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Comment by orangejewce | Hacker News Reader

Wow dude, if you're going to be anti-semitic, just do it. Don't bother trying to be "cute", or "subtle" using emojis. Really pathetic.

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Not doubting you for a second[0], but I didn’t see anything anti-Semitic in that post, so am I missing some internet meme or American cultural reference?

[0] Footnote in case it is necessary: antisemitism must be stamped out wherever it is found.

Many delis are Jewish. He's saying that whenever he sees buildings named after people, he's in a Jewish neighborhood. In context, it plays into nasty stereotypes about Jews being obsessed with money.

I don't think that was the meaning of the gp post. If you're traveling, names on buildings or businesses tend to reflect the population of that area. Thus, if you're in an area with a large Jewish population, you can expect to see buildings/businesses that reflect that too. Antisemitism is a real issue, but this is just not it. I am Jewish by the way, if that matters.

The post didn't say "when I see a lot of jewish names on buildings I know I'm in a Jewish neighborhood," it said "when I'm in a neighborhood with a lot of names on the buildings I know I'm in a Jewish neighborhood" (both paraphrases to keep the dogwhistly deli->jewish link clear). The implication that Jewish people are uniquely interested in showing off their money and status through naming rights donations seems pretty blatant to me.

Ok, interesting. I would usually be willing to give much more benefit of the doubt, but given how unnecessary the comment seemed to the rest of the post, I guess the obvious conclusion is a dog whistle.

Wow, okay, that's not the response I expected to come back to. I'm trying to understand how you interpreted my comment that way.

To be clear, there were no intentional dog-whistles in my post. I thought I was saying something strongly positive, about a phenomenon which I've observed and have great admiration for.

However, your response and the thread that followed, reveals some things I clearly didn't consider. There is surely a lot of anti-semitism out there, and that my comment was mistaken for it, I think shows how pervasive it must be. And it's important, as has been said, to call it out wherever it appears. And I guess that means looking for even tiny hints of double meanings. Which, logically, includes meanings that someone may not be cognizant of when speaking with one meaning in mind. I honestly thought I was being "cute" with the deli thing.

I'm astonished and saddened to see a well-intentioned comment identified as just the opposite. I didn't mean to play into any negative stereotypes about money -- I didn't say anything about being obsessed with money, and if I got near it at all, I was talking about being recognized for _doing good things_ (with money), and how this cultural pattern does that. I think that's pretty clearly positive! (The whole point of the article, after all, was that more people with money should be committed to doing good things with it. Money's a pretty unavoidable aspect here.) But clearly my comment exists in a world where a lot of terrible things also exist, and I guess I can see how it could be mistaken for a vague hint towards one of those terrible things.

Especially on the internet, where tone and nuance are notoriously tricky.

So I'm honestly looking for input. Is there a better way to say what I was trying to say?

Regardless, I'm sorry that you saw something negative in what I said. I'm even more sorry that anti-semitism is so insidious that you had reason to look for negative interpretations in the first place. That sucks.

For those who can't spot the subtlety, can you explain what you mean?

Many delis are Jewish. He's saying that whenever he sees buildings named after people, he's in a Jewish neighborhood. In context, it plays into nasty stereotypes about Jews being obsessed with money.

Thank you.

To be fair, cultures have characteristics and people should be permitted by their peers to talk about those characteristics in a thoughtful way.

I'm not familiar with what the other guy is describing, nor do I have any opinion on this particular topic. I'm just saying that "people of X culture tend to do Y thing more than the average person" is not in itself a hateful or disrespectful comment.

I think you're reading into it too much. He specifically said he thinks it is not a bad thing. In your opinion, is it possible to say anything about your culture without being anti-semitic?

Then why did they feel the need to obfuscate?

If so, the point of view in the comment wasn't obfuscated very effectively, considering that we are all talking about it.

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