La Valle man added to cloistered nuns' prayer requests
I have several dictionaries and the only one where "jew" is marked as a verb is the OED (and where, obviously, the said usage is labeled "offensive"). Unless Mr. Hartje meant the Urban Dictionary.
May 7, 2011
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6 comments:
business word
"Sales are slow. Looks like we're gonna have to cut a few hundred pounds of flesh."
Some words are more obvious than others. As a kid I had no idea that gyp was a rude word (or even how to spell it -- I would have guessed jip).
Are there any Jews in LaValle?
I could promise not to go to his family's implement shop, but I doubt that would matter.
Almost unbelievably, I made it to the age of 30 without realizing that the term "cotton picking" as in in "get your cotton picking hands out of the cookie jar" was an offensive phrase. Of course, in retrospect, the connection is clear. But it was a phrase I heard frequently as a kid, never in any overtly racist context, and it was not something I said on a daily basis, so my utter naivete escaped detection.
When it was finally pointed out, I couldn't believe I hadn't seen it before. I was completely embarrassed and could not apologize enough. So I can give the guy a bit of slack on the initial mistake, but would suggest his follow-up behavior is more indicative of his character.
Hartje's Dutch, among whose stereotypes is stubbornness.* Irony lives.
* Dutch friend of mine gave me a pretty hilarious saying, but propriety prevents me from reproducing it here.
My favorite take on this is from his colleagues, as reported in Democurmudgeon (http://democurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2011/05/like-rep-steve-nass-defense-of-racist.html)
"(Hartje)is not the only one to use offensive language at meetings, and therefore should not be reprimanded or asked to apologize."
Yeah that's in the WSJ story. The whole thing is absurd.
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