Offense Intended?

The other evening, the Solipsist was helping a young lady--a former student--put together an essay. The main topic of the essay was this young lady's church. She had, however, gone off topic in one paragraph, wherein she discussed the animosity that exists between her congregation and some Catholics: She wrote something to the effect that Catholics didn't get along with Christians.

Now, even though she was going to strike this section, we felt it necessary to clarify for her that the statement didn't quite make sense: After all, Catholics ARE Christians. We thought she meant that Catholics didn't always get along with Protestants. She seemed confused--as in, What's a Protestant? Without going into a disquisition on Martin Luther, we explained that the general definition of a Protestant was a Christian--a believer in the divinity of Christ--who does not follow the Catholic Church (i.e., the Pope, the Vatican, etc.) This seemed to be a revelation to the young lady.

As we finished our explanation, we mentioned, by way of disclaimer, that she shouldn't take us as experts on Christianity. "After all, what do I know? I'm Jewish anyway."

Now this truly surprised her. "Really? I thought you had Spanish in you. I didn't know you were a Jew."

Pause.

How does that sentence make you feel? Do you find it jarring? Offensive?

Let us quickly point out, there is NO possibility that this young lady was trying to be insulting. As we mentioned, she's a former student who has come to see us frequently for writing help and is in no way a racist or anti-semite. (She is at worst a bit naive, as you might have gathered from the previously described conversation.) Still, we did find ourselves a bit taken aback when she dropped the "J-bomb."

But, why? It's not as if she said, "I didn't know you were a hebe/yid/kike/hook-nosed shylock," etc. And if she had simply said, "I didn't know you were Jewish," well, then you wouldn't be reading this post. So when did "Jew" become an emotionally fraught way of referring to members of the Jewish faith--which is to say, Jews?

Our theory--admittedly not backed up by anything resembling research--is that, if you call someone a "Jew," you are objectifying him--transforming him into some alternate life form that may or may not be human; whereas, calling someone "a Jewish person," acknowledges the fundamental humanity--the "personness"--of the one you are referring to. We suppose it is analogous to referring to an African-American as a "black," as opposed to a "black person" (which we understand is OK again).

So what do you think? Are we just being over-sensitive, or does our visceral reaction have any merit? And, if so, were we justified in pummeling our former student?

Just wondering.