Like my Lebanese Buddy told me last week after negotiations with a friend of
his who is a Jew.... "He out- Lebed me and Jewed down the price." Both
the Jew & the Leb seemed okay with that description. Look Dave... you'll
never out-pick a Mexican, out dance a Blackman, out-scruple a Jap, out-smarm
a Frenchman, out-snoot a Brit, out-drink an Irishman... or out-bull**** a
NYC'er.

CM




"Dave" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 3 Feb 2006 09:36:24 -0500, "Vito" said:

I merely say that in a world of bargainers being known as the best
is, or should be a compliment. "Jew down" is tactic recognition that Jews
are
the best. I'm sorry if any Jews are offended by it -- they shouldn't be.

The problem is that implicit in the phrase is the assumption that the
speaker regards haggling as an undesirable trait, and thus intends to
express disapproval of an ethnic group by his use of the phrase. Thus, the
Jew hearing the phrase, probably correctly, assumes that the speaker
intends
to express hostility to those having that trait.

One problem is that the assumption may not be correct in all cases. My
wife,
who is Jewish, takes pride in her ability to hondle. But she was appalled
years ago to hear my grandmother use the phrase "Jew down." Funny thing is
my grandmother had probably never before met a Jew in her life and didn't
view the phrase as an ethnic slur at all. To her, it was a neutral term
for
bargaining over price, although she viewed bargaining over price as not a
desirable thing to do, particularly if she was on the receiving end.

There are all kinds of subtleties here, and great potential for
miscommunication, so it's not a good phrase to use.