Pejorative term shouldn’t find its way into print

I know it’s human nature to stay silent when things are good and only speak up when you have a complaint, so I’m sorry I’m not more vocal when the paper’s good, which it so often is.

But I can’t stay quiet when I see the phrase “Shiksa’s Brisket” (Sept. 3) blaring at me on the front page, again in a big headline on Page 12, and yet a third time on the jump on Page 23.

You should know better than to use such a pejorative, divisive term in the Light’s pages. Even though the writer defends her term as “not too PC,” that part didn’t come until the very end of the piece. It didn’t have to be in the front-page teaser or in either of the headlines, if the phrase had to be used at all. 

Never mind that the brisket the article’s author describes bears plenty of similarities to all the “Jewish” brisket recipes I’ve seen.  And never mind, too, that there isn’t even a recipe to accompany this. Never mind, even, that the “naming” of this brisket had so little to do with the rest of an overlong piece.

None of that matters except that this is an offensive word. If you have to use it at all, it shouldn’t be in a teaser or in a headline, because they lack the opportunity for context or explanation.  

The Light has done so much and come so far to gain rightful recognition for being inclusive, open, and progressive. This is a outdated, obsolete term. It’s derogatory. It’s not inclusive. It should not be in the Light’s vocabulary.

Gianna Jacobson, Clayton