By Joel Magalnick, Editor, JTNews
The whole thing started with a comedian. Cory Kahaney is creator of and a performer in “The J.A.P. Show,” a stage act of Jewish comediennes whose routines cover the vagaries of growing older, but in a Jewish context, while occasionally mining the stereotype of neurotic, gold-digging and fashion-centric Jewish women.
Plenty of Jews are familiar with the pejorative term, which stands for Jewish American Princess. But that wasn’t the case for the people of Asian descent who took exception to the “J-word” when they saw promotional materials for Kahaney’s appearance at last year’s Seattle Jewish Film Festival. They had translated the reference as Jap, a slur that, especially in this region, brings painful reminders of the Japanese internment camps that dotted the American West during World War II.
“We were very regretful that this happened, and so we really saw this as an opportunity to move forward and discuss this term that really isn’t used very much anymore,” said Wendy Rosen, executive director of the Seattle chapter of the American Jewish Committee. The AJC runs the film festival. “The Japanese community considers it very hurtful, but the Jewish community, too, considers it a disparaging term.”
So a group of representatives from several Asian communities and the Jewish community banded together last year to do something about the term. What emerged from discussions between the two groups — the Jewish community, represented mainly by the AJC, and the Asian Pacific Island Coalition of King County, which works with more than 100 local organizations — was a joint statement released on Sept. 1 to try to eliminate the term from the lexicon.
“Between the Jewish and Asian Pacific communities, we unanimously agreed that we find the use of the ‘J-word’ in any form — with or without punctuation marks — to be reprehensible, disrespectful and insulting,” reads the statement in part.
As a call to action, its signers pledge to create “teachable moments” and take appropriate action “when we encounter usage of the term.”
Though the word is much more prevalent on the East Coast than on the West, “when we talked to people both in our dialogue and in our experiences about the term in the Jewish community, when it’s used and when it was used historically, there wasn’t sensitivity, a heightened awareness of the hurtful term to the Japanese community,” said Bettie Luke, who represents APIC and co-chaired the committee to create the statement.
So while the campaign is beginning here, the signatories hope to take it to a national level.
“People have to understand how hurtful that term is to the Japanese-American community,” said Jon Bridge, a board president of the local AJC in the late 1980s. He said he signed the statement for that reason, but also because “it brings up a very embarrassing stereotype that we should not be emphasizing in our community.”
Bridge also drew on historical similarities between the two peoples as a reason to sign the statement: During his leadership tenure, the AJC was among the first non-Japanese organizations to pressure then-Rep. Mike Lowry (D-7th) to back the Japanese-American Reparation Act of 1988. The act was signed by President Reagan and gave redress to individuals and families interned during World War II.
The national AJC organization eventually signed on to the legislation as well, which was similar to the reparations Jews received from the German government following the Holocaust.
“That’s not to draw any distinct likenesses to the end treatment of the individuals, but nevertheless, economically, the Japanese Americans were treated…very similarly to the way the Jews were in Europe,” Bridge said.
With the statement now in circulation, the next step is the outreach and education.
“It’s our hope that we can tackle this one at a time — one child at a time, one school at a time, one artist, educator, comedian, filmmaker,” said Rosen.
Luke said she sees the outreach as an extension of current curricula that might be similar to Holocaust education, for example.
“Hopefully this statement will get educators talking, and get students talking,” she said. “Starting with [curricula] we already know that exists, we want to bring this to the attention of the schools. Basically, my measure of success is that simply kids can learn to arm themselves with phrases to protect themselves as a beginning step, if they are a victim.”
Luke added that having such responses at the ready can be helpful for bystanders that have caused unintended suffering in the past by not speaking out.
“There’s too much silence. They say nothing, they do nothing, and that silence is so damaging,” she said.
One organization with experience in teaching the power hateful words can have is the Anti-Defamation League. Hillary Bernstein, director of the Pacific Northwest chapter of the ADL, said their “No Place for Hate” curriculum taught in area schools would integrate the connotations of the term.
“To the extent that we can, we are always going to speak out against use of that word and we are going to encourage people to be aware of how hurtful that word can be,” Bernstein said.