Hear about those two South Carolina GOP officials who wrote that op-ed defending Senator Jim DeMint? Oh, man, with friends like these.
If you haven't read it yet, here's the opener by Edwin O. Merwin, Jr. and James S. Ulmer, Jr.:
Recently your newspaper published a letter from state Rep. Bakari Sellers attacking U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint and his opposition to congressional earmarks. There is a saying that the Jews who are wealthy got that way not by watching dollars, but instead by taking care of the pennies and the dollars taking care of themselves.
That can't really be a saying, can it? I mean, with that tortured sentence structure? A cursory search of the internets reveals that it was apparently Ben Franklin who said the actual phrase that Merwin and Ulmer think they're quoting: "Take care of the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves." But, as you can see, no Jews mentioned. Let's keep digging...
Seems Lord Chesterfield used the phrase in a letter to his son in 1747. "Take care of the Pence, for the pounds will take care of themselves." No Jews mentioned here either. Drat. Can never find an anti-Semite when you need one (Ed. Note: this is not actually a true statement).
If William Safire were still alive he would surely remind his compatriots in political rightery that George Bernard Shaw wrote, in Pygmalion, "Take care of the pence and the pounds will take care of themselves is as true of personal habits as of money." No Jew here either. But, then again, Shaw also said that most of the victims of the concentration camps had died of overcrowding, so maybe he had Jews on his mind.
Merwin and Ulmer are perpetrating an old and insidious form of anti-Semitism that points a crooked finger at the Jews who apparently only care about money. Deny it if you want, but that's the subtext of this so-called "saying" that the firm of Merwin and Ulmer have invented (they do sound like a Jewish accounting firm, don't they?).
When I was ten years old, some kids gathered around me in the schoolyard and threw pennies at me. They yelled, "Pick up the penny, Jewboy." I was confused because I didn't know what that meant. Another kid told me that it means that Jews like money. Still confused, I answered, "Doesn't everyone?"
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A: Two Republicans fighting over a penny.
How do you like that stereotype Mr. Republican?
We offend indisciminately, without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, marital status, or health condition.
i bet i can now say they have lost the Jewish vote!
One day at a meeting, a woman I worked with said, "the biggest problem I have are these folks who dailly try to Jew me down regarding their charges."
As I sat there waiting for reactions from a room full of African American's, people of color, immigrants,-nothing was said until I did and made it clear I had no interest in tollerating such racist commentary and called it right on the spot. I was not only disgusted with this woman but with the rest in the room who sat their and thought nothing and/or enough of it to say a word.
The fact the owners were Jamaican and of Jewish decent made it that much more disturbing/puzzling. I asked those in the meeting if they would have remainded silent if this woman had used the N-word?
There is an "acceptance" on a certain level by some when such comments are made about people of Jewish decent that I have always found strange.
On this site which would def. be considered liberal and left, some of the comments regarding Jews are simply vile.
This is a perfect example of a silent/unspoken/"acceptable" racsim that exists towards Jews.
It's possible that the others were just using good manners by not inflaming her faux pas or taking the meeting off topic.
Seems to be ill manored to allow someone to get away with that without calling it on the spot.
Had she used a slur that involved the N-word-doubt the room full of African Americans wd. have let it slide or waited to pull her aside.
dif. tactics for dif. folks but wd. do it again as I did.
It's as if they have been asleep since desegregation and they wake up and go about interacting as if nothing has changed. Back then people would say "I'm not prejudiced, I just don't like (pick a race other than white). They have learned that one can no longer be so ouvert, but even sometimes (see topic of article) even this escapes them.