Foot-in-Mouth Disease
This just in:
President Donald Trump says he didn't know the term “shylock” is considered antisemitic when he used it in a speech to describe unscrupulous moneylenders.
Trump told reporters early Friday after returning from an event in Iowa that he had “never heard it that way” and “never heard that” the term was considered an offensive stereotype about Jews.
Shylock refers to the villainous Jewish moneylender in Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice” who demands a pound of flesh from a debtor.
Oddly, Joe Biden, as vice president, used the same term 11 years ago to mean the same thing, and apologized profusely. Trump didn’t apologize. Not Trump. He does excuses, but no I’m sorrys.
Important fun addendum: Until they sheepishly discovered their mistake, an Iowa newspaper had this headline on their video of the incident: “Trump Uses Antisemenitic Term in IA Speech.”
Today’s poll:
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This reminds me of an arguably more delicious gaffe from 1970 made by Eleanor Holmes Norton. At the time, she was 32 years old, and head of — of all things — the New York City Equal Rights Commission. On her weekly TV program, she referred positively to people of many nationalities, including Puerto Ricans, Irish, Italians and “Polacks.”
She, too, profusely apologized and said she had no idea it was a slur. In her case, I have no trouble believing that because it could have lost her her job.
This incident has been almost completely forgotten as Holmes Norton’s career flourished and she established an unblemished record as a champion of ethnic diversities.
One day several years ago, I was walking in Capitol Hill when I saw her sitting in her car, which looked kinda banged up. A police car was idling nearby. She’d been in a fender bender.
I walked up to her, told her who I was, and asked her if she was okay. She said yes and laughed and told me that the car she collided with was the police car; and it was the cop’s fault. We both laughed. Then I said, “I’ve always wanted to tell you something if I ever met you. In 1970, I was 19 years old and living in New York City, and …” she laughed again, rolled her eyes and said, “You don’t have to go on.”
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It also reminds me of this excruciating courtroom disaster, which I linked to just a few days ago.
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Okay, since this is The Weekend Gene Poll, I’m going to ask you to deliver some personal thoughts and anecdotes that I will respond to next week. Today’s question is: Have you ever blurted something embarrassing similar to the examples above? Doesn’t have to be about ethnicity — anything that was humiliating, and funny, I hope. Send them here, to the Questions. and Observations button
I thought he wouldn’t know because it’s a Shakespeare reference, and that’s so far outside his knowledge base that he wouldn’t know it.
I used to use word association to remember names. I'm bad at names.
I occasionally worked remotely with a man named Glade. First name.
I met him in person in a large meeting attended, of course, by people whom I was sent to impress.
I said, "Nice to meet you finally, Pledge".
He thought it was funny. We became friends.