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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsESPN Apology to Jeremy Lin: Is it possible
that in this day and age that an editor of a major network wouldn't know that the word "chink" is equivalent to the "n" word???? I find this mind boggling.
"The editor fired by ESPN for using "chink in the armor" in a headline about Jeremy Lin contends he wasn't making a racist joke and that the offensive wording was unintentional.
"This had nothing to do with me being cute or punny," Anthony Federico told the New York Daily News. "I'm so sorry that I offended people. I'm so sorry if I offended Jeremy."
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gameon/post/2012/02/jeremy-lin-slur-an-honest-mistake-says-fired-espn-editor/1#.T0J53JjR6xg
Response to dynasaw (Original post)
Post removed
TheDebbieDee
(11,119 posts)Son of Gob
(1,502 posts)Fighting racial slurs with more racial slurs! Cool Dude!
right over your head.
Son of Gob
(1,502 posts)So racial slurs are funny nowadays? I didn't get the memo.
Edit : Apparently the jury found it racist also. I guess they don't like racist humor either.
Viking12
(6,012 posts)Could the headline writer be completely unfamiliar with the slur? If so, she thought, it may actually be a sign of progress. YMMV.
Bandit
(21,475 posts)I think that term has been by the wayside for so many years now, very few people have even heard it, or even of it.. Back in the day here in Alaska most cannaries had a machine that had the name "Iron Chink" that was stamped into the metal of the machine from the factory.. Those days have long passed though
trumad
(41,692 posts)They watch South Park.
Viking12
(6,012 posts)They're 9 and 11 and don't watch South Park.
hfojvt
(37,573 posts)The phrase "chink in the armor" is a fairly common one. Was it used innocently, or was a double meaning intended?
It's not certain to me that the second iterpretation is a certainty.
I am reminded of an incident in the 2008 primary, when Hillary said that Obama has not done the "spade work" and some were sure that must have been meant with a double meaning. Some of these standard phrases are not necessarily meant with double meanings.
Then, too, there is a knowledge factor, espcially in a younger person.
It was not until I was 24 that I heard or read that "coon" had a derogatory meaning. The same was probably true with spade. I was in my 40s before I heard that there was a racist connotation to the term 'tar baby', or heard the term cracker. I only heard that term in the movie "Remember the Titans".
Some of that is regional too. What to some people is learned at an early age, is not necessarily learned in all parts of the country.
RZM
(8,556 posts)i.e. 'chinks in the armor' of the Chinese empire, meaning the weaknesses and mistakes that resulted in its loss in status and eventual domination by foreigners.
And this was from a liberal to boot. Obviously this editor knew exactly what he was doing.