Friday, May 2, 2008

First Post

Fer godsakes people, crack a book once in a while!

The other day in the weight room one of the football players made this comment,

"...after you 'jood' me out of that lift." (he was referring to the fact that I had turned down one of his lifts the previous weekend at a weightlifting competition)
Surprising...coming from someone his age (early 20s)
Perhaps slightly more surprising... coming from a young black man.
Even more surprising...this took place in the weight room of a private, Christian college.*
I took the opportunity to educate the young man on the error of his way, pointing out that it was, in fact, a slur.
" No, no, no." he says, "Not jewed. 'Jood,' J-U-D."
"Yes," I said. "You mean 'like a jew.' That's where it comes from."
"No, J-U-D. I mean like you cheated me out of something."

Oy vey! (And I'm not even one of the chosen.) I went on to explain the context and historical stereotyping of the phrase, I hope, to his betterment.

People today have no sense of perspective.

*to be fair? This is a small, private, conservative, Christian college in small, conservative, Olathe, KS.

1 comment:

GB, RN said...

Toph!! Glad to see you join KC's Blogging Elite! Now, you get a free pass to all the perks and privileges therein.

I'll be linking you right away.