There's some Jew in you

[lavendertook]

Coworker: And your pocketbook is purple, too!

Me: Yeah, I like it. I got it from the street vender up the block. I actually bargained him down for it.

Coworker: So you got some Jew in you.

Me: I AM Jewish.

*nervous giggle from her and other coworker*

Me: Watch that stereotype there.

*she goes to talk about other coworker about business and ignores me*

Comments

[brouhaha.livejournal.com]

I hope I get better about this too! "Stunned into silence" is the best way to describe how I react to this shit and I usually choose that over my other immediate response, which is being violently angry. So yes, props to you for not doing either of those things :D

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

That would have been good. (-:

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

It's not being able to react that is always my worry and the place I work away from.

Not necessarily a good idea when you're just working as a contractor and working with fed employees.

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Wish it were more unusual.

Re: *would reply with my "oy gevalt!" icon but it's only on my dw account*

[wordweaverlynn.livejournal.com]

I think the bastard survived to 88 so he *could* do this. My first thought when I heard his age was that this was meant to be a suicide mission -- he wanted to go out with a bang. My second thought was that 88 means Heil Hitler if you're a white supremacist.

[wordweaverlynn.livejournal.com]

To me, "You have a little Jew in you" sounds a lot more offensive than just "Jew someone down" -- a usage that is painfully offensive in itself, but might be explained by someone not understanding that it's an ethnic reference. (When I was a kid, I thought half-assed was spelled half-ast and had nothing to do with buttocks.) This sounds like a deliberate reference to the stereotype. Yuck.

I am sorry you has this woman's shit flung at you.

[monkey5s.livejournal.com]

See, I get that from this post. What I find baffling is the concept that bargaining is supposed to be something one does NOT do- which would be the negative connotation you show. After all, if the seller doesn't wish to bargain, they can just say 'take it or leave it.' My upbringing was such that, not bargaining was a sign that you were either lazy or ignorant of the actual value of goods (I SUCK at bargaining, is partly why I don't shop where bargaining is expected).

I did spend my elementary school years in a community that was Jewish-influenced. Maybe that's why I was spared this variety of hatespeak?

[mechtild.livejournal.com]

She could have said, sorry, or, excuse me, for heaven's sake. Remember Father Guido Sarducci on Saturday Night Live? You are probably too young, but he was a great take-off of a seedy New York Italian priest that chain-smoked and wore sunglasses. He did a great monologue one night about visiting Rome and buying relics. Taking drags off his cigarette between phrases, he told the audience all about how hawkers descended on the tourists around St. Peter's, trying to sell them souvenirs and relics. "There was even a guy selling the check from the Last Supper," he said, to huge guffaws, including at our apartment. "But," he added, sadly, "it was too expensive." More laughter. Didn't the guy didn't have anything cheaper? "'Well,' the guy said, 'I've got the check for the Last Brunch...'" Hilarious laughter. "The guy still wanted way too much for it," Father Guido said, then leaned confidentially into the camera, "so I Protestanted him down to half-price." Everyone watching the show went into hysterics. (Eta: Just in case my remembered version of the skit wasn't clear enough, the tone showed that it was meant to be humorously critical of "to jew".)

Sometimes people say these things ignorantly. I remember calling my southern roommate on the very same usage back in college ("he wanted fifty but I jewed him down to twenty"). She was a very nice person, but grew up in a milieu where this was a normal expression. But events this week at the Holocaust Museum show that all anti-Semitic remarks aren't just from thoughtlessness or ignorance. Even if used unthinkingly they come out of a history of distrust, misunderstanding, even antagonism and contempt, that goes way back. Your co-worker may have spoken out of the same sort of unthinking ignorance as my college friend decades ago, but at least my roommate had the grace to look abashed, and she stopped saying it.

[aussiepeach.livejournal.com]

That is nasty stuff. Hope she thinks twice next time.

BTW, check lotrpiccaptions! :D

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

Yup. Her friend at work thinks she may not have even registered I was angry.

For a number of reasons, that's not a good idea. Be careful about giving that advice to someone--I've probably given it to people in the past who I shouldn't have given it without qualifications either.

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I felt satisfied with my tone, ironic as that is. *sigh*

Yeah, I have a feeling I may get that argument from her.

No, I'm just a contractor--second class citizen status there--like when they have potlucks even, we are not allowed to attend. I'm getting tired of how many realms of my life that is true in.

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

Yup. Though she may not think of it in terms of referring to actual people still, or she may have a full-on hate going.

Thank you!

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

Yup. Apologizing even minimally seems too hard for more people than not, in my experience thus far. I do remember him well--I grew up watching that batch of SLN crew. Though I don't remember that particular skit.

I do hope the timing of larger events have given her pause to think, but it's just as likely it hasn't.

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

Yeah, me too. Which is why I will try to talk to her this week.

Thank you!

Re: *would reply with my "oy gevalt!" icon but it's only on my dw account*

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

I had to google that to understand what you were getting at--that second thought sounds spot on now that I know this. His hate gave the horrible bastard the drive to hold on until his very special birthday so he could show what a good Hitler fanboy he is--what a life goal.

Re: *would reply with my "oy gevalt!" icon but it's only on my dw account*

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

I'm a little worried about that now.

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

Yeah, one can always hope.

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

Well, a 12" wang might be just as terrifying if you're hobbit-sized.

[mechtild.livejournal.com]

Maybe just your comment alone wouldn't, but she'd have to live under a rock not to make the association with what went down at the Holocaust Museum, which is right in her own backyard, so to speak.

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

It's good when you can choose your modes. That's early good girl training. Early good girl training meant I spent a lot of time in my 20's learning how to express anger over withdrawal and denial and building up the fighter part of me. Now I'm working on getting more control over my repertoire.

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

You'd think, but an awful lot of people spend a lot of time crawling and writhing under rocks like the things under that tree bole--people can be very creative in the ways they find not to make connections between things that are uncomfortable for them.

[mechtild.livejournal.com]

*sigh* You're probably right, alas.

[aussiepeach.livejournal.com]

I look forward to seeing what pic you will choose. :D

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

It comes from early European Christian prohibitions against money lending and other capitalistic functions--they imported Jews to do it--and Jews did, not having rights to own land or allowed other jobs. And then periodically, the Jews would be kicked out and all goods that they accumulated were confiscated, or they were just killed out right in periodic pogroms. Good times. This is from where the roots of that stereotype come.

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

Oh! Am I supposed to pick the next picture for the community to caption?