Comments on: A Coupla Words to Heeb

By: Stormgazer

Stormgazer — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 20:04:36 +0000

David, to add to your thoughts about how a word can become charged and political, the German word, “Schwarzer,” which I can only guess has a strong relationship to “schvartzer,” simply means a ‘black’ person and has no negative meaning over here. So where it’s appropriate to use the word among Germans, it seems inappropriate to use in the Jewish sense … kind of like making sure you’re among Filipinos and not Mexicans when you say you’d really like to go eat some puto (in the Philippines, puto is a kind of rice cake).

By: David

David — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 02:56:21 +0000

Hi Liz, I live in white bread northeastern Indiana which, while not exactly teeming with Jews, has a nice jewish population. ONe of my best friends growing up was jewish and my attorney is jewish. Which is a roundabout way of saying that this is the first time I have ever heard the word schvartzer. And it occured to me that the ultimate defense against racial or other epithets is complete ignorance. It’s fascinating how words pick up these meanings and become so charged and cruel. The power of ignorance strips the word clean of these meanings and returns the word to its original state.

Which brings me to my point I guess. A couple of weeks ago you sort of blew off the New Yorker’s cover of Barack and his wife dressed as Muslim terrorists as being part of the New Yorker’s usual “comedic” schtick. And so I wonder if you’d give the New Yorker the same break if they’d had a picture of Obama as “Schvartzer in Chief” or something like that. I think you are right to speak against hate language. Just a few thoughts, Dave

By: Stormgazer

Stormgazer — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 20:30:41 +0000

Wasn’t “Heeb” also, originally, a derogatory slur? I honestly don’t know, since the only other place I’ve encountered the word was when the character Brian Cohen, from “The Life of Brian,” had his retaliatory burst of Jewish pride upon learning his father was the Roman centurion, Naughtius Maximus.

If that’s the case, then it would seem the magazine needs to do more than toss the ‘Schwarzer’ word from its vocabulary; but change its name, as well.