So...I recently picked up a back issue of one of the DC Scooby comics published in 2001. This issue tried to educate the readers about Jewish culture by introducing a Jewish uncle for Daphne to visit (which is all well and good). However, it then proceeded to use a horrible, anti-Semitic racial slur!
I'm sure it wasn't intentional (not everyone knows the history behind this awful term/stereotype). But dear lord, DC. Do your research!
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For those of you who don't know, "Diamond Merchant" is the slur. It was popularized by a racist asshole named Al Sharpton who incited anti-Jewish riots in Crown Heights that lead to a Jewish teenager being butchered by a mob back in the early 90s. And he never faced any consequences for this because he identifies as a liberal Democrat and that apparently makes it OK to hurl racial slurs and incite murders against Jews.
Sharpton's anti-Jew demagoguery also contributed to the LA riots in 1992. A lot of Jewish-owned businesses were targeted in that chaos (including a store owned by one of my family members). So, yeah, this bitterness is personal and seeing those words and this particular stereotype pop up multiple times in a modern children's comic was pretty unsettling. It's bad enough when it randomly pops up in news reports during elections...
...I don't expect to see it when I'm reading Scooby frickin' Doo!
Take a look at this page and try to guess what all the Diamond sellers have in common....
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And apparently, Jewish thirst for diamonds is how ghosts are made...
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Yeah, I have no idea how this got past DC's editors. A big company like that ought to have the resources to check this shit (even in the days before Google was handy to look this stuff up).
Again, I'm certain that the inclusion of the slur wasn't intentional and that the writer had good intentions when creating this story (there are a few pages that teach kids common Hebrew/Yiddish slang and vocabulary). It just would have been nice if Daphne's uncle had been active is some other, less....problematic profession. >_<
I'm sure it wasn't intentional (not everyone knows the history behind this awful term/stereotype). But dear lord, DC. Do your research!
===
For those of you who don't know, "Diamond Merchant" is the slur. It was popularized by a racist asshole named Al Sharpton who incited anti-Jewish riots in Crown Heights that lead to a Jewish teenager being butchered by a mob back in the early 90s. And he never faced any consequences for this because he identifies as a liberal Democrat and that apparently makes it OK to hurl racial slurs and incite murders against Jews.
Sharpton's anti-Jew demagoguery also contributed to the LA riots in 1992. A lot of Jewish-owned businesses were targeted in that chaos (including a store owned by one of my family members). So, yeah, this bitterness is personal and seeing those words and this particular stereotype pop up multiple times in a modern children's comic was pretty unsettling. It's bad enough when it randomly pops up in news reports during elections...
...I don't expect to see it when I'm reading Scooby frickin' Doo!
Take a look at this page and try to guess what all the Diamond sellers have in common....
And apparently, Jewish thirst for diamonds is how ghosts are made...
Yeah, I have no idea how this got past DC's editors. A big company like that ought to have the resources to check this shit (even in the days before Google was handy to look this stuff up).
Again, I'm certain that the inclusion of the slur wasn't intentional and that the writer had good intentions when creating this story (there are a few pages that teach kids common Hebrew/Yiddish slang and vocabulary). It just would have been nice if Daphne's uncle had been active is some other, less....problematic profession. >_<