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

[monkey5s.livejournal.com]

I was not familiar with that as... any kind of usage. Personally, I would associate bargaining with any kind of marketplace culture anywhere in the world, so I'm a bit nonplussed to see that it is supposedly associated with the Jewish religion? Sometimes, my small town Ohio whitebread upbringing works in my favor, I guess.

But still, how jarring, at your workplace where people are supposed to know better.

[glaurung-quena.livejournal.com]

"To jew" is, sadly, a common way of saying "haggle" or "bargain" among some clueless/racist people. Usually it's in a negative sense (ie, "stop trying to jew me down" = "I don't like it that you're trying to haggle with me over this transaction"). My mother, OTOH, uses it when bragging about her successes at haggling with merchants, so it's not always negative in intended connotation. Sadly, repeated attempts to explain to my mother that it's an offensive turn of phrase have not been successful.

[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?

[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.