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ryebadger wrote:

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mcguda wrote:

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ryebadger wrote:

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KegStand81 wrote:

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In a somewhat related story, Delmon Young hate-crimed someone in NYC. But it's OK, because he truly believes that Jews have horns, and who am I to question those beliefs? Every man's beliefs are his own and should be held sacred.

I agree with your point but I also think there are different types of ignorance.



My mother-in-law and wife both were asked about their horns while at school at UW. I was asked, too. The thing is, it was hard to get angry because people genuinely believed it was true. They weren't trying to be insulting or mean. They were obviously from very small towns, around different people for the first time and asking about something they always assumed to be as self-evident as the sun setting in the west. Ignorance without maliciousness is different than calculated maliciousness. I was from such a sheltered homogenous place I wasn't even aware of the whole horn thing, so ignorance is a two way street. When it came up I was clueless. A friend had to explain to me what was going on. When you think about it, it was a pretty funny vignette on culture clash.



I want to give this coach the benefit of the doubt and say he is innocently ignorant and speaking what he honestly believes to be true. That may or may not be deserved. Either way your point is well taken that this doesn't excuse his point of view. It just changes the way I'd respond to it. I still think he made a big error in judgment raising it at football practice.

Jesus (pardon me), that's just ....I don't know. They may have been from small towns, but they weren't hermits. On the other hand, I guess I knew people who weren't joking when they asked me about the tunnels between the convents and priests' rectories. (Standard response: "You're serious? Have you ever seen an attractive nun?")

In any event, I'm not sure the line between ignorance and malice is that bright. There are those who will risk perpetuating their own ignorance so long as they put others in a lesser light. A variation of: "Hey, can't you take a joke?"
       

I wouldn't make such a strong distinction between ignorance and malice had I not seen it for myself, but it was almost impossible for me to take it maliciously. The girl was totally pure in her belief that Jews had horns and it didn't come with any sort of judgment. She obviously had ever stopped to think about the absurdity of it, that a human would have a different physiology based on religious orientation, and while not her finest intellectual moment it's not nearly as insidious as knowingly perpetuating a harmful stereotype. It's like being told gorillas have tails, not bothering to question if it was true and upon your first time meeting one asking what happened to its tail. The gorilla might implore you to get out and see a little more of the world but can't accuse you of being malicious or hateful. Not a perfect analogy but that was how innocently it came up. If she realized she was being insulting she wouldn't have brought it up the way she did.

I've heard "Jew 'em down" too and it's almost the same thing. People don't even realize what they are saying or the origin of the term. You point it out, they feel like an ass, mainly because in reality they aren't one, and that's it.