I'll have to click on the link just to find out what 'yid' means, I have no idea at the moment.

I'm guessing it's a derogatory term for Jews, as a shorter form of 'yiddish'.

Correct. The school where I went to had a strong Jewish intake, and that word was bandied around by some as a term of abuse. It’s about as offensive as n*gger would be to a black person.

This was my first exposure to that word, and I thought it as abusive (because that is what we were told) until I saw it being used in a magazine my parents bought me. It had a heavy American content, and one was using the word “Yiddish” - the magazine had side notes explaining terms, and thankfully Yiddish was defined. Being of American origina, the definition described it along the lines of a Jewish language spoken by American Jews.

Anyway, Wikipedia describes it in a wider scope.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yiddish_language

I remember a friend of mine was upset by David Baddiel’s TV Fantasy Football programme encouraging the audience to call him a Jew and chant Yid once. I expect that this context wasn’t explained at the time. I’ve certainly not heard of it until today.

Strangely, black rappers use the 'n' word quite a lot.

Yes - and that’s where the word is being reclaimed (cf “queer”). However, it appears to be exclusive - if a white person were to use the “n” word, it would carry an entirely different message. Unless I learn otherwise, I expect the a similar rule could apply to the word “yid”.

They aren't being reclaimed, they are being further abused.

Queer = unusual