How to wither a burgeoning friendship

[fuzzyjay]

Casually use the expression "to Jew someone down" to refer to haggling over a price.

Comments

[danbearnyc.livejournal.com]

Mercy! I was shocked the first time I heard that phrase, age 17, from the mouth of a distant cousin in town from Oklahoma. Completely shocked at the concept. And he really really wanted to go into the city from Lawn Guyland so he could actually SEE Jews.

[fuzzyjay.livejournal.com]

One of my first boyfriends tried to convince me that he meant no ethnic slur by the phrase.

[danbearnyc.livejournal.com]

Sorta like the Mormon episode of South Park when the boy relates the story of the Book of Mormon's discovery, translation and propagation, the background music goes "dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb!"

[theoctothorpe.livejournal.com]

These are often the same people who use "gay" to refer to something dumb/stupid/etc.

::sigh::

[rpeate.livejournal.com]

Maybe he didn't, which would mean he was dumb.

[badgerpdx.livejournal.com]

You can spot them by the shadow their HUGE noses cast, I'm told. (Big nose, big hose...jus' sayin')

[danthered.livejournal.com]

…and our horns. Don't forget to look for the horns.

[danbearnyc.livejournal.com]

Now, now. Don't give away TOO many secrets.

[danthered.livejournal.com]

My first year at the University of Michigan (i.e., my third year of college), I had almost just begun to absorb the extremely decrepit condition of the dorm to which I'd been assigned — the building had in fact had its condemnation "deferred" for eight years running, I was later to learn — when in shambled my roommate, an apparition from a NASCAR poster. He introduced himself thus: "Hah! Ah'm Vaughn, f'm Tayennessee! Ah never mayett a Jew afore!"

The dorm/roommate situation went, ah, downhill from there.

[danbearnyc.livejournal.com]

And you'd never met white trash before, neither!

[rpeate.livejournal.com]

Since all other Caucasians are perfect, clearly Vaughn was the only trashy one.

[danbearnyc.livejournal.com]

Some animals are more equal than others.

[rpeate.livejournal.com]

Coincidentally, they're pigs!

[danbearnyc.livejournal.com]

D'accord!

[morimur.livejournal.com]

Did he not know to wait until the friedship is no longer burgeoning?

I wonder why this person thought he needed a replacement term for his haggling practice?

[pensivegargoyle.livejournal.com]

It's okay to jew someone down on a price so long as you don't welsh on the deal and gyp them.

[badgerpdx.livejournal.com]

You must be feeling very Scots today. I can tell.

[theoctothorpe.livejournal.com]

Brilliant! Love it!

[rpeate.livejournal.com]

You're all so gay.

[watchingitburn.livejournal.com]

But what about if whatever you're buying happens to be nigger-rigged?

[danbearnyc.livejournal.com]

That's only on payday - off to the paddy wagon with you!

[badgerpdx.livejournal.com]

Charming...utterly charming.

I'd be, "1 800- See ya, Ok, bye-bye"

[watchingitburn.livejournal.com]

"Jew someone down"???

That's so gay.

[scream4noreason.livejournal.com]

Oh dear. Time to go a-sweepin with the ol' Broom of Freindship.

[rpeate.livejournal.com]

Oh, I can do it easier than that. ;)

[pagerbear.livejournal.com]

Some family members whom I love (and loved) very much (mostly a generation older than me) use language like that. I remember the story of what my aunt exclaimed when my cousin changed her major to social work--I won't repeat it. Arguing with people about such things is rarely fruitful, at least for me. I can only love them where they are.

I was brought up around such casually racist language, and in my early adult years I had to work to think about the things I said, think about why I was saying them, and think about a better way to say them. I'm still not 100% successful in that endeavor. I am ashamed of some of the things I've let casually drop out of my mouth over the years--mostly earlier years. No one would say I'm a dumb hick from North Carolina (with the possible exception of danbearnyc) but it's taken years to achieve some consistency in filtering which colloquial expressions from my childhood enter into my vocabulary and which don't.

Ignorami

[fuzzyjay.livejournal.com]

I used to use "Welsh on a bet" and "gypped" without having any idea what they meant. I thought it was "welch" on a bet. And "gyp" had no associations with gypsies (note the lower-case) with me.

I don't see how you can escape the "Jew" in "Jew them down," though.