Jewish Problem

[Wilson Gray]

On Tue, Jan 17, 2012 at 10:02 AM, Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at stanford.edu> wrote:
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> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Â  Â  Â  Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at STANFORD.EDU>
> Subject: Â  Â  Â Re: Jewish Problem
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>
> On Jan 17, 2012, at 2:37 AM, Victor Steinbok wrote:
>
>> The term "Jewish Problem", with its entire baggage, is missing from the
>> OED. There are three quotations that mention it--one under "in-and-out"
>> and under "problem", from H. G. Wells; the other two appear under Jewish 1.
>>
>> ... I am rather disappointed that these two found their way into this
>> particular entry rather than creating a separate "Jewish problem" entry
>> on their own. In these cases, "Jewish" is not "characteristic of the
>> Jews", but is rather characteristics of people who have a "problem"
>> /with/ the Jews. This meaning of the "Jewish problem" cannot be
>> extrapolated from the constituent words. In fact, the only way one can
>> describe the "Jewish problem" as being "characteristic of the Jews" is
>> if Jews are taken as the root cause of the problem (compare, for
>> example, to the "rat problem"). In fact, the term has generated a
>> snowclonelet that addresses the "problem" with some specific ethnic,
>> racial, or other group and is usually used either by those who perceive
>> such a "problem" or, mockingly, by their opponents and critics. Similar
>> phrasing might have been available before WWII, but it certainly
>> snowballed after.
>>
>> In this context, the Wells citation under problem 3.c. is actually
>> interesting.
>>
>> ... The "Jewish problem" or the "Indian problem" is not the same as the
>> "drug problem" or the "weight problem".
>
> similarly, "black problem" (or "(American) Negro problem"), notably in quotes saying that America doesn't have a black problem, it has a white problem -- i associate this with Richard Wright (and a version of it appears in the 1968 Kerner Commission report).
>
> related examples:
>
> Slavery was but one aspect of a race and color problem that is still far from solution here, or anywhere. (Samuel Eliot Morison, The Oxford History of the American People (1965), ch. 33)
>
> At the root of the American Negro problem is the necessity of the American white man to find a way of living with the Negro in order to be able to live with himself. (James Baldwin, "Stranger in a Village", Harper's, Oct. 1953)
>
> (some with the indefinite article, some with the definite).
>
> arnold
>
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GB: The Negro Problem Solved [,,,], by Rev. Hollis Read […]. New York:
A. A. Constantine. 1864.

The OED seems to lack "Negro problem," but it does have "Negro
question" (1801; T. Coxe Let. 15 Mar. in T. Jefferson Papers (2006)
XXXIII. 300   The present inclosure will contain the fullest
discussion of the Negro question, which I have yet seen.) and both
"race problem" (1860) and "race question" (1858).

IME, the usual cliches were "Negro problem" and "race question," back
in the '40's and '50's,

--
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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