Well, sure there is a difference. Your first example incorporates the very term under discussion - which isn’t attributable to all Jewish women. The second one attributes the sterotype to all Black men. Therein lies the difference.
If they were comparable, they would go like so:
Where does a man hide his money from his Jewish wife?
Under the vacuum cleaner.
Where do you hide a black man’s welfare check?
Under his work boots.
Certainly, the “JAP” label can be highly negative (though it doesn’t have to be). But that’s the point - so is calling someone “spoiled” or “entitled”, and those labels are even more unabiguously negative. Is the very use of the term “entitled” offensive?
It’s an insult, but without regard to ethnicity or a group attribute. “Entitled” refers to the mindset of a particular person. Thus, it is a slur but not an ethnic slur.
If someone is insulted when you call them “entitled”, it’s because you’ve insulted them. Not painted them as emblematic of their race/creed/religion in a negative way.
I think each culture/ethnicity comes up with its own range of terms. And it is not always a negative stereotype - or at least, it is one being ‘reclaimed’ by some. Hence books such as this:
The issue is whether it is offensive to even use the term.
For example, calling someone as asshole is offensive. Calling a Black Man an asshole is offensive to him (though he may in fact deserve it). Calling a Black man a racial epithet is offensive to everyone, whether that Black man is an asshole or not.
I don’t think it implies that the princess behavior is linked to Jewishness. I heard the term used often in college (mostly by Jews) and it never implied anything about Jews in general, just about a certain type of person.
Me either. “Jewish American princess” means a “woman who is spoiled, useless, and entitled in a unqiuely Jewish way.” Where actually, there is nothing uniquely Jewish about being spoiled, useless and entitled.
What if you called him a “Black asshole?” More offensive than just calling him an asshole, because race is (inexplicably, irrelevantly) brought into it. That is the equivalent to JAP.
It depends on whether it is inexpicable and irrelevant. If I was Black myself and wanted to make clear to the hearer that the asshole I was talking about was also from within my own community, it may well be relevant.
Obviously, if I was a White guy complaining about a Black man, it would be more dicey, because it would bring up the possibity I thought he was an asshole because I’m racist and hate Black guys for being Black.
But that isn’t the case with the term JAP. It is almost invariably used by Jews, who presumably do not hate Jews for being Jews.
Besides which, I think the perjoritave-ness of the term (if that is a word) is being exaggerated. I can’t imagine someone publishing a “Jewish Princess Cookbook” if it was so terribly perjorative.
I agree. And it’s one of those double standard words. Those who are Jewish can get away with saying it while those outside the bubble can’t. Most subcultures have these words and they do in part survive because of continued use within those communities.
And then there was that Halle Berry movie.
I’m kinda curious how you know who is Jewish by looking at them. I think you mean “some people I personally know to be Jewish use this term.” I would not say “everyone who uses this term is Jewish,” because, among my Jewish friends (and I am Jewish, and live in NYC) is it considered pejoritive and self-hating. Thus when I hear this term it is almost always a racial insult, because Jewish people of my aquaintance avoid it.
As for it not being pejoritive… please share with me the positive connotations it has.
I don’t think it is particularly controversial that the term originated within the Jewish community.
Positive connotations? The whole ‘every woman wants to be a princess, and should be’ thing. It isn’t my thing of course, but some women like the whole ‘princess’ image. To them, it isn’t “spoiled” but “sassy”. Go figure.
I cited this upthread:
I submit that this sort of book and its like (several others are linked) are inexplicable if the term is simply an anti-semitic slur.
It’s never meant as a compliment. I don’t consider it racist, simply offensive on an individual level.
IvoryTowerDenizen:
Jewish adds that she’s sheltered from the “hard knocks” of the world. Jewish parents have a stereotype of being over-protective. She’s spoiled not merely in that she expects all material good to come her way, but because she can’t imagine that there’s any other way to live.
[QUOTE=cmkeller]
Jewish adds that she’s sheltered from the “hard knocks” of the world. Jewish parents have a stereotype of being over-protective. She’s spoiled not merely in that she expects all material good to come her way, but because she can’t imagine that there’s any other way to live.
[/QUOTE]