Concern Over Common Words That Are Actually Racial, Ethnic Slurs

TAMPA, FL — An anti-Semitic slur uttered by a member of the Tampa City Council prompted The Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg to issue a statement on the dangers of offensive phrases — even if the slur is unintended.

Elizabeth Gelman, executive director, and Michael Igel, board chair of the museum, said they decided to speak out after witnessing a "significant increase in overt anti-Semitism in the United States and abroad."

Their statement was issued Thursday, the day after Tampa City Councilman Orlando Gudes admitted to using the phrase "getting Jewed down" during an interview with a reporter.

Gelman said the same phrase was used on multiple occasions in city council meetings in two New Jersey cities just before Christmas.

"In addition to terrible violence and rhetoric, a more pernicious form of anti-Semitism has appeared," Gelman said. "Noted historian and author Deborah Lipstadt calls it 'Clueless Antisemitism.' It occurs when people engage in anti-Semitism unintentionally. On the surface, this may seem benign. However, it is extremely dangerous …. Whether used purposefully or ignorantly, it feeds into society’s perceptions of Jews."

The same day the museum issued its statement, Gudes publicly apologized at the start of the city council workshop for using the phrase.

Gudes said he never intended to insult Jewish people. In fact, as a black man, he said he's especially sensitive to slurs toward any race or religion. He said it's his intention to promote unity in Tampa and “work on behalf on everyone regardless of where they live, who they love or where they worship.”

Gelman said the phrase "getting Jewed down" feeds into "tropes and superstitions created in medieval times when Jews who did not convert to Christianity were literally demonized as working to benefit Satan.

"For centuries, the story of Judas Iscariot betraying Jesus for money has been used to inspire Christian hatred of Jews," she said. "As time has passed, the caricature of Jews as money-hungry and dishonest increased as Jews were forbidden from owning land and forced into jobs on the fringes of society as peddlers, tax collectors and moneylenders. These stereotypes set the stage for pogroms and massacres against the Jews in eastern Europe and helped pave the way for the Holocaust."

Gelman said frequently using and hearing these phrases can normalize them and make them acceptable despite their derogatory origins.

"We appreciate that Councilman Gudes recognized that he spoke inappropriately, and that he apologized," she said. "All of us need to pay better attention to what we say, what we type and how we act."

She said it's appropriate for Gudes and anyone else to be called out when they use such phrases.

"In order to progress as a society, we must be willing to confront our family, neighbors, friends and politicians when they say something inappropriate," Gelman said. "Their intent is irrelevant. Unchallenged anti-Semitism encourages people to believe that prejudice, discrimination and even attacks on particular groups or types of people are acceptable."

A number of phrases with offensive origins are still commonly used in conversations today. And many people using these phrases have no idea that they began as slurs.

Commonly Used Derogatory Phrases

Dictionary.com has compiled a list of seemingly harmless words and phrases that had been used in the past to demean minority groups:

Bugger: In the Middle Ages, bugger was an offensive term for a Bulgarian or a person of Eastern European descent. The word was first used to mean “heretic” by Roman Christians prejudiced against Eastern Orthodox Christians. By the 1700s, buggery was cropping up in English dictionaries as “sodomy or sin against nature.” Now bugger is used in British slang for someone or something that’s despicable.

Sold down the river: This phrase has long been synonymous with betrayal, but it's derived from an 1837 Ohio newspaper article written by a slave trader who made $30,000 by speculating in slaves that he sold down the river.

Hip hip (hooray): This was a celebratory phrase is a version of the phrase "hep hep," once shouted by German Anti-Semites. In 1819, a series of riots against Jews broke out in Germany called the Hep Hep Riots because of the rioters’ rallying cries as they called for Jews to be rounded up.

No can do: Many people innocently use this phrase to tell someone they can't do what's been asked of them. The phrase, however, originally mimicked Chinese Pidgin English dating back to the mid-1800s, when some people in the West were aggressively racist toward the Chinese people.

Peanut gallery: This phrase originated with the vaudeville theater in the 1890s. The cheapest seats were considered the peanut gallery, often reserved for African Americans. They got the nickname because theater patrons would throw peanuts and shells at the actors if they didn’t like their performances. Most often than not, the peanuts would land in the cheap seats.

Uppity: This phrase was originally recorded in the Uncle Remus stories from the 1880s. It was used by blacks to refer to other blacks who were too self-assertive and used by whites to refer to blacks who "didn't know their place."

Gyp: This word originated in the 1890s to refer to the stereotype of Gypsy or Roma people as cheaters or swindlers.

Long time, no see: Who hasn't used this phrase to greet an old friend who's been away? It actually comes from an extract from author W.F. Drannan's 1901 "Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains." In the extract, an American Indian greets Drannan using this phrase because he didn't understand enough English to say, "It's been a long time since I've seen you."