in the Army now

[victor steinbok]

This is an odd little piece of Americana... Apparently, in 1942, the
US military questioned "non-Jewish white" personnel of their attitude
toward Jews--or something like that. It was actually a list of nasty
cultural stereotypes. Now, putting aside the political and historical
questions, that still leaves the language and the anthropology of the
situation. Perhaps someone will find something linguistically
interesting (assuming that the questions are reproduced verbatim).


“There is nothing good about Jews.” (Agree: 86%, Disagree: 13%)
“Jews are out to rule the world.” (Agree: 27%, Disagree: 73%)
“The Jews always get the best of everything.” (Agree: 30%, Disagree: 70%)
“You can always tell a Jew by the way he looks.” (Agree: 61%, Disagree: 39%)
“Jews are the biggest goldbricks in the Army. (Agree: 51%, Disagree: 49%)
“A Jew will always play you for a sucker.” (Agree: 48%, Disagree: 52%)


The blogger also connects a few dots--the questions were similar to
those from another survey ("Attitudes toward sharing facilities with
Negroes"). And, of course, the whole thing comes up in the context of
Don't Ask, Don't Tell repeal. The race survey is completely reproduced
here:

http://bit.ly/d65glZ

VS-)

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