In case you didnt see it, ESPN got a little carried away with the play on words today, after Jeremy Lin's 9 TOs, HUGE fan outcry after it was posted, they seem to have deleted the entire post and re posted to get rid of the pages of hate mail and obviously get rid of the headline.
A little LINsensitive?
ESPN loves that phrase
They used it when talking about Olympic basketball in Beijing. They used it on air when talking about Lin’s game. But ESPN apologized for this one time, so everything is cool, right?
KiLE - February 18, 2012
I'm not sure I get it...
Doshi - February 18, 2012
Chink isn't just a racial epithet like some others.
It has a perfectly acceptable meaning an in the audio clip above was used in an acceptable way, no?
BigforkBullsFan - February 18, 2012 via mobile
As a headline it seems more questionable to me somehow.
BigforkBullsFan - February 18, 2012 via mobile
honestly
that’s a really common phrase – and i think the person writing the headline literally didn’t think twice. in fact, when i first saw the image of it, i kinda didn’t get it. this whole uproar is kinda ridiculous imo. people just like to flip out about shit.
Jaina - February 18, 2012
Racism uproar
is annoying
T.Moore - February 18, 2012
racism
is annoying
OdwallaJuicish - February 18, 2012
from a guy that grew up black in germany.
OdwallaJuicish - February 18, 2012
Real racism is annoying,
not the shit everybody and their mother cries about today. Please…..does anybody here reading this really think ESPN harbors anti-Oriental feelings after the insane amount of coverage given to Lin the last 2 weeks.
dakoose - February 18, 2012
Maybe they're not racist
But maybe someone thought that using the word in association with Lin was harmless and fun. We don’t know for sure, but naivete is definitely a possibility.
Really, the whole point is to not encourage the use of the word in that manner. Americans are dumb, and a large contingent is racist and/or naive. If they see it, they’ll reproduce it.
jake1823 - February 18, 2012
right, it's an 'uproar' to shame ESPN into not being fucking idiots. I don't see the harm in that.
I find it strange whenever someone gets vehemently opposed to ‘political correctness’, as if simply being ‘correct’ is such a bother to them.
your friendly BullsBlogger - February 18, 2012
I really doubt they
thought it was a harmless and fun pun. There aren’t many people out there who think “chink” is an acceptable term for people of Asian race.
This headline was either a complete oversight, or (more likely) an asshole at ESPN who thought they were being funny by using a derogatory term in a clever way, and thought they could get away with it by playing dumb.
tomas21 - February 19, 2012
Did you really say "Oriental"?
is this 1950?
docks - February 21, 2012
we thread carefully
Belize - February 21, 2012
they apologized again
http://www.espnmediazone3.com/us/2012/02/18/statement-on-new-york-knicks-jeremy-lin-headline/
gotta love mediocre journalism.
dantheman3k - February 18, 2012
I just read it as a weakness. A racial epithet was the last thing that came to mind. I didn't
realize it until I started reading the comments.
BlackStar - February 18, 2012
Meh
Not a big deal, That phrase been used all the time and not being used differently at this time…
T.Moore - February 18, 2012
My response to all the people saying this isn't a big deal
I do agree that it probably was just a coincidence, but I think there’s definitely a small possibility that some racially insensitive bastard used the term on purpose. Chink is a very derogatory racial slur; it’s on par with the words nigger and kike. Yes, it does have an entirely different meaning in the context of “chink in the armor”, but when you’re referring to Jeremy Lin, one of the few Asian-Americans in NBA history and the biggest story in the sports world right now, that’s too much of a coincidence to ignore. If you don’t see why this is a big deal to the Asian community, you just don’t get it.
Poloplaya14 - February 18, 2012
Yeah
I see what you mean, Could’ve used a better term.
T.Moore - February 18, 2012
I have mixed feelings
on the one hand, most likely it was unintentional. It is a very commonly used expression, and the expression applies in this circumstance.
On the other hand, I wouldn’t be shocked if it was intentional (i still think it’s more likely it was an innocent, albeit unfortunate mistake). It’s not like they have their most esteemed employees writing the headlines for their website. It could’ve been done by an immature kid. It could’ve been a really insensitive, inappropriate prank. If they ever got wind that the person who wrote it knew what they were doing, they should be fired and blacklisted. But it is pretty easy for them just to play dumb.
tomas21 - February 18, 2012
i really just think it was an unfortunate coincidence
that being said i’m not saying they shouldn’t have pulled it or anything… i just really don’t think it was on purpose. it’s a perfectly acceptable expression, and as you said, certainly applied in this case.
Jaina - February 18, 2012
Right
I guess I’m saying that people can be pretty juvenile and/or hurtful under the anonymity of the internet, and I wouldn’t be completely shocked if the person who wrote it thought they were being clever and that they could get away with it by playing dumb.
tomas21 - February 18, 2012
Really?
How does this change anything for the Asian American community? Lin just got an insane amount of positive coverage by the same company who people are now accusing of racism. I hate how everything is racist nowadays.
dakoose - February 18, 2012
What the fuck are you saying?
I’m not saying the Asian American community is irreparably damaged or anything like that. That doesn’t mean this isn’t racist. I’m not saying ESPN is racist in general. Just that this one headline is obviously inappropriate.
Poloplaya14 - February 18, 2012
You said it's a big deal.
I guess I don’t get it.
dakoose - February 18, 2012
You're jewish, right?
If Omri Casspi missed a clutch 3 or something and the front page of ESPN said “kike blows shot”, you wouldn’t be mad? I find that extremely surprising considering how irate you get when Carlos Boozer does so much as lays the ball in instead of dunking.
Poloplaya14 - February 18, 2012
this just so isn't equivalent at all.
“chink in the armor” is a completely normal phrase. you could use it in reference to any person. “kike” doesn’t mean anything other than an anti jewish slur. if he weren’t asian, there’d be no uproar that a “slur” was used because it isn’t one. you even said it yourself that it has an entirely different meaning – one that predates any slur that’s for sure. this really just seems like it was thoughtlessness rather than saying you don’t buy that it’s just a coincidence.
if some asshole really did try to pull the double meaning, well then fire their ass. but as i said above i didn’t even think of it when i first saw the headline. is it because i’m not that demographic? probably. but this just really seems to be a case that someone wasn’t paying attention to the effect it could have rather than putting a slur on jeremy lin.
of course they were right to pull it down, i’m not saying they should have kept it up and maintained a stance that it’s okay, but this just doesn’t seem intentionally racist to me.
Jaina - February 18, 2012
Like I said, it likely is the case that this is a dumb coincidence
But it also very well may not be. There are still a lot of racist assholes out there.
Poloplaya14 - February 18, 2012
I don't see how it can be accidental
they’re headline writers, they make puns and wordplay and put thought into it, that’s how it works.
your friendly BullsBlogger - February 18, 2012
I agree, it's no accident or coincidence
Some idiot, who no longer has a job, thought it was hilarious.
mrdope - February 18, 2012
Especially on ESPN.com and its mobile site.
They’re ALWAYS using puns.
The mistake could have come from the idiot headline writer putting it in the field to make a “joke” to some late-night colleague, and then hitting the button to publish it.
I work in media, and shit like this happens all the time, and people rightfully lose their jobs, or at least get suspended. At one paper I worked at, one of the copy editors put a gay joke in a caption on a news page and printed it out for proofreading to see if someone would catch it. It didn’t run in print, but the higher-ups got wind of it and fired his ass.
ColonelFatheart - February 20, 2012
And actually, the more I think about it, the more likely I think it is that this was intentional
I mean, come on, Jeremy Lin’s the biggest story in the sports world right now. How the fuck do you miss that?
Poloplaya14 - February 18, 2012
you really think they used that particular phrase on accident?
i understand saying it on air when youre not thinking but when youre just picking out a headline for the front page and youve spent all week making lin puns you decide to change it up and go with “chink in the armor” when lin fucks up?
youre telling me you dont see ANY evidence of racism there?
sin - February 18, 2012
i said intentional racism, not racism
maybe i’m in the minority here, but i really didn’t even think about it when i saw it. i only saw the phrase as to what the phrase actually means. maybe it’s just because those types of words aren’t in my vocabulary, i didn’t associate it. maybe i’m wrong to give the benefit of the doubt that it was really just thoughtlessness and it wasn’t malicious. and i do stress that of course they should have taken it down and everything, i wasn’t meaning to say they weren’t in the wrong.
and i was just pointing out that his example wasn’t analogous. there’d obviously be no mistaking “kike” whereas “chink in the armor” is a perfectly valid accepted phrase. now, i mean, it is obviously a pun gone wrong… but honestly, ESPN has used that phrase like 3k times across their site. seems more like habit to me.
and if it is some racist douchebag, i’m certainly not supporting that person. i’m not saying the whole thing isn’t insensitive or hurtful or right. it just really seemed like thoughtlessness to me, not direct racism. but that doesn’t mean it didn’t come off as racist, of course.
Jaina - February 18, 2012
yeah i understand
but i just dont buy the “it was an accident” angle for the following reasons
1) it was a headline for the front page and not just a comment said on tv like the other
2) theyve used lin puns ALL WEEK LONG and now when they lose this is the headline??
sin - February 18, 2012
I didn't think about it either
Until someone brought it up, And then I was like “Oh..damn”
T.Moore - February 18, 2012
yeah
I didn’t see it initially, but the second time I saw it actually … was like “oh shit that’s an offensive word isn’t it. WTF?!?”
Prevenge - February 18, 2012
thanks guys
really this is all i was kinda saying. maybe i lightened it too much with some of the stuff i said. and i certainly didn’t mean to imply that i didn’t see the racist undertones at all or that it could be taken as just a horrible pun. but just that i understood that maybe this really could have just been an accident, and that one of their shitty editors probably barely even thought twice before letting it go.
Jaina - February 19, 2012
I think it's quite reasonable for someone to not realize how it could be taken when using that phrase
I’m less sure it’s reasonable to assume it managed to slip by every human being who sees a headline before it makes it to the live page without anyone saying, “hey, wait a second…maybe we should rethink this”
SidM - February 20, 2012
they said it live after a knicks win a few days ago
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESEGRwnQW4k
i think it’s ESPN being the usual fuckwads that they are
jesus christos - February 18, 2012
I think Poloplaya is Asian, so that’s why he has such a bias towards the word.
If the guy writing the article meant it as a racist joke which I think he did, he should be fired. But I don’t even understand what chink even means.
As a Jew myself, I find kike pretty offensive, because I believe it came to be a put down towards displaced Jews during the Holocaust
The N-word (I cant believe you actually wrote it) obviously has the entire slavery connotation, but I think it’s been downplayed in recent history due to the use of it among black people regularly
But chink? What does that even refer to, like their eyes or something? Yeah, boy, that must be really tough to be Asian, get stereotyped about being intelligent, not like Jews with oven and greed jokes or African-Americans getting called lazy, dirty, etc.
I personally find “zipperhead” to be a much more offensive term for Asians, but many people don’t even know what it means
MichaelClutchtree - February 18, 2012
was it that important to you to show off your own ignorance as an excuse for others?
your friendly BullsBlogger - February 18, 2012
so are you saying poloplaya is just biased because hes jewish and its not offensive?
its okay to use chink because its not as derogatory as nigger and kike in your book?
by your logic since youre jewish you must be biased against the word kike. its not all that offensive. its just cause youre jewish.
sin - February 18, 2012
Aaaaaaaaand
Wait…Huh??
T.Moore - February 18, 2012
It's quite magnanimous of you to decide what others should be offended by.
kingles - February 19, 2012
There's a big world out there
In my belief, racism can be used interchangeably with ignorance. I was asked the other day by a guy from the US if I ride kangaroos to get around…
Of course I fucking do!!
straylan - February 19, 2012
Reggie White
is that you?
tomas21 - February 19, 2012
is this real?
docks - February 21, 2012
its a big deal
ESPN has spent ALL 1 and 1/2 weeks on this lin story and every damn headline i swear has been a lin pun and then now when they lose the title you choose out of all the things you could say is “chink in the armor”?
come on now. its different if youre just saying it without thinking on tv, that i can understand having a lapse while youre just talking, but picking out a national headline on one of the most popular sports sites and you go with that?
sin - February 18, 2012
yeah, saying it on the air can be an accident
writing it as a headline is not.
your friendly BullsBlogger - February 18, 2012
This
BigforkBullsFan - February 19, 2012 via mobile
Theyre called "Samurai"
Gen - February 18, 2012
This is beyond dumb
How does this get past an editor? Or even the headline writer? This IS the #1 sports network, right?
Idiotic.
jake1823 - February 18, 2012
The "world wide leader" lol
tuluse - February 18, 2012
Maybe they shouldn't be referred to as the world wide leader
now that they have an Asian American on their front page. After all….Asians have wide eyes.
These cries of racism are absurd.
dakoose - February 18, 2012
Dude, I'm sorry but I have lost all respect for you from your series of posts here
You’ve said that you don’t get it, and that you think that the outcries of racism have no basis, I can see that.
I have a rhetorical question for you: why do you think that you get to be the judge of what is racist and not racist? Don’t you think the groups that are offended would be a better litmus test for that?
If someone is offended by something, how constructive or even effective do you think it is to dismiss that person’s feelings as something that is not valid? Do you maybe think that this is the attitude that… I don’t know, PERPETUATES RACISM?
Also what makes you think that you should be the judge of when a group of peoples’ judgment is “absurd”?
I encourage you to take a step back friend, and at least think about the alternative viewpoints that are being expressed in this thread.
slowmotion - February 19, 2012
At least he doesn't write the word god
So as not to offend……oh never mind
BigforkBullsFan - February 19, 2012 via mobile
It may shock you, but racism isn't just owning slaves and mass murder.
When you move on from 4th grade, it’ll all make sense.
Ozzie Montana - February 20, 2012
their editors are horrible
they regularly have errors that any normal editor would fix.
Jaina - February 18, 2012
I think it's more
idiotic writers, than racism….This is ESPN we’re talking about
T.Moore - February 18, 2012
Am I the only one who luolzed when I read it?
Not because I’m a fan of racial slurs, but just the fact that such an egregious error could be made and not spotted ahead of time. To me, it’s quite comical.
Dr. Handsome, D.D.S. - February 19, 2012
Update
http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/19/sport/espn-lin-slur/
They fired the guy who wrote it and suspended the anchor who said it. Appropriate resolution IMO.
Poloplaya14 - February 19, 2012
It feels like it's a little too easy and convenient for ESPN.
I think I would have preferred more wide ranging suspensions, public apologies by the guilty parties, etc. What about the people who approved the headline, or the language choice of the on air analyst, for example? ESPN has essentially washed their hands of these incidents, narrowed all guilt down to only 2 specific individuals, and can now continue on as if they weren’t involved at all. There’s more wrong at ESPN than merely just a couple rogue individuals, their editorial, and perhaps even their hiring methods apperar somewhat suspect.
Because of the double meaning of “chink”, the headline writer will no doubt now be made a martyr by the anti-PC crowd. Most likely he’ll actually make out like a bandit. I would have preferred an outcome whereby the writer couldn’t have profitted from his bad choice, and more of those who played a hand in these incidents received some sort of punishment. Perhaps this is all just me being overly negative, but isn’t it going to suck when this person is making the rounds of various tv and radio talk shows and selling his book about how he was unfairly terminated by ESPN?
kingles - February 19, 2012
I don't think they're necessarily done
I think ESPN understands the amount of negative PR that this type of thing carries with it, so I believe them when they say they’ll take every step to ensure nothing like this ever happens again. I agree that there’s probably more wrong at ESPN than a just a couple rogue individuals, but you could say that about pretty much any major corporation. There’s a lot of scumbags out there, and you’re just not gonna hunt down every one of them.
Poloplaya14 - February 19, 2012
No excuse
ESPN has editors
Stay Chisel - February 19, 2012
ESPN: For Clowns By Clowns
This isn’t about being PC. Refusing to show “Yellow Mamba” and fortune cookie signs held by fans would be being PC. This is about basic respect. This is indicative of a broader culture of idiocy at ESPN. I stopped watching ESPN a long time ago. I only watch now when NBA games are on and I have no alternative. SportsCenter was the first to go for me.
The smarminess was grating. They always seemed to have one corny black guy on each broadcast who made inane “cool urban” references that really rubbed me the wrong way. I truly hated everyone who participated in each SC broadcast. Then ESPN adopted this policy of riding every story relentlessly into the ground. Every story was Lebron. Then every story was Tebow. Now every story is Lin. Sadly, I caught 20 minutes of SC at the gym the other day. In that short span, they had a story about Tebow’s offseason and then an analysis of Lin’s game and then a story comparing Tebow and Lin. I can’t think of anything more annoying.
ESPN’s whole operation can go to hell. There is no question the “chink” headline was an intentional pun based on his ethnicity. If the league was 50% Asian and Lin’s ethnicity wasn’t a focal point, then I could give this a pass. Yes, “chink in the armor” is a phrase in common parlance but it’s an odd headline under any circumstance made suspect by it referring to Lin. If Andrea Bargnani let a pass slip through his hands in a critical moment, would the headline be “Greaseball”? Give me a fucking break. ESPN was the winner in the inevitable race to the bottom of increasingly dumber Lin puns. Congrats, idiots.
Stay Chisel - February 19, 2012
"Refusing to show "Yellow Mamba" and fortune cookie signs held by fans would be being PC."
Agree on that. I really don’t find those things offensive at all. I can see why some people might be, but to me, those things are just harmless fun. “Chink in the armor” is not in that category.
Poloplaya14 - February 19, 2012
I think it has to be all or nothing
Either you view all derogatory slurs(chink, nigger, kike, etc) to be nothing but words and permissible to be used in any form of media or everyday life or you should denounce any of those words as disgusting and foul. What is amazing is how much the Asian-American community has been marginalized in these manners. I guarantee that there would no one supporting ESPN or complaining about too much PC in our society these days if the headline used a black or Jewish slur in any fashion. Personally, I would never use any of those words and am outraged that am amazed that we still have people in 2012 who think this is not a big deal in any way.
diedaily23 - February 19, 2012
Actually I'm pretty sure people like Rush Limbaugh and his ilk would be decrying the "PC nonsense."
There’s always somebody.
ColonelFatheart - February 20, 2012
If only it were that simple.
But how many times can you find “nigger” in song lyrics? I can’t claim to know why some black people use it to refer to other black people, but there are those that believe if you take ownership of a word, you take it’s power to be derogatory.
The word “chink” had nothing to do with Asians until the 1800s or so. Since it became derogatory, does that negate all other meanings?
It’s a shitty thing to deal with, because if you blanket decry all use of these words, some people who are not racist will get flak for it. If, socially, you don’t discourage use of these words at all, well, that’s obviously no good either. The only really fair way to deal with them is to assess intent when they are used. If it’s not motivated by hate or ignorance, it shouldn’t be derogatory.
…but…who’s to tell anyone what they should be insulted by?
and how the hell can anyone with 100% accuracy assess intent?
it’s a catch-22 every which way :/
SidM - February 20, 2012
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