ADL considers literally anything to be a racial slur. That said, "shylocks" is an odd term I've never heard of before, and they may be right about this one.
Shylock is the name of the Jewish lawyer in the Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare. In court of law in Venice, Shylock demands a pound of flesh from a defendent (Antonio) because the defendant debtor couldn't pay back a loan, as per the contract. Antonio hated Shylock because he was a Jew but begged Shylock to loan him money. That's why Shylock puts such an unreasonable provision in the contract as being able to extract a pound of flesh.
In medieval times, the only bankers were Jews because the Catholic Church has a prohibition on usery (this is, interest) so no one lended any money because they couldn't make money off of lending. Given the Feudal economic system and class based society, it was hard to get a debtor to pay up. The debtor is let off by the court because the contract calls for a pound of flesh but there would be no way to cut off the flesh without draining blood as well and the contract didn't call for blood as repayment.
Shylock makes the memorable speech in his defense for calling for the literal terms of the contract to be enforced because he wants revenge on Antonio, the debtor, for all the times Antonio had mistreated Shylock out of hatred.
Merchant of Venice, Act 3: Scene 1
To bait fish withal: if it will feed nothing else,
it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million; laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies; and what's his reason? I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge. The villainy you
teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.
The perennial question the Merchant of Venice asks us, the people who inherited Western Civilization, is this: Was Shylock truly bad or did Antonio make him bad? Was he really worse than Antonio? Or was he simply mirroring Antonio's behavior back? Was it just that Shylock was never repaid the loan he gave his own enemy?
In a way, the Merchant of Venice is struggling with the same dynamics we are struggling with today, balancing the claims of the creditor and the debtor. Although now we call them, minorities and "white people" or oppressed and oppressor or other such terms. I'd ask, is today's Shylock the black man who graduated from ivy league lecturing about Critical Race Theory or is it the politically incorrect white man who grew up poor on the streets with little chance to improve his condition? Both are unsavory. I'll tell you which one would lose in the Venetian court though.
ADL considers literally anything to be a racial slur. That said, "shylocks" is an odd term I've never heard of before, and they may be right about this one.
Shylock is the name of the Jewish lawyer in the Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare. In court of law in Venice, Shylock demands a pound of flesh from a defendent (Antonio) because the defendant debtor couldn't pay back a loan, as per the contract. Antonio hated Shylock because he was a Jew but begged Shylock to loan him money. That's why Shylock puts such an unreasonable provision in the contract as being able to extract a pound of flesh.
In medieval times, the only bankers were Jews because the Catholic Church has a prohibition on usery (this is, interest) so no one lended any money because they couldn't make money off of lending. Given the Feudal economic system and class based society, it was hard to get a debtor to pay up. The debtor is let off by the court because the contract calls for a pound of flesh but there would be no way to cut off the flesh without draining blood as well and the contract didn't call for blood as repayment.
Shylock makes the memorable speech in his defense for calling for the literal terms of the contract to be enforced because he wants revenge on Antonio, the debtor, for all the times Antonio had mistreated Shylock out of hatred.
Merchant of Venice, Act 3: Scene 1
To bait fish withal: if it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million; laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies; and what's his reason? I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge. The villainy you teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.
The perennial question the Merchant of Venice asks us, the people who inherited Western Civilization, is this: Was Shylock truly bad or did Antonio make him bad? Was he really worse than Antonio? Or was he simply mirroring Antonio's behavior back? Was it just that Shylock was never repaid the loan he gave his own enemy?
In a way, the Merchant of Venice is struggling with the same dynamics we are struggling with today, balancing the claims of the creditor and the debtor. Although now we call them, minorities and "white people" or oppressed and oppressor or other such terms. I'd ask, is today's Shylock the black man who graduated from ivy league lecturing about Critical Race Theory or is it the politically incorrect white man who grew up poor on the streets with little chance to improve his condition? Both are unsavory. I'll tell you which one would lose in the Venetian court though.