"Stop being Jewish"

I never thought I’d have to deal with this in the wild. I was at a restaurant, and at the end of the night, as the place was closing and we were about to leave, I heard, from wait staff to another wait staff, “… being Jewish”…

I asked my wife, did he just say something about being Jewish?

She said, “yeah, he said, ‘stop being Jewish.'”

I was like, wtf? This was so different than anything I have ever encountered, it wasn’t, don’t act so Jewish, or don’t be such a jew or stop being so Jewish, it was literally, “stop being Jewish.”

It really pissed me off. I wasn’t sure who said what to whom, but the Jewish guy I thought it was, I went to him and asked, “Did someone just tell you to ‘stop being Jewish’?”

He said oh yeah that was my friend (playing it off) talking about my hair… I’m a Russian jew, it’s ok.

I’m like, “Never let anyone say that to you and get away with it.”

That statement is at the root of who this guy is. Think about it. Imagine if someone said, “Stop being Christian” or “Stop being black.”

I was not expecting it, but that statement… even if in jest from friends, really pissed me off. The way it was worded hit at the core of exclusion… of bullying.

It meant the bully wanted to stop anything the guy was doing that was Jewish.

It was surreal. And now I will double down on calling out ANY fucking racists…