Oklahoma State Representative Dennis Johnson used the phrase "Jew me down on a price" during a floor debate about the challenges facing small businesses. After being handed a note that suggested the term was offensive to Jewish people, Johnson added insult to injury by saying: "I apologize to the Jews. They're good businessmen."
Oklahoma State Representative Dennis Johnson used the phrase “Jew me down on a price” during a floor debate about the challenges facing small businesses. After being handed a note that suggested the term was offensive to Jewish people, Johnson added insult to injury by saying: “I apologize to the Jews. They’re good businessmen.”

I’ve lost count of how many times in my life I’ve heard a Gentile use the expression “Jew-down” to mean they bargained for a better price.   As a Jewish person, I  always make it a point of acknowledging in such instances my heritage and offense at the use of the expression.  A number of the people I’ve taken to task  for such verbiage have had the chuztpah to actually argue with me that using the term Jew-down has been around so long that it’s now an acceptable and has nothing at all to do with the Jewish people.  To wit I promptly reply, it’s a blatantly anti-Semitic expression left over from the days when bigots believed that Jews were sly and underhanded in their financial dealings with others.   Unfortunately,  “Jew-down” didn’t disappear as bigots began to realize that expressing their prejudices in public could hurt their social standing.

The same can be said for the expression “Red Skin.”  It’s enough. The term is a hold over from an age when people of white European descent thought nothing of describing Native Americans in a condescending way. Do we have professional sports teams called “The Whites,”  “The Yellows?”  No? Why not?