Quote:
Originally posted by dtb
Not infrequently. (Not every day, mind you, but more often than you'd think.)
Many people don't know I'm Jewish (I don't have a Jewish-sounding last name), so I guess they feel free to express their true selves. I'm more often than not embarrassed. For them.
Except the time when the taxi driver (in NYC), when searching for the perfect epithet to hurl at the pedestrian crossing the street (who had the light), came up with "JEW!" -- that kind of scared/unnerved me.
Not that this would have made it any better -- but it wasn't like the guy in the crosswalk was a Hasid or something (i.e., he wasn't noticeably Jewish -- he may or may not have been).
Like I said, that freaked me out.
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What I find amusing is that because I'm Irish looking and have a strongly Celtic name, people assume I'm a wonderful sounding board for bigoted jokes. If you think "Jew lawyer" or "lazy Nigger" is the worst, you haven't been hearing "the new style" in slurs lately. I have heard people crack jokes about lynchings and the Holocaust. I just smile and let it roll because (a) the debate isn't worth it, and (b) I usually don't want to be in the conversation, so that last thing I want to do is get the amateur comedian to start a profuse apology. I actually heard one chick at a pretty high end holiday soiree refer to chuildren she was teaching in an inner city school as "monkeys." I almost spit my drink. I cringed, waiting for her to get a full frontal onslaught from the rest of the group, but all that came up was one drink guy with a great "monkeys, really?" which was probably the best comeback. The remainder of the conversation was awkward dead air where everyone stared at their drinks. Thank God for alcohol.
The best I ever saw was some rube tell a racist joke to an Irish rugby-player friend of mine who was about 6/4 230lbs. The big Irish dude luaghed really loud and then stopped, took a swig on his beer and said "My sister is black and I love beating the shit out of little guys."* That redneck didn't try to gouge anything.
* Which is true.
