Vice-President Joe Biden apologized Wednesday for his use of an ethnic slur in a speech this week.
Speaking about his son Beau’s experiences with the military in remarks to the Legal Services Corp. on Tuesday, Biden used the term “shylocks” to refer to people who took financial advantage of service members while they were stationed abroad.
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“People would come to him and talk about what was happening to them at home in terms of foreclosures, in terms of bad loans that were being — I mean, these shylocks who took advantage of these women and men while overseas,” Biden said.
His comment drew a rebuke from the executive director of the Anti-Defamation League, Abraham Foxman, who said Biden should’ve been “more careful” in his choice of words. Biden agreed.
“He’s correct, it was a poor choice of words, particularly as he said coming from ‘someone as friendly to the Jewish community and open and tolerant an individual as is Vice President Joe Biden,” Biden said in a statement Wednesday.
Shylock is a Jewish moneylender and antagonist in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. Foxman said the term derived from the character’s name “represents the medieval stereotype about Jews” that “remains an offensive characterization to this day.”
