Where is the contrition? He seems to think he was funny. Maybe with your friends you can get by with saying ‘Jew me down,’ but that just doesn’t fly from the floor of the House of Representatives.
His apology made matters worse. Apologize to the Jews? How about an apology to the American people for using an ethnically charged remark that casts dispersions on a particular culture? I thought EVERYONE knew that was an offensive thing to say.
After he got home, Johnson apparently realized the severity of his gaffe and reworded his apology. According to Huffingtonpost.com:
Oklahoma state Rep. Dennis Johnson (R-Duncan) apologized Wednesday for recently using the phrase “Jew me down.”
While speaking on the virtues of small business in debate over a bill Wednesday, he said, “They might try to Jew me down on a price. That’s fine … that’s free market as well.” He was then handed a note about fifteen seconds later.
“Did I?” he said to a colleague.
“I apologize to the Jews,” he said to laughs. “They’re good small businessmen as well.”
Johnson expanded on his apology to The Oklahoman. “It just came out of one of the wrinkles of my brain and it was not something that was intentional,” Johnson said. “I certainly didn’t mean to offend anyone and I apologize for the folks I did offend. It is a comment that should never be made. I will never do it again.”
Oy Vey!
“Came out of the wrinkles of my brain” is a good phrase to use in an apology. The remark is pretty horrendous. But given the apology i’m inclined to let him off the hook.
Yea, the first one didn’t cut it…th eone he uttered on the follor of the House.
I think what happens to some of these old codgers is the speech of their youth catches up with them. Remember the Alaska congressman who talked about his family hiring wetbacks? We used to suck air around my grandmother, living in fear of what she was going to blurt out. The older she got, the more her filters dissolved also.
Like I should talk. My daughter crawled all over me for saying ‘poor white trash.’ I have this basic rule though. My house. I say what I want in it.
Oy Vey is right. I can’t tell you, throughout my life, how many times I have heard that phrase. To which, I would respond, “what do you mean by that”, you know, all innocent like. I would eventually divulge that as a Jewish person I found that offensive. Lots of embarrassment followed with “wow, you don’t look Jewish”! To which I would respond, “we’ll, what does a Jew look like?”
I actually feel bad for the guy except his ignorance does not bode well for demonstrating good decision making skills.
Having lived in Oklahoma for the first 18 years of my life, I can tell you that that kind of talk still exists along with many other perjorative terms that we supposedly recognize as politically incorrect. You can bet that what Mr. Johnson said didn’t just come out of some “wrinkle in his brain.” When I was growing up in Miami, OK, it was a Jim Crow town and while it is better now, it is only skin deep–no pun intended.
Thanks goodness for “generational change”.