On September 5th, Trenton City Council President Kathy McBride used the phrase “Jew her down” in an executive session. She was speaking of a lawsuit in which a city attorney successfully waited out, and wore out, a plaintiff and got her to settle for some lesser amount of money. According to the Trentonian, McBride said that lawyer was “able to wait her out and Jew her down."

People went nuts and rightfully so. The mayor called her out on an anti-Semitic remark and demanded she apologize. The Trentonian obtained an email of his in which he wrote, “This anti-Semitic remark, particularly about an attorney in our law department that happens to be Jewish, should have no place in our public discourse. I hope that after some reflection you would apologize for these remarks.”

While others called for McBride to resign, some are excusing her disgusting behavior. Councilwoman Robin Vaughn defended McBride dismissing this slur as a harmless verb.

Quoted on newjerseyglobe.com, Vaughn said, “We really need to get a more acute meaning and understanding of ‘anti-Semitic.’ I believe her comment ‘Jew down’ was more in reference to negotiating not ‘I hate Jews.’ Inappropriate in today’s PC culture absolutely, but to Jew someone down is a verb and is not-anti-anything or indicative of hating Jewish people.”

Really Robin Vaughn? A verb based on the stereotype that all Jews are cheap to the point of being cutthroat? That kind of verb? That sort of stereotyping isn’t anti-Semitic?

If this so-called verb is so harmless, let me ask Robin Vaughn and Kathy McBride, both women of color, how they would feel about the verb to ‘n-word rig’ something. Would that also be harmless? No, it would be despicable, and so was this.

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