On the March 17th edition of The O'Reilly Factor, host Bill O'Reilly and author Bernard Goldberg ventured a discussion of whether or not the Yiddish word "schvartzer," which comedian Jackie Mason used to describe President Barack Obama, was a derogatory term or not. It was, in Goldberg's opinion "absolutely not a bad word."
Cursory research indicates that the issue isn't clear cut. Alan Colmes, for example, recently opined, "It was never my understanding that it is appropriate to use the word 'schwartza' any more than it is proper to use the 'n' word. There are those, however, who believe that 'schwartza' is just Yiddish for the word 'black' and its use is part of the Jewish culture." The Online Etymology Dictionary says the term is "somewhat derogatory." One letter writer to the New York Times has suggested that "It is no more pejorative than the Yiddish word 'goy' is for a non-Jew. Unquestionably, both words can be used derisively, depending on context and tone of voice; but to describe 'schvartzer' as a racist and hateful word is an insult to every Yiddish speaker."
So, look, my advice to you, for the time being, is don't use the farkakte word, okay? But this, via News Hounds, is the funny part:
O'Reilly, playing the voice of balance, pointed out that his dictionary referred to it as, "often disparaging and offensive."
Goldberg's answer? "Forgive my arrogance. The dictionary is written by some liberal person."
But then O'Reilly said, "We're living in a society where anything is uttered about any minority group, Media Matters or somebody else will say you're a racist. That's what they do."
"Exactly," Goldberg agreed. "That's an important point."
So there you have it! The definitions of the words commonly used in the English language have a known liberal bias. Which explains why most of Goldberg's books seem like they're written in Esperanto.
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