Ethnic Stereotyping, or Stereotaping

Some of the recent raucous accusations of ethnic elitism from the county's peanut gallery have called to mind a recent conversation. An out-of-state fan remarked by e-mail on Miss Jane's use of the random Yiddish phrase by her saucy femme fatale, and suggested that it whiffed of the book. Ironically, of all Miss Jane's ethnic characterizations, it is these which are most frequently lifted from life. If Smitty is occasionally perplexed by the idioms of a lady from Scarsdale, his redactor has heard most of those turns of phrase in context, some in identical situations. It has been, if not yet a long, a satisfyingly varied life. One cannot claim to perfect literacy in all the cultures of this mighty nation, but one never recoils from exposure.

Really, it is vexing to be told one is ethnically condescending. For every gentleman who has asked Miss Jane if there is a real Dvorah and whether her telephone number may be obtained by a smitten reader, there is a lady who wishes that someone like Shelley Selby would cross her path. A European-born professor of the humanities sent an encomium to Mercedes de la Roja. As the last two were crafted of the whole cloth, I think Miss Jane can be exonerated of any zeal to tarnish the image of minorities, or indeed to make any statement at all about the relative value of this culture or that gene pool. A novelist is but a portraitist and her characters sometimes walk into her parlor and request a sitting. Heavens, look at Margaret Ellen Stannard, blonde and fetching with her name straight out of a Midwestern family Bible! Morality police, take note.