Re: Self-Use of Ethnic Insults (was: Re: Ebonic Christmas )

On Sat, 15 Jan 2000 15:47:07 +0100 BP Jonsson <bpj@...> writes:
> I had *no idea* there was anything negative attached to the word
> _Jew_ in
> English, anymore than to _Swede_ or _Buddhist_ -- i.e. not anymore
> than
> individual people may attach negative connotations to people of other
> nationalities/religions than their own.  Least of all I would have
> thought
> it had negative connotations among Jewish people themselves!  In
> I sincerely apologize if I've ever offended anyone by using the
> simple noun...
>  B.Philip Jonsson  <mailto: bpj@...> <mailto:
.

Don't worry about it :-)  The more you, me, and everyone else uses the
word "jew" instead of "jewish person" (it's so much shorter, anyway!) the
more normal it'll sound.  For some reason it just sounds somewhat
shocking, as if it was not-quite-polite or something.  I had a Torah
teacher freshie-year in highschool who specifically addressed the class
as "jews!" for a vocative, *in English* even though the class was
conducted in Hebrew, for the specific purpose of getting us used to the
sound of it.  The Hebrew word _yehudim_ sounds completely value-neutral.
My friends in college probably use "jew" for the same reason, although
more *for* it's shock value than to purposely diminish it's shock value.
You get people's attention better that way.  Someone might have noticed
that in my posts on Jûdajca i switched constantly back and forth between
"Jews" and "Judeans" - the second noun, like "Swedes" or "Buddhists", is
completely value-neutral.


-Stephen (Steg)
 "...and i'll take with me the memories, / to be my sunshine after
rain..."