Mmmmm....chinks are tasty.
Posted on 02/23/2012 11:02:56 AM PST by presidio9
In the days since an ESPN editor slapped a staggeringly offensive headline atop a story about Knicks sensation Jeremy Lin — “Chink in the Armor” — the outrage has mostly simmered down to a question: What the hell was he thinking?
The editor, who was fired, insists that he intended no pun on Lin’s ethnicity — in which case he was guilty only of being bad at his job, because absent the racist reference, the headline is so stale it’s nearly senseless.
Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) has slammed that explanation as preposterous, condemning any use of the word “chink.” Lin himself has said he believes the slur was unintentional and advocates forgiveness.
Meanwhile, plenty of armchair commentators seem dubious of just how offensive the word “chink” really is, while positing that the headline was merely a gaffe, the kind of thing that might happen to anyone at 2:30 in the morning.
But all of this speculation is beside the point. The editor might well have made an honest mistake.
That is precisely the problem.
Most Americans — particularly those who are fastidious about cultural sensitivity and horrified by any charge of racism — don’t think they have anything to learn when it comes to Asian-Americans. They are accustomed to seeing us as model minorities, accepting us as honorary whites (often with the unthinking condescension that term implies) or dismissing us as foreign, exotic or irrelevant. They are not accustomed to one of us becoming an overnight basketball phenom — or to hordes of us shouting our anger at an egregious offense, as is now happening.
Put another way: People don’t worry about making fun of Asians. Not even when it comes to a slur that is, indisputably, as ugly as “the N-word.”
There is no other explanation for how the ESPN editor, whatever his original intention, didn’t think twice before posting the headline. Or for how, in recent weeks, sportswriters and anchors have referenced Asian eyes and penis size — and received, for the most part, only chuckles and winks.
We all have our biases and blind spots, crude jokes we crack behind closed doors. But most Americans carry a collective sense of responsibility for the wrongs committed against African-Americans (as we should), and it has become second nature, in a public discussion, to conscientiously check for words that might carry a whiff of racism.
We know that, in certain contexts, our intention matters less than what others read and see and hear.
That’s why it’s virtually unimaginable that any story about, say, an African-American who is shattering stereotypes and records but then stumbles as Lin did would use the word “niggardly” in the title (even though that word, unlike “chink,” is linguistically unrelated to any slur).
If, by some weird happenstance, that usage did occur to the headline writer in question, you can be sure that he would censor it before his fingers hit the keyboard, or the second he saw his own words on the screen — no matter the time, no matter his deadline.
Asian-Americans don’t seem to merit similar treatment.
Any discussion of our achievements — whether we’re talking about SAT scores or Lin himself — must be contextualized in our history, which is still obscure to all too many.
While this isn’t the place for a lecture, let us at least recall a few milestones in Chinese-American history, from the first coolies purchased to solve a shortage of African slaves; to the railroad workers whose bodies, in the form of 10 tons of bones, were shipped back to China once their hard labor was done; to the Chinese Exclusion Act; to the scientists recruited to strengthen the American military during the Cold War, only to be suspected of spying; to the many American-born victims of bullying still rampant today, with the most heinous recent example being Pvt. Danny Chen, who was driven to suicide partly by taunts that, I’m sure, made liberal use of the word in that headline.
My point is not to catalogue the horrors or to compare the sufferings of one race to another. Neither is it to stifle anyone’s freedom of expression — not least, a sports editor’s prerogative to make a bad pun.
As a writer myself, I don’t agree with Rep. Chu that we need blanket censorship of any word. Perhaps there are occasions when one wants to describe, say, a crack of light beneath a door or the sound of one glass against another or, yes, a weak spot in a suit of armor, and if there is absolutely no chance that a racial slur might be construed by a reader, then “chink” might be just the right word. Probably not, but who can say for sure?
My point is simply that Asian-Americans deserve the same level of respect, particularly when our ethnicity is part of the story, as any other group that has experienced systemic bias. That’s all we need to put that terrible headline behind us and get back to watching the game.
I guess I had always heard the term as a “kink in the armor”, not chink. But the term chink actually meant an opening or weak point in a suit of armor, so chink in the armor is actually the correct term.
Similar to the way people say “butt naked”, when the term is actually “buck naked”.
I’m sorry, but I’ve been laughing very, very hard at it.
Since they had to contort themselves into a logical pretzel in order to fire Limbaugh for supposed “racism” they now can’t let the smallest thing pass, lest they be called out as hypocrites.
Did Wen Ho Lee ever live up to his agreement to help the investigators find the tapes he "lost?"
With the Asian branch of the Victims of America industry screaming "RACISTS" "BIGOTS" coast-to-coast the Administration agreed to let Lee go but there was that condition that Lee would cooperate, I recall an article about Att Gen. Reno specifying the condition
-- it's been a few years but the last time I searched if I recall correctly I found a couple of articles reporting that the Lee still had not remembered where he put the tapes after sending the FBI searching through not a few garbage dumps.
He should have slipped and made a slur about Lin's being a Christian.
Then no one in the media would give a rip, because we're fair game for everyone.
And that's the real issue.
The hypocritical media sees itself making overtly racist comments, such as those speculating on the how under-endowed Lin must be, and headlines thundering with racial epithets as un-cleverly chosen double entendres, and they realize that they are being exposed for making fun of someone who is excelling in a traditionally African-American sport, and they realize that they are, in fact, hypocrites.
Or rather, Lin brings out their hypocrisy for all to see.
RE: Jeremy Lin named his own blog - CHINKBALLER
I like his self-deprecating humor :)
This guy is a class act ( Unlike so many others ).
Mmmmm....chinks are tasty.
We have become a nation of overwrought pansies and borg.
The arbiter of all things offensive is the media. So by extension they also become the jury of who will be successful. Isn't this the definition of discrimination?
good Lord. Get a tougher skin....not everything is about you (the writer of the article not my beloved Freepers). It seems that using words is no longer allowed.... one must watch out for the proper phrases
I for one think it is pretty funny. The funny part is not that obvious. The ‘chink’ part is nothing to do with what I found funny.
The funny part is how clueless ESPN is. They have pretty much ruined sports by putting a price tag on every aspect of competition. ESPN has become a sports dictatorship. I hope they get their ass sued for 5 Billion dollars.
Although it has been demonstrated that one can be fired for using the word "niggardly" appropriately, in context.
I’d bet that only a minority of Americans even know that “chink” is an uncomplimentary name for Chinese-Americans. A lot of overreaction to this, and “chink in the armor” is a phrase the origin of which had nothing to do with the Chinese people.
Could have fooled me. Besides. it's "catalog."
Get over it, Judy. Lin did.
Next up....watch for demonstrations against the USGA and PGA for “slope” ratings on golf courses.
I remember a short lived but noisy hoo-hah years ago in real estate, about the phrase "master bedroom" somehow indicating that there were slave bedrooms...morons...
That looks like what we used to call a pheasant.
Let’s hope Asians also wear the same “armor” that Caucasian Christians wear.
If you have common sense, a strong work ethic, and the self discipline to take care of your family and manage your own affairs, you don’t care what people say about you.
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