(Jewish Group) Yes, the Phrase "Jew 'em Down" IS Antisemitic
(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 1960s and early 1970s.
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 1940s and 1950s that paved the way for Kings later triumphs in the civil rights arena in the 1960s. 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.
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