(Jewish Group) Yes, the Phrase "Jew 'em Down" IS Antisemitic

[Behind the Aegis]

(THIS IS THE JEWISH GROUP! RESPECT!!)

I grew up with grandparents and parents whose memories I bless every day.  My grandparents, Eastern European Jewish immigrants, spoke fluent Yiddish, as did my father.  I miss the rich use of that language.  But there was one Yiddish word I came to detest.

It was the word “schvartze”. Literally, the word meant “black.”  But it was used in a way that had a most derisive and bigoted connotation.

My mother was a model of racial tolerance, and she absolutely refused to use the word “schvartze.”  When I heard people of my parents’ or grandparents’ generation use the word “schvartze,” I would object immediately. The greatest American hero of my lifetime was, is, and always will be Jackie Roosevelt Robinson.  His endurance and struggle against virulent racism on and off the baseball field was the leading inspiration for my involvement in the Civil Rights movement in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s.

As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once told former Brooklyn Dodger great pitcher Don Newcombe, it was the struggle and triumph of Jackie Roosevelt Robinson over the most virulent racism of white racist players and fans in the 1940’s and 1950’s that paved the way for King’s later triumphs in the civil rights arena in the 1960’s.  And I will always bless the memory of the late Dr. King as well for his firm and unwavering support for the survival and security of the State of Israel.

I had this in mind in September, 1969 when I took part in a civil rights march in downtown Pittsburgh protesting the local builders trade unions’ discrimination against admission of prospective African-American construction workers.

more...