An Offhand Comment

I really need to think about what I say before I say it sometimes. I was at a friend's house last night, and we were talking with his parents about his younger brother's job. He works at the Flying W Ranch, a local gulag/slave-labor camp for troubled teens, runaway circus performers, and closet homosexuals. Anyway, we were trying to nail down his exact title, because no one was sure what he does. One person said something about general manual labor. Another person jokingly called him a "slave laborer." I, in my infinite stupidity, blurted out, "They call 'em 'Jews' for short." A couple people nervously laughed. A couple others tried to lynch me. It was quite a mixed reaction, to say the least. Good thing I smoothed it over with the qualifier, "Or black people."