[ 05 September 2008: Message edited by: N.Beltov ]
From: Vancouver Island | Registered: May 2003
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Michelle
Moderator
Babbler # 560
posted 05 September 2008 05:41 AM
This cartoon bothers me because they're focusing on the Jewish character of the business/owner to make a point about bad labour practices.
The fact that this guy is Jewish or the plant is kosher doesn't really have anything to do with the fact that they, like millions of other non-Jewish businesses, hire undocumented workers and treat them badly.
I don't like it. It feels somewhat anti-semitic to me. What do others think?
From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001
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N.Beltov
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 4140
posted 05 September 2008 05:45 AM
Nathaniel Popper wrote about the story in the Jewish Daily Forward. Neither he nor the magazine he wrote for seemed to think there was anything anti-Semetic about doing an expose.
From: Vancouver Island | Registered: May 2003
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josh
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 2938
posted 05 September 2008 06:13 AM
I don't see a problem with it.
From: the twilight zone between the U.S. and Canada | Registered: Aug 2002
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munroe
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 14227
posted 05 September 2008 06:19 AM
I don't see a problem either as the text does not appear to me to focus on ethnicity. Take out the word "kosher" and there are no other "tells". The lunacy of the argument from a class perspective is what is front and centre.
(I should add that the word "chutzpah" is widely used).
[ 05 September 2008: Message edited by: munroe ]
From: Port Moody, B.C. | Registered: Jun 2007
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Michelle
Moderator
Babbler # 560
posted 05 September 2008 06:33 AM
Okay. Well, maybe it just hit me the wrong way. I just feel like the fact that they're using a Yiddish term to mock a Jewish owner of a kosher business over his violation of labour laws means that they're focusing more on his ethnicity/religion - or that they're somehow tying his ethnicity to his misdeeds.
From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001
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Michelle
Moderator
Babbler # 560
posted 05 September 2008 06:47 AM
quote:Originally posted by N.Beltov: Nathaniel Popper wrote about the story in the Jewish Daily Forward. Neither he nor the magazine he wrote for seemed to think there was anything anti-Semetic about doing an expose.
What does that have to do with anything? My point was about the cartoon, not the story itself.
From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001
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munroe
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 14227
posted 05 September 2008 06:55 AM
On the issue itself, the argument made by the Employer at this late stage is (understatement) tawdry. Do they really think any reasonable individual is going to buy the "discovery" of immigration status only after a successful union drive? Perhaps the real argument is that right to exploit undocumented workers is being challenged and that `right`must not be fettered by collectivisation!
From: Port Moody, B.C. | Registered: Jun 2007
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jrootham
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 838
posted 05 September 2008 07:45 AM
quote:Originally posted by Michelle: Okay. Well, maybe it just hit me the wrong way. I just feel like the fact that they're using a Yiddish term to mock a Jewish owner of a kosher business over his violation of labour laws means that they're focusing more on his ethnicity/religion - or that they're somehow tying his ethnicity to his misdeeds.
I don't see anything in the cartoon that I would describe as antisemitic (no hooked noses, no Jewish dress, etc.). The problem here is that English has borrowed chutzpah from Yiddish because it lacked a native word with the useful connotations that chutzpah has. Combined with the random fact that this is a kosher, and therefore Jewish, plant raises the risk of antisemitism.
If this was a plant owned by fundamentalist Christians, or absolute atheists, or any other combination would the cartoon change one iota? Not if I was drawing it (it would be really badly drawn, but that is another issue ).
Email this thread to someone!
posted 05 September 2008 05:36 AM
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