Swavertes or something, It's apparently the Hebrew word for Negro/African American but I want to make sure it isn't the "N" word equivilent. So which is it??
Posted by Taalcon (Member # 839) on :
If its Hebrew, I guarantee it does not mean "African American".
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
It simply means "black"; however, common usage is all-too-similar to n-word equivalents.
Don't use it.
Oh, and it's Yiddish, not Hebrew.
Posted by Sid Meier (Member # 6965) on :
kk thanks for the input.
Posted by Jonathan Howard (Member # 6934) on :
I had no idea about the word. Of course, not being in Hebrew that makes sense... My Yiddish isn't great, after all. And today, except for Haredis, what 15 y.o. Isaeli-born person knows Yiddish sufficiently to read almost everything in that language there was in the Yad-Vashem museum?
Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
So what is the appropriate Hebrew word for "Black Folk"?
Falasha?
Posted by JaimeBenlevy (Member # 6222) on :
Isn't it kushim? I'm pretty sure it's not a bad word since my dad told me that they call Ethiopian Jews Kushim Yisraelim, or something like that. I've heard though that some people use it as a bad one. If it is, let me know and I'll delete this.
Posted by Jonathan Howard (Member # 6934) on :
"Kushim" means people from Kush, in southern Egypt (I'm not even sure they wre black). It means essentially the same as "negro", but it's use is as the use of the "n-word" (is it really that bad to use?) - which derives itself from "negro". If you call them "Kushim Yisraelim" it's probably not going to be well regarded.
But there's no point in deleting it, since you were just inquiring. All it can do it help others now what's not well-regarded. Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
quote: "n-word" (is it really that bad to use?)
Oh yes! Oh my, YES!
Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
I instructed my kid to not even think the N-word. I do not think there is a single word in the English language that has a stonger taboo.
Posted by Jonathan Howard (Member # 6934) on :
Mier Tante: It's simply that except for Yanks I never heard that word said, just like the k-word (sp?) for the Chosen People.
Adam13: It's almost the same colour... Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
The K-word isn't nearly as bad as the N-word.
Posted by Jonathan Howard (Member # 6934) on :
Well, not at the Sabbath table I was invited to... Posted by Jonathan Howard (Member # 6934) on :
<Deleted upon request.>
Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
I'm getting very uncomfortable with your dancing around this Jon. Please, let it drop. It is offensive. Please.
Posted by Erez (Member # 8282) on :
I don't think the word "kushi" is offensive by itself but can be if you use it in a certain way, like in "hey, kushi, come here", here you reffer to him as black and not as a person which is very offensive. the word "kushon" is a curse since the ending "...on" makes a noun small and inferior to the speaker.
I heard in a movie (the butterfly effect) a curse word which was suppose to mean jews (at least according to the translation), kike or something like that, what does it mean and where does it come from?
Posted by Jonathan Howard (Member # 6934) on :
No idea, but that's what I referred to as the "k-word".
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
The word i was refering too was used the by the character Al Smith in Harry Turtledove's "Return Engagement" the first of his Settling Accounts series.
The thing is that the Jewish Congresswoman (and former first lady to president Hosea Blackford) Flora Blackford discovered that the Confederates were massacring their Negroes and was trying to convice President Smith to let the world know and did on the condition that Flora stops noisying into their Atomic Bomb project.
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