Would you report this - I think it's an anti-Semitic comment?

[chomalungma]

I was dealing with a council employee recently - and we had to pay for a bill. I asked if they could invoice our company but he said "The council want paying now, they're a bit Jewish like that"

I was a bit surprised to hear someone say that. I don't think I've ever interacted with someone who has expressed those kind of views since I was young. Certainly never as an adult.

I didn't say anything. I just paid the bill and went.

But I was thinking about it afterwards. Does it reflect an anti-Semitic attitude?

Should I report it to the council? WWYD?

The person might well know it's me and I will have to deal with them again in a business role later.

I doubt he would get sacked but he would (quite rightly) be disciplined and sent on a training course.

I worked for a Local Authority for many years and this absolutely would not have been tolerated. However colleagues regularly made offensive statements about Travellers and were never disciplined for it.

If they used the N word, I hope you'd report them and not give it a second thought. It's the same level of disgusting.

No, no, no. Vague collywobbles about someone seeking vengeance are no reason not to report.

Sometimes you have to do the right thing. Report racism - every time.

@bellinisurge

The N word is a truly derogatory racial term used by white supremacists as an insult .
Being Jewish is indicative of religion .

The council employee was ill advised and unprofessional to say what he did . An extremely unfunny stupid comment . But I’d hazard not actionable .

It is clearly an anti-Semitic comment and you shouldn't just let it lie. If you don't want to report him/her, you could just call and say "you know your comment the other day really bothered me. I'm not going to report you but you shouldn't make racist remarks".

I'd probably report it though.

I haven’t heard a comment like that since the 1970s. Is it getting worse or is it my imagination?

Fuck me there is some depressing posts on this thread.

"not actionable"
"throw away comment"

Do you posters just minimise and shrug off hateful comments that display sexism or racism or homophobia?

Or is it just hate speech towards Jews that you aren't bothered about and treat so lightly and expect others to do so too?

And lord it is absolutely getting worse. The Home Office themselves confirm hate crimes against Jews have more than doubled in the last twelve months compared to the previous period. And that's just the ones recorded - the tip of the iceberg with comments like in the OP not even deemed worthy of censure.

Being Jewish is indicative of religion

It is, yes ... but what justification is there for a religion being referenced, when it's about the council wanting to be paid quickly?

And is being Jewish some magic formula which mysteriously turns "derogatory racial terms" into mere "throwaway remarks"?

Of course it’s anti Semitic. Report it.

LordProfFekkoThePenguinPhD yes I think it is getting worse. Certainly I'm much more aware of it recently than I have been for a long time...

We visited Yad Vashem (the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem) recently, and it's really really scary to see how the anti-semitism ramped up pretty much from the end of WW1 without even having to be organised by the Nazis. Things like board games called "Jews Out" which people bought and played...as the guide said this was made by private companies and bought by normal people - it wasn't designed by the government. I'm pretty well educated on this - but I'd never really understood that 3,000,000 Polish Jews were killed in 2 years. 3 MILLION IN 2 YEARS...just stop and think about that for a moment.

Allowing anti-semitic comments like this is the thin end of the wedge. We won't have another Holocaust simply because I can't see it being possible in this age of mass communication and instant information, but that doesn't stop genocide in other communities (see Rwanda/DRC/Yazidis/Saudi)...treating this as a joke about one community makes it easier to be desensitised to all the others too.

I also thought 1970s when I heard this. The same era when 'a bit Irish' equalled 'stupid'.

Neither were acceptable then and they certainly aren't now.

report ASAP. No excuses.

It is getting worse.

And there is another thread on MN where people are denying that Corbyn and his cronies are antisemitic. Apparently Corbyn is not endorsing anti semitism. But he is not explicitly condemning either. And it is all a Jewish conspiracy. And the faux innocent hand throwing in the air.

A good friend of mine said recently that 'the anti semites have a point'. It was apropos nothing at all, but a throwaway comment made over a cafe latte after a dog walk down by the river. What the 'point' was is anyone's guess.

I think a number of (worryingly mainstream) bigots would be horrified to know they are bigots and that they are condoning bigtory. But they are.