Jackie The Joke? Man…

I think that I need to call my friend Rabbi Marc Schneier, at the Foundation For Ethnic Understanding (a fine organization, dedicated to encouraging healthy dialogue between the African-American and Jewish communities…), just to confirm that Jackie Mason won’t be keynoting this year’s fundraiser:

http://blogs.jta.org/politics/article/2009/03/16/1003748/jackie-mason-does-it-again

Twenty years ago, comedian Jackie Mason got in trouble when he referred to David Dinkins, then a candidate for New York City mayor, as a “fancy shvartze with a mustache” while campaigning for Rudy Giuliani. Last week, Mason used the Yiddish term again, this time to describe the president, reports TMZ.com:

Comedian Jackie Mason used what some say is a racial epithet in describing President Barack Obama during his act Thursday night, infuriating at least several people in the crowd.

During a performance at Feinstein’s at Loews Regency in NYC, Mason referred to Obama as a “schwartza” — some say it’s equivalent to the “N” word — others say it’s just part of the Yiddish culture and a literal translation of the word “Black.”

In the late 1960s, my grandparents moved into the Bronx, New York’s housing development, Co-Op City.  I was seven when they moved in, and most of the development’s pioneering residents were Jewish. My little brother, my cousin, and I would take the elevator up and down to go outside and play, we’d hear some of the older Jewish folks muttering “schvartze” multiple times, amongst a flood of various Yiddishisms behind us.

For years, I thought “schvartze” meant “cute little black boys with baseball gloves.” Boy, was I off on that one.