[WikiEN-l] Category:Jews -> Category:Jewsih people

[jayjg]

On 2/8/07, Steve Bennett <stevagewp at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 2/5/07, Cool Cat <wikipedia.kawaii.neko at gmail.com> wrote:
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Categories_for_discussion/Log/2007_February_2#Category:Jews
> >
> > I proposed a rename as per wikipedias categorization scheme, we add "people"
> > to any ethnicity. There appears to be a number of panic "oppose" votes. What
> > do you think?
>
> For what it's worth, I do find the formulations "Jews", "American
> Jews" etc rather awkward and find they have unfortunate connotations.

"It is widely recognized that the attributive use of the noun Jew, in
phrases such as 'Jew lawyer' or 'Jew ethics', is both vulgar and
highly offensive. In such contexts Jewish is the only acceptable
possibility. Some people, however, have become so wary of this
construction that they have extended the stigma to any use of Jew as a
noun, a practice that carries risks of its own. In a sentence such as
'There are now several Jews on the council', which is unobjectionable,
the substitution of a circumlocution like Jewish people or persons of
Jewish background may in itself cause offense for seeming to imply
that Jew has a negative connotation when used as a noun."

 The American Heritage(r) Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth
Edition.  2000.

"Jew" is not a dirty word.

Jay.