“Jews” would still raise a few eyebrows, and it’s best to say Jewish people, but at the very least it’s bound by the context of how you’re saying it.
“Blacks” historically has only been used by racist people to dehumanize black people, so you don’t even get the wiggle room provided by context like with Jews.
You’re right, it’s better and safer to just add “people” at the end.
TIL “Jews” is derogatory in America. Referring to minorities in “clean” Hebrew is a bit more exaggerated; Ethiopians are almost always called “members of the Ethiopian ethnicity”, and Palestinian citizens are called “members of the Arab sector”. They never mix these up, too. I guess it’s in order to not acknowledge Palestinian nationality too hard
It comes more from the German usage of the word. Jude, and Judin which are the German equivalent to “Jew”, became synonymous with Jewish dehumanization, so saying “Jew” or “Jews” in the wrong context can get pretty derogatory. Plus it is commonly included in a lot of anti-Semitic slurs or curses, like “Jew bastard”.
“Jews” would still raise a few eyebrows, and it’s best to say Jewish people, but at the very least it’s bound by the context of how you’re saying it.
“Blacks” historically has only been used by racist people to dehumanize black people, so you don’t even get the wiggle room provided by context like with Jews.
You’re right, it’s better and safer to just add “people” at the end.
TIL “Jews” is derogatory in America. Referring to minorities in “clean” Hebrew is a bit more exaggerated; Ethiopians are almost always called “members of the Ethiopian ethnicity”, and Palestinian citizens are called “members of the Arab sector”. They never mix these up, too. I guess it’s in order to not acknowledge Palestinian nationality too hard
It comes more from the German usage of the word. Jude, and Judin which are the German equivalent to “Jew”, became synonymous with Jewish dehumanization, so saying “Jew” or “Jews” in the wrong context can get pretty derogatory. Plus it is commonly included in a lot of anti-Semitic slurs or curses, like “Jew bastard”.