-semitic remarks and even violence, not to mention the Holocaust denials and threats against Israel. I remember taking a train through Germany at age 20 and seeing swastsika graffiti on the train. It was eye-opening.

Can you define "threats against Israel"?

I'm concered that saying things against Israel's political policies is frequently called anti-Semitism. You can dislike a country's politics without being a racist.

I'm the poster who posted the top paragraph. I certainly didn't mean to imply that criticism of Israel's policies is anti-semitic. Anyone is free to disagree. The threats against Israel I was referring to is when Iran and similar countries say that Israel should be wiped off the map. That is not a criticism. That is advocating genocide.

[Anonymous]

I appreciate the OP's sentiment with this post. I'm glad that people in this world have been exposed to anti-semitism. At least in some little corners of the world there are no haters. I wish we could spread some of that around.

[Anonymous]

Meant to say have NOT been exposed.