“Ah shit, I just got Jew’d,” said the racist bigot about his loss of a single round of cellphone Euchre.
Any of my weekly readers prob- ably know by now, I am in fact Jewish. Living in Michigan for three years in a town with a minimal Jewish population, I have become accustomed to the lack of knowledge on the Jewish religion. More importantly, I have become even more accustomed to racist, homophobic, sexist and religiously ignorant remarks.
So what made me so irritated by this right now? I spent my winter break in southern New York—one of the most diverse areas in the country. I returned to Big Rapids for one day last week before I had to attend a business and leadership conference in St. Louis, Missouri.
A fellow Ferris student and myself decided it would be best to carpool with a group of guys going from Saginaw Valley State University. Due to their decision alone, they put the Ferris student and me in separate cars for the 10-hour drive to St. Louis.
It only took about one hour before somebody in the car used the term “Jew’d” as a verb, meaning that they had been screwed over. Being that I hadn’t heard this in some time and didn’t know these guys at all, I decided to not say anything.
The “Jew’d” remarks continued as I sat silent in the back seat. At one point all three of the other people in the car were having a conversation about “getting Jew’d.” Soon after, the first user realized I hadn’t said anything, which led him to ask, “You aren’t Jewish right?” I sat silent.
He asked again to which I responded with a hesitant, “Uh, yeah I am.”
Feeling guilty about my religion I felt obligated to say I’m not religious and don’t get offended by derogatory Jewish remarks. I was lying.
After that, the standard, “Oh, I was just joking,” statements were made, but their remarks did not stop. Each time they would say sorry after some time while I continued to hide my anger and say I do not care.
It’s amazing to think that the term “Jew” means being screwed over or ripped off more so than what a Jewish person is. Quite astounding honestly.
I chose to not do any form of educating in this scenario. I mean, within two hours of a 10-hour drive, one person was successful in saying anti-Semiatic, anti-Muslim, homophobic, sexist, sexually misguided statements and just about every derogatory term you could think of. I do not need to list them for you.
So I sat silent. I pretended to be asleep for hours. One outburst and I knew it would be the most uncomfortable ride of my entire life.
Now that I got my story out, here is my opinion for the week. It is the year 2017. If you think “Jew’d” means you got screwed over, if you think Muslims are a threat to America, if you call people faggots and queers, if you refuse to accept those who are transgender, if you call black people the “n” word, if you treat women and men unequally, if you call people pussies for not meeting some standard you set that puts you above them, if you blame rape victims, if you generalize one misguided belief about an entire group of people, STOP. If you choose not to, you are of the lowest order and have no place in this world.