I'm not Jewish, either by descent or religion, but I do have a name heavy in ethnicity, there's no mistaking either my maiden name or my married name, I'm Irish and there's no heading it, not that I'd want to anyway. So here's what I don't understand and I ask this in all seriousness - why is it okay to say some things and not others when it comes to people's background?
In this news article the restaurant states that "the waitstaff's practice to use descriptions of diners to identify them on checks, instead of using the number of their table, as many establishments do." Apparently the female server wrote "Jew couple" now had the couple had destinct accents, like a brogue or cockney, would ot have been offensive to write Irish couple or English couple? We vacation in Maine on a regular basis, even when my parents lived there we were considered from "away", should I be offended if my server writes "person from away on my check"?
One half of the offended couple stated: ""My grandfather went through all that in old-school Europe," Stein, a New Yorker and a regular at the restaurant, told the New York Post. "But that happened more than 50 years ago. You don't expect it to happen in 2005."
Maybe I'm just PC'd out or maybe I can't help but wonder why some people seemed ashamed of their heritage. So what, you were written down as the Jew couple, she didn't write ugly Jew couple, bitchy Jew or piggy Jew couple, just Jew couple. What an I missing here?
Posted by Mickey at August 17, 2005 09:44 PMhttp://corner.nationalreview.com/05_08_14_corner-archive.asp#073642
Who said the couple was ashamed of their heritage? And how did the waitress know they were Jewish? By the way the looked??? The way they talked? Is there a special Jewish look or accent? Sounds kind of like racial profiling? Saying an Israeli couple would not be considered offensive. Just as saying an English couple or Irish couple. But what if the bill said Irish Catholic couple and they weren't? Do we assume that all Irish are Catholic? Just as we assume that all Jews have dark, curly hair and big noses?
But if you want to call that being pc, go ahead.
Posted by: Yetta on August 19, 2005 03:07 PMNot being there I don't know if this particular couple had a Jewish accent, but many do, Just as I mentioned an Irish couple could be identified by their brogue. There must have been something that identified this couple *to the waitress* as being of Jewish descent. She didn't know their name, they weren't labeled by their name, so *something* indicated it to her. And what difference would it make if it did say Irish couple and they were Welsh? When's the last time you saw headlines about racial profiling involving a Welsh couple?
I don't see how you can find it okay to use Irish couple and not Jewish couple, where's the logic in that? You mention Catholics, but this had nothing to do with religion, so I don't understand why that's an issue. Aren't there lots of people of Jewish descent who aren't members of the Jewish faith? And please don't speak for me when you say "we", because I don't make any assumptions based on the size of people's noses or their hair color. But, neither am I offended when I'm identified as being Irish. If it's racial profiling, then how can you split hairs like that? What's your point? Next thing it will be offensive to be referred to as from the South or a New Yorker. The way the entire population seems to badmouth the state of NJ it's amazing based on these standards that the citizens of the state haven't sued every comic or the entrie Hollywood industry. People really need to lighten up.
Posted by: Mickey on August 19, 2005 03:47 PM