Shylock was a fictional CHARACTER , who happened to be Jewish, in a DRAMA written hundreds of years ago by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE of England.
This 80 year old Jew absolutely doubts that Joe Biden knows a single thing about the “words” I capitalized.
In fact, I bet that no more than 2% of Americans below the age of 50 know that Shylock was originally a person’s name, and NOT the label given to a “loan shark”. Especially if they went to American schools.
Everything you say is true...but what about equal media treatment. I remember the ‘Macaca’ moment being a huge story, derailing an entire campaign.
And every time Sarah Palin gets a verb tense wrong, some other meaning is extrapolated and pinned on her.
And of course there is the potato.
Yes its an easy mistake to make...and harmless....but why isn’t he dragged over the coals for it, like everybody else? I had never even heard of this story until now.
Given the state of education in general, I doubt that many people could even tell you what Shakespeare is....................
Shakespeare?..................oh, yeah, they make fishing rods..................
I must be showing my own age (65) for thinking you don’t have to be an English Lit major to have heard of “The Merchant of Venice” and its best known character.
Biden is such a clueless dolt, I’ll bet he also doesn’t know where the expression “a pound of flesh” came from.
If loan sharks are ripping off spouses of deployed military, why didn’t he call them “loan sharks”?
Geez.......!
The “who happened to be Jewish” is not quite the whole story. That wasn’t random or accidental. In the Middle Ages, lending money was verboten for Christians, so money-lenders were invariably Jewish.
I agree with you about the character Shylock. I bet even less know about his daughter, Jessica.
Not only does “pound of flesh “ occur in this play, but the lines, “if you prick us, do we not bleed.....”
Brush up on your Shakespeare, .....there is a reason why we still read him after 400 years.