The derivation of J*** Harp may go back hundreds of years but so does n***** and the latter word wasn’t a slur for a very long time and is still used today by that minority but is verboten otherwise. Does that make this clearer?
I didn’t think that J’Harp was at all offensive but if someone else thinks so - well, then I won’t use it.
Well, imagine that you’re Jewish and you’re sitting at a concert or even in a living room and someone playing starts talking about his “Jew’s harp” and you know it has nothing to do with Jews but is something stupid people say without any apparent understanding that Jews are actual people and …
Sometimes I think I’ve been very lucky in my friends and associates. I distinctly remember the moment in my thirties when I first heard someone use the expression “jew you down.” I was so shocked my mouth literally fell open. The person who uttered it just kept chattering away. Normal to him. Wow.
Was asked if my mom was a cleaning lady at one school
I think the question, even when well meant, is offensive because it is ONLY asked of people whose ethnicity is ambiguous. I have never heard anyone ask of a clearly Caucasian or African person, “what is she/he?” If this were a truly open-minded question, it would be asked of everyone, so yes, there is some subtle racism at play here, even if the asker doesn’t realize it. While I don’t believe in combating rudeness with rudeness, I do think it’s possible to subtly let the person know it’s none of their business by answering the question “What is she?” with “A person of charm and good manners.”
If it weren’t ambiguous then there’d be no need to ask. 
I don’t mind people inquiring. People think my kids are any number of things. Dh and I are of different ethnicities that have combined to make two interesting-looking kids. They have gotten everything from Hispanic, Italian, various Middle Eastern nationalities, Indian, Pakistani. I find people are just curious and don’t mean any harm.
The only time I was offended was when ds1 told me that people assumed he was Indian because he had darker skin and was so smart. Oh, so he can’t be a darker-skinned Hispanic and be smart? [-(
…still used by that minority…
By whom?
Nice quip but almost inevitably it’s wasted and the response is
“Oh, you know what I mean”
followed by
“I was just curious. You don’t have to be so sensitive.”
“Well, imagine that you’re Jewish and you’re sitting at a concert or even in a living room and someone playing starts talking about his “Jew’s harp” and you know it has nothing to do with Jews but is something stupid people say without any apparent understanding that Jews are actual people and …”
I’m a huge Beatles fan and have quite a few books that detail who played what on what song. I’ve seen references that John Lennon played the Jew’s harp on such-and-such song (I Should Have Known Better, Fool on the Hill come to mind). I don’t really know if it’s being used interchangeably with harmonica in that context. But honestly I don’t see the offense at all, and I don’t think it has anything to do with “no understanding that Jews are actual people.”
“Jew me down” is something entirely different, IMO.
A harmonica is not a Jaw Harp; that thing and the “Jew’s harp” is a metal thing with a piece you pluck that you hold in your mouth and it makes a somewhat twangy noise you can vary with the shape of your mouth. A harmonica may be called a mouth organ.
Kinky Friedman used to say in his books, “I Christianed him down”, a word I think is far more appropriate. Or as history says, when Jews were banned at various times, they were brought back because Christians engaged in extreme usury while the Jews, dependent as they were on the protection of the authorities, lent on fairer terms. And if debts became too large, they could simply expel the Jews, burn some and say the debts were invalid. Like I said, Christianed them down.
Thankfully, I’ve never heard someone utter the phrase “jew me down”. Is this a regional or generational thing?
I don’t think you’re really helping much by changing the phrase to “Christian them down.”
So many comments on this thread really hurt my heart. The cleaning lady at school comment. That was a real low because I cannot even fathom that situation being anything but uttered by a very mean and snooty person.
Has nobody mentioned the ‘noxious’ and ‘invasive’ weed, Wandering Jew?
Even with websites about how to eliminate your Wandering Jew in the garden?
http://www.gardeningknowhow.com/houseplants/wandering-jew/get-rid-of-wandering-jew.htm
I havent heard the expression in 30 years, doschicos, but I eard it. Made me sick.
@sorghum, I remember the Wandering Jew was one of the most popular house plants of the 1970’s. It did so well in those macrame supported hanging baskets! For the life of me, I can’t remember what the other really popular plant was called - lightish green and silvery white with textured oval leaves. ??? I probably can’t remember it’s name because it had an innocuous name. Wandering Jew seems an awful name today.
P.S. I have the burgundy striped one in my garden and it’s fine. The green one I’d never heard of before and I wonder how invasive it could be since it’s not cold hardy. The article you linked does not capitalize the J unless it is in the title.
“Wandering Jew” is based on a historical figure, isn’t it? As such, I never thought of it as an offensive term. Is it?
“Wandering Jew” is based on a legendary character, supposedly a person who taunted Jesus and who was cursed to wander the earth until the Second Coming. So I guess it’s pejorative, in a sense–whether it reflects on Jews in general is a matter of perspective. The character has appeared in a lot of fictional narratives over the years. I assume the name was transferred to the plant because it wanders.
I asked someone about it back in the '70’s and they thought it referred in general to the Jewish diaspora. Either way, it ranges from pejorative to awkward and we should just use the latin name. “Common” names can be confusing at best, like here, where there are two very different looking plants with the same name.