Is Maria Pereira a bigot?

At last night’s board meeting, former board member Maria Pereira thought it appropriate to use an ethnic slur to attack parents organized by the education advocacy group Families for Excellent Schools.

Folks attending the meeting were greeted with signs that bore the words: “Families for Ex$ellent Shysters.”

“Shyster,” if you didn’t know, is commonly used as an anti-Semitic epithet.

So, the week of the Jewish High Holy Days (Rosh Hashanah begins tomorrow night) Maria Pereira decides to use a bigoted epithet? There’s no doubt that this is Pereira’s handiwork, either. Take a look at the flyer she handed out:

She’s almost accusing Families for Excellent Schools of being money-grubbing Jews. She’s one step away.

I, for one, didn’t think Pereira could stoop so low. For all my condemnations of her abusive tactics, thoughtless rhetoric and paranoia, I never thought Maria Pereira would go this far.

The sad part is, Bridgeport is a very diverse community. Would Maria be so blithe about using other racially charged words?

To be fair, the word “shyster” may not have begun as an inherently racist term, and arguments persist about its origins. That being said, the word is traditionally associated with Jews.

As the actor Will Smith said in “Enemy of the State,” “I believe the slur ‘shyster’ is generally reserved for attorneys of the Jewish persuasion.”

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