"Jew 'em down" ... Trenton, My Trenton forevermore

Growing up I had always thought it was “chewed down” and not “Jewed down.” Easy mistake to make, especially when you’re young, dumb and growing up in a region littered with slush mouths who can’t speak properly. Then one day in my teens I used the phrase in front of a Jewish friend who informed me that, not only was it insensitive, I wasn’t even using the right word. Needless to say, that phrase isn’t been uttered by me since.

 

Nonetheless, three of Blakeley's colleagues alleged he was only interested in using the McBride anti-Semitic soap opera for his own political exploit.

Earlier in the day, he got into a heated argument over the phone with Trentonian columnist L.A. Parker.

Parker asked Blakeley, who is one of three African American council members, if he has ever used the N-word.

The at-large councilman, befuddled over what he perceives as the misdirected mudslinging of the person who did not use the anti-Semitic slur, declined to answer Parker's "irrelevant" question and dismissed him as a "gossip columnist."

Blakeley accused Parker, who has written columns praising and criticizing the councilman, of "attempting to deflect and make this story about me" due to Parker's apparent "fascination with my political career and my aspirations."

"This isn’t about Jerell Blakeley. This is about standing up to hate, It's not like there’s a large Jewish voting bloc in Trenton," dismissing the notion he stood to gain anything from his stance. "This is the right thing to do."

Read the full story.

 

Has anybody heard a variation on 'jury-rigged' or "jerry-rigged"? I couldn't believe it when I heard it from somebody.

 

Trenton’s redevelopment attorney resigned Thursday over anti-Semitic comments made by Council President Kathy McBride.

“I am an American and I am a Jew. I am resigning because of the disgraceful and shameful anti-Semitic remarks that were in fact made by the Council President of the City of Trenton, Kathy McBride,” Stuart Platt said in his letter of resignation.

Platt was appointed by Mayor Reed Gusciora and unanimously confirmed by the Council in June.

Over the past week, three Trenton council members have faced fire over anti-Semitic comments.

McBride used the term “Jew her down” while discussing the settlement of a lawsuit, according to a recording of a Sept. 5 closed-door executive Council session obtained by the New Jersey Globe.

Two other members of the council, Robin Vaughn and George Muschal, defended McBride’s use of the term.

“As an American and a Jew, I cannot and will not represent anti-Semites,” Platt said. “As an American and a Jew, I will not devote my time, energy, efforts and talents as a redevelopment to a majority of the City Council. I will not accept their money nor their hollow and disingenuous apologies.”


https://newjerseyglobe.com/local/trenton-attorney-resigns-over-mcbrides-jew-her-down-comment/

 

Oh yeah.

And I'm not nearly as sanguine about the original post as some here.

It's the 21st century. There's really no excuse for using a loaded phrase like 'jew-down.'

And like blackface, at this late date, ignorance is no defense.

 

And just to touch on that for a moment, the Trudeau blackface episodes -

Blackface has been off limits for decades. Really since CBS Radio took 'Amos and Andy' off the air in 1960. But even with a grant of superwhite ignorance, when the movie 'Holiday Inn' was taken off the air or recut in the mid-1980s to excise a blackface musical number, minstrelsy was pretty obviously off the table. The uncut version still airs on TCM.

That's why the Ted Danson blackface at the Whoopi Goldberg roast was meant to be 'transgressive'. And why it was universally shouted down. That's 1993.

Shit, Spike Lee's 'Bamboozled' came out in 2000.

So the idea that someone would do blackface in 2001, Zwarte Pete notwithstanding, without knowing how offensive it is, is laughable.

I understand that Canada is a different country and a different culture, but c'mon.

Canada’s Surprising History of Blackface

 

Brent Staples on blackface, from last March.

Opinion | How Blackface Feeds White Supremacy

 

I don't agree with your assessment of blackface and white ignorance. Danson did straight minstrel blackface, a form of art that was incredibly racist in its creation and portrayal. The minstrel version had the exaggerated white lips and the performance stlye was, racist and stereotypical

Maybe my memory is off, but a lot of recent black- or brownface controversies were over a white person coloring their face to dress up as a dark skinned person. There's a difference between dressing up in 'costume' blackface and doing minstrel blackface. It doesn't make the former right, but I am not surprised that white people 20 or 30 years ago didn't make the connection between the two. In 1986, the basic premise of a Hollywood movie was a white guy disguising himself as a black man.

 

I agree with what you're saying about the specific nature of Danson's minstrelsy; and I agree there's a distinction to be drawn between 'blackface' and 'costume.'

What I'm saying, I guess, is that after Danson, 1993, none of those distinctions mattered.

And I don't necessarily blame kids for not knowing this.

I blame their parents for not knowing it.

 

From the 1992 film "School Ties."

 

Still haven't seen those hands.