Comedian Jackie Mason calls Pres. Obama a ’schwartza’

Last week, comedian Jackie Mason did a stand-up act in which he referred to President Obama as a “schwartza” (also spelled “schvartze”). This word is Yiddish slang, and according to various sources, it could either be an innocuous word for “black man” or the Yiddish version of “n-gger”.

Different sources claim “schwartza” means different things, but Jackie Mason claims the word is not “demeaning.” Mason also explained that he is “an old Jew” and that he “was raised in a Jewish family where ’schwartza’ was used. It’s not a demeaning word and I’m not going to defend myself.” TMZ has the video, and The Jewish Telegraphic Service has more details about the whole incident:

Twenty years ago, comedian Jackie Mason got in trouble when he referred to David Dinkins, then a candidate for New York City mayor, as a “fancy shvartze with a mustache” while campaigning for Rudy Giuliani. Last week, Mason used the Yiddish term again, this time to describe the president, reports TMZ:

Comedian Jackie Mason used what some say is a racial epithet in describing President Barack Obama during his act Thursday night, infuriating at least several people in the crowd.

During a performance at Feinstein’s at Loews Regency in NYC, Mason referred to Obama as a “schwartza” — some say it’s equivalent to the “N” word — others say it’s just part of the Yiddish culture and a literal translation of the word “Black.”

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