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The Ethnic $lurs Of $hopping

The adjective “scotch” is an ethnic slur. The idea being mostly to avoid waste; be economical. As ethnic slurs go it seems fairly impotent. Two words: Scotch tape. My Scots rooted grandfather liked to avoid waste, but then I think most people who lived during the depression did. You’d have to be pretty fucking stupid to encourage waste (or perhaps just be an advocate of the ever expanding consumer economy).

The verb “welsh” (variant welch) is an ethnic slur. It has nineteenth-century origins in British gambling culture, the definition means to cheat by not paying a debt or defaulting on an obligation. My Welsh rooted grandmother spoke fondly of her welsh roots. I don’t think she ever bought so much as a lottery ticket in her life. And she always paid her bills. But I’ve heard the term applied to people who don’t live up to obligations. My grandmother lives up to her obligations. The slur seems to be out of fashion, at least around these parts, but as a kid I remember most people using it didn’t know that it had a slur history.

I’ve also heard “jew down” as a verb applied to buyers trying to haggle for a better price. Many Jews do like low prices – you’d have to be pretty fucking stupid not to like low prices. But this seems like an ethnic slur that people say with conscious thought – more for the purpose of advertising their racism than anything else. I don’t “jew down” – I haggle. My Jewish mother haggles. When I hear people say “jew down,” in public company, I mentally mark them down in a special column I have reserved for them: The “racist fucks” column.

But it isn’t a Scottish, Welsh or Jewish ancestry that makes you want a bargain, you only have to have a brain.

A while ago my native sister informed me of a racist verb-slur I had unknowingly used fairly commonly as a kid. “Chug,” the verb is something like drinking quickly – along the lines of:

“Hey Tim, are you gonna chug that whole can of Jolt Cola or what?”

I had always used “chug” entirely unconcious of its racist background. But, as a kid I heard, and didn’t use, some that really wur slurry – the term – “indian giver” for example – all the time, as a kid I’d hear that. An “indivan giver,” in kid parlence, was a person who gave something and then either took it back, or at leaste wanted to take it back. I don’t hear that one anymore. Maybe its still circulating. If it did hear it, I’d probably have to add the user of that one onto my “racist fucks” ledger.

Free books

Also, 3 books came by mail. These were from a General Mills cereal promotion:

Spiderwick chronicles Book 1

Fatal Voyage

Vanished Man