#I see gentiles call themselves goyim all the time on tumblr and I just genuinely hope y’all don’t do that irl

[iwieldthesword]

Listen, I’m sure some other Jews will disagree with me but I’m always uncomfortable when gentiles refer to themselves as a goy/goyim

Like first of all, they almost always get it wrong grammatically (“I’m a goyim”), but it also doesn’t make that much sense culturally. “Goyim” translates to “nations” which historically was used for both Jews and gentiles before becoming a word that specifically means in “people from other nations/cultures” or simply “not-us”. It’s an in-word to describe an out group. So it doesn’t really track to call yourself “person from not-our culture” because you’re not part of the “our”.

Secondly, it’s weird because it’s just not your word. It’s very specifically Jewish, it’s a Jewish word, so why are y’all tripping over yourselves to use it when gentile is much more neutral? Like I’m betting most non-Hispanic white Americans would probably not call themselves gringos, so it’s hard to not see gentiles being so into it as an offspring of “haha, Yiddish word funny” that happens in American English, or the desperate need for leftist gentiles to prove that they’re ~in on~ Jewish culture (often without examining their internalized antisemitism but I digress). It’s definitely not cultural appropriation, but it is very weird to me.

And that’s the thing where tbh a gentile calling themselves a goy signals to me that they’re actually not keyed in to being an ally to Jews. Because while y’all can call yourselves whatever with impunity, Jews regularly face overt antisemitism for using the word goy despite it being our own fucking word. See: goy is a slur. See: Jews have sneaky secret words for us. See: the goyim know. It’s fucking loaded and sometimes actively dangerous for us—growing up in an antisemitic part of the word, my sister and I were fully taught not to use the word goy around gentiles because of how easily it was used as justification for antisemitism. So gentiles using “goy” as if it’s a cute word that shows how ~in~ they are with Jewish culture actually tells me that they don’t know much about historic or current antisemitism, or that they’re uninterested in unpacking their privilege to as non-Jews. Idk, it just feels like a slap in the face for gentiles to hold up a banner that says “I can use your language/culture more openly than you can because I won’t face horrific violence for it” and then like… expect extra special ally points for it.

Just say gentile. It means the same thing, it doesn’t come with baggage and you’re less likely to embarrass yourself using it incorrectly.