Talk:Schvartze

Tangential, and probably not RS, but interesting

A Long-Forgotten Jewish Remedy for the Coronavirus Outbreak: "In the last century there was a particularly Jewish response to a life-threatening epidemic. It was known in Yiddish as the Shvartze Chassaneh, the Black Wedding, and took place in response to the terrible waves of cholera, typhus, and influenza that ravaged the Jews of Eastern Europe, Israel, and North America." Freelance-frank (talk) 23:11, 22 May 2023 (UTC)

Black

@User:Beemer69 The AP style guide recommendation is to capitalize the word "Black" when referring to people. Lower case when referring to the color. Bohemian Baltimore (talk) 22:04, 7 June 2023 (UTC)

Schvartze

Schvartze in Yiddish simply means "black". It is not derogatory. It is correct Yiddish for the color black. 99.62.114.51 (talk) 05:55, 18 February 2024 (UTC)

The N-word has the same etymology as schvartze. If you could be honest with yourself, I think you would agree that the latter is no less derogatory than the former. To underscore this point, what could possibly be wrong with Hymie, if its etymology comes from "life", or Zhyd, which simply means "Jew"? StonyBrook _babble 17:33, 18 February 2024 (UTC)

So does "Negro" and "Black". They are not as offensive, depending who, where and when you ask. See below. All the best: Rich Farmbrough 13:53, 1 August 2025 (UTC).

Tell me you are US-American without telling me you are US-American. XD — ~2026-61407-7 (talk) 06:35, 3 February 2026 (UTC)

Schvartz means black, and Schwvartze means “black one”, exactly like German Schwarz and Schwarzer, no?

Neither of which are racist in German, because it only has its literal meaning. Of course if you want to point out somebody in a group who is most easily distinguished by his black skin (or being dressed all black for example), you use it too.

I cannot tell if the statement in the article, that it was used in a racist way, is genuine, or if the article just spreads the US-American ideology where they have zero clue what racism even is, and call everything and their dog “racist”, and literally think calling a black person black instead of “African American” is racist.

Hint 1: A racist is defined as somebody who believes there is such a thing as races. (Even though it has been hard-disproven as pseudo-science for over 100 years now.) Usually implying negative associations. So that makes everyone who uses the term “race” a racist. Including those who claim to be on the “defending” side and call things racist, when that can only make “sense” if one implies the existence of “races” in the first place.

Hint 2: You know what we call “African Americans” in Europe? AMERICANS! … What’s with the obsession with separating Americans as African? Not all black people are African! And not even all Africans are black! (E.g. Elon Musk is literally an African American. As would be anyone from Egypt who became American.)

So PLEASE, this article needs to be clear about these things, and use real evidence instead of the twisted US way of dealing with such topics! Not just “this person claimed this, that person claimed that” nonsense. … And no, I’m not saying it can’t be that it was a purely racist term in South African Yiddish. That is not at all what I am saying! I just don’t want ideology in a Wikipedia article, but reality instead, no matter what it may be or who it may trigger and who may screech. … So don’t even try that straw man on me. ^^

— ~2026-61407-7 (talk) 06:34, 3 February 2026 (UTC)

Schwartzer is completely neutral in german for a black person, just as Weisser is for a white persone. I personally don't see anything wrong with this term. German has other words for Blacks, which are way more offensive. Richard261985 (talk) 19:06, 20 May 2026 (UTC)

All kinds of everything

I've had a foray into this word and its relatives, of which there seem to be at least eight (schwartz, schwartze, schwartzer, schwartza, schvartz, schvartze, schvartzer, schvartza), or sixteen if include capital S and small s separately, which you might for various reasons:

1. Schvartz and Schwartze (a philologist no less), at least, are surnames.
2. German capitalizes all nouns, not just proper nouns, so the couloir black is Schwatrz while the adjective
3. According to some some Schvartz is equivalent to Black (as per AP style guide) while schvartz is equivalent to black.

Most variations can be a noun or an adjective.

The Concise New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (2007, p. 1972) gives 1961 as the date for this as a "code word".

Collins describes schvartze as US offensive and shvartze as derogatory offensive. While the second is labelled as American English its also a "Yiddish word".

OED gives three quotes, including one 1886 as schwatza (Sporting Times) - more context would be useful here.

There seems to be a separate borrowing from German directly into American English in the late nineteenth century.

It's also a Polari word as in schvartze palone - a black woman. Also New Partridge, uncertain edition.

Most of the book uses in this century are about the word (mention), except in fiction (and a lot of the "use" is discussed, or "character").

All the best: Rich Farmbrough 13:53, 1 August 2025 (UTC).