I think everyone has a moment when they are going about their regular day, minding there own business, and another human being does something that sends them reeling in total shock making them think they are in a time warp.
I had one of those moments today. I guess you could call it my first encounter with either a really ignorant person, or an anti semetic person. Read this and decide for yourself......
I was walking in the grocery store with my munchkins. We had just finished some last minute shopping for the eighth night, and mailed off a small package to Jacinda's friend Patty in Australia. We were scanning the ground beef when a woman beside us stated, "wow that's a lot of stuff you've got( and spying the roll of wrapping paper sticking out of our other shopping bags adds.)" what's that for, Christmas is over?" Not that it was her business but being polite as I could muster, I pointed at the rather obvious menorahs on the wrapping paper. It is for Chanukkah,I told her, and I have to buy a lot of stuff It has to last a few weeks untill my next pay. I said this with a smile because I have met some people who actually have no idea what Chanukkah is. The lady replies"Oh you must be a smart Jew, I used to be paid every two weeks when I was a school teacher it was easy to budget, but now that I am retired and only get money once a month I find it so hard, I could use a smart Jew like you to help me."....
I have to be honest and say I was absolutely speechless, so much so that I made no response. I think I was stuck wondering if she spoke like that on purpose, or by accident. Either way I think I understand why she was no longer a school teacher. Please comment I'm interested to hear what you have to say on this matter.
Jen
posted by Jen @ 6:36 PM
1 Comments:
Was she an older lady? Older people can sometimes say things that they think of as fact (because of the way they were brought up) without realizing that they may be offending someone. Often they don't mean any offense by it at all, and if asked later would not be able to identify what it was about the conversation that you may have found offensive.
That being said, if someone is being anti-semetic towards to, you can usually tell. The word "jew" can be said with so many different intonations, it's probably comparable to the different ways that the inuit people can say "snow" (almost comparable, that is: apparently there are dozens of different words for snow).
For me, if someone is offensive without realizing it, I let it slide. The important part is "offend". If someone says something to me in a friendly way, and doesn't realize that they've said something offensive, then the obviously didn't mean to offend me in the first place. Sure it's offensive, but I blame that persons environment, and not the actual person.
If, however, they MEAN to offend, well them's fighting words.
Just my $0.02
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