Mason is an Honorary Schwartza
The Yiddish/German term schwartza or schwarze is not in itself a racially demeaning and insulting term. It just simply translates to black or as used colloquially a "black person." But it's a totally different thing when the word drips out of the mouth of comic Jackie Mason. Then we have to look at intent, and in Mason's case the intent is to racially slander. This is the same Mason that called former Mayor New York Dave Dinkins the term and probably anyone else he can use it to insult or ring a laugh out of. So Mason knew exactly what he was saying and the effect it would have. And he thrilled at that. That's why he the pig headedly refused to apologize, and even stirred the pot a little more by taking the by now taking the ritual shot at Reverend Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, calling them "professional racists." Mason was on a roll and soared well past left field with a dig at Oprah Winfrey. Mason's method to madness
But even if Mason makes a bare-the-chest heartfelt apology it won't amount to much. That's the standard ploy that comedians, shock jocks, and assorted public personalities employ when they get caught with their racial pants down. On a few occasions the offenders have been reprimanded, suspended, and even dumped. However that's rare. There are a couple of reasons why. And they tell much about why loudmouths such as Mason can prattle off foul remarks about gays, blacks, Latinos Asians, Muslims, and women, and now even a president and skip away with a caressing hand slap. One, is that these guys ramp up ratings and a nightclub's gate. That always makes the cash registers jingle.
The other is the sphinx like silence of in Mason's case the comic industry and fans. The only reason the Mason crack made news is because a handful of fans objected. Not a mumbling word -- yet -- from the club owners.
There's another reason for the silence. The last two decades many Americans have become much too comfortable using code language to bash and denigrate blacks. In the 1970s, the vocabulary of covert racially loaded terms included terms such as "law and order," "crime in the streets," "permissive society," "welfare cheats," "subculture of violence," "subculture of poverty," "culturally deprived" and "lack of family values" seeped into the American lexicon about blacks. Some politicians seeking to exploit white racial fears routinely tossed about these terms.
In the 1980s new terms such as "crime prone," "war zone," "gang infested," "crack plagued," "drug turfs," "drug zombies," "violence scarred," "ghetto outcasts" and "ghetto poverty syndrome" were shoved into public discourse. These were covert racial code terms for blacks and they further reinforced the negative image of young black males as dope dealers, drive by shooters, and educational cripples. And the image of young black women as a dysfunctional collection of B's and "hos," welfare queens, and baby makers.
Mason knows all that and indeed he and the legion of comics, entertainers, personalities, politicians, shock jocks, and staid broadcasters and writers have turned baiting into a lucrative industry. But in the end you can't call names if you're not that name yourself. Mason is an honorary schwartza.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His new book is How Obama Won (Middle Passage Press, January 2009).
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I notice that no one ever calls out black comedians like Chris Rock when they go overboard--which is always, because shocking the audience is part of their style. And it isn't always aimed at "their own," either. But I would never want or ask him to stop.
While language is full of codes and hidden/not
By the way, have you heard the one about the Jew and the Scotsman who found a penny at the same time...?
No! What happened? I,ll bet the Scotsman won.
Schwartze? I've only heard that word once in my life and it was recently from Sarah Silverman but she wasn't calling people that. She was, in her way, making fun of people who say that word. I am mostly shocked that there are so many racial slang words because I never heard anything like that in the black community. The only racial slang I ever heard in the 'hood was the "n" word, ironically. LOL!
Of course the term is racist -- it's a slang Yiddish word and meant to be offensive. I used to love Jackie Mason when he was funny, now he's no different than Jerry Lewis making homophobic comments.
No, it is not racist. Schvartze is simply a Yiddish word for black. To try and make Jews ashamed of their cultural heritage is a 'shondah' (look it up). It seems ok when Schvatzes use honkey or other derogatory terms about whites (and Hutchinson doesn't even go there), but when a word that simply means black in Yiddish is used, he goes meshuggah (look that up too).
Yes, it is a racist term. I grew up hearing that word, especially from the old world relatives, and it wasn't used as a term of endearment
There isn't a darned thing Mason can do about the *fact* that some of the words that can now be used to refer to black people are "President", "First Lady" and "First Family"! Those are my favorite!
P.S. Mason starred in what has to be the worst sequel of all time: "Caddyshack II". Oy!
My grandfather never thought of it as a racist term...he always used it to describe a black person, the same way he might call someone a redhead. Of course, WE all realized that, in accordance with changing times, you can't use that word at all. By the end of his life, he had lost most of his hearing and spoke very loudly.
We were at a Jewish deli one time and he noticed that there were quite a few african americans eating lunch. He looked around in interest and then turned to us and said (in a voice so booming it could be heard everywhere) "Look at all the schwartzas is here!" We immediately tried to shush him...desp
okay, I am lol as a schwartza. Intent is an issue here. I walked into sauna a few months ago into a conversation between an Asian American woman and an European American woman who were discussing skin color and aging. Of course, they were discussing black skin when I came in. They looked mortified and then, very intelligently asked if I cared if they used the term "black." I laughed. How else will you talk about black people if you don't....i
I much earlier in life walked into a near empty restaurant into a conversation of self-identified Jewish people who were discussing themselves and other Jews in the most derogatory terms...pr
In the end I say: God bless your grandfather and your family.
"drips out of the mouth of comic Jackie Mason."
Dude...
Jackie Mason was a rabbi at one time. He should know better.
Only appropriate thing to say to that is OY VEY!!!!!
Black is white, War as Peace, Ignorance is Strength.
The word has never been used to just connote black people; it means black literally, but connotatively means black-bottomed. Jewish housewives with black cleaning women would refer to them as My schwartze," as in "My schwartze cleans on Thursdays, when does yours?" It's pretty racist and Jackie Mason is a racist; always has been. He's also a conservative uber-Zionist Republican and a man whose 60s humor was funny on Ed Sullivan, but never grew because he never did either.
Does anyone think he is funny?
No
The term was used by the housewives in your story and Mason to dehumanize their target. And yeah, that's definitely the modus operandi of a racist.
The german word "Schwarzer (masc.) or Schwarza (fem.) is not a perjorative statement. The Yiddish version is fairly negative, a reminder of class niveau many New York jews shared with many poor blacks living in the not so nice parts of the Bronx in the 30s 40s, 50s and 60s. Poverty doesn't improve anyone's soul or bring the best out of their culture.
There will never be perfect race relations, what we have now is ideal, but we have bigger fish to fry such as closing the education and income gap. We shouldnt be distracted by the B.S. that make the news cycle.
No biggie. The next time anyone sees Mason, just yell, Ed Sullivan!
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