Last week in class we discussed Yao Ming and Jeremy Lin and the racial stereotypes in the NBA. The Saturday Night Live skit by the way was absolutely hilarious, and probably my second favorite sports skit behind the Tim Tebow one which is probably the greatest skit ever made by Saturday Night Live. On one of the slides it showed a picture of the ESPN cover where the headline read “Chink in the Armor.” The person that wrote the story was evidently fired for using the word “Chink” in the article title because evidently it is a negative word towards Asian people. Now I was kind of curious about this, so one of my good friends from back home in Fostoria , Ohio China , and they moved to Fostoria
Aaron,
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with that the Saturday Night Live skit on Jeremy Lin was hilarious. I had never seen it before and it was one of the funniest skits I have seen on Saturday Night Live. When it comes to the author from ESPN being fired for using the word “Chink,” I believe you have something that could be researched more in a future project or assignment. It is interesting to see your friends from back home are not offended by the title of the article, but as you said, one cannot come to a solid conclusion because you do not know if they were saying that because they knew you or if it actually did not offend them. I think it would be interesting to send out a survey to Asian-Americans, either here at campus or on a larger scale, to see what the majority of Asian-Americans say about the title of the article. I also believe that the author should not have been fired, but should have made a public apology and should have been suspended without pay for a short period of time. I would still allow the author to work for me after they are reprimanded for their actions, but unfortunately that is not what ESPN decided to do.
-Tyler Jester
Aaron,
ReplyDeleteI do have to say that the SNL skit about Lin was pretty funny. I normally don’t watch SNL but it kind of looks like I have been missing out on some funny skits in the past and now. I have mixed emotions about the ESPN author getting fired for using the word “Chink.” I think why my emotions are mixed is because I think he should have realized that using a word that can be offensive and since he worked in a professional setting he should have known better to not use the word that could and can be offensive to people. Then there is part of me that doesn’t think he should have gotten fired. ESPN went to the most extreme punishment possible by costing the author his job. I think he should have still kept his job but should have been made an apology for using the word. I know if I worked for ESPN I would have kept him around but would have gave him some time off and would have put him on a probation period to where if he messed up again he would lose his job.
-Lindsey Landversicht
Aaron,
ReplyDeleteIt's hard for me to say one way or another if the word is offensive because I am not Chinese, but I do not believe that the author of the article should have been fired. It was a very clever title and I think America is over sensitive when it comes to these certain types of situations. I do not believe the author was trying to be racist when he created the title, he was just trying to be clever. One thing I do not know is if there were Asian people who were angered by the title and wrote letters in to let the author and company know about it. I feel if that were the case then maybe the business had to let this employee go to help their image.
-Logan Walker
Aaron,
ReplyDeleteAlthough your friends may not have found the word as a derogatory term, growing up I was taught it was one. On freedictionary.com, Chink is defined as "offensive slang.Used as a disparaging term for person of Chinese birth or descent." I highly doubt that the writer of this article was not aware that the term carried a negative meaning. Your friend and his family may just be more relaxed and not too concerned about the word, but I'm sure there were others that were offended. I believe the author of that article could have chosen a much better word to use. I can only imagine there was some backlash towards ESPN and I think the firing of the employee was probably a smart idea.
-Erin
Aaron,
ReplyDeleteI agree that those SNL skits were very funny. But i do not agree that the word "chink" is not offensive. I had a teammate on my youth baseball team that was Korean, and other teams would heckle him and call him a chink. Although he is adopted and completely "americanized" this term still offended him and would sometimes bring him to tears. I do agree that the person who wrote the ESPN article was not trying to offend Lin, but it was just stupid to say it. Offensive or not, it is never a smart idea to use the word "chink" when talking about an asian athlete, whether Chinese, Japanese, or Korean.
-Tad Margolies
Aaron,
ReplyDeleteI also agree with everyone else that the SNL clip that we watched in class was very funny. In my personal opinion I think any kind of slang word used to dipict a race is offensive. The author of the article as well as the editor of the article knew better than to use the word "Chink" especially when "Linsanity" was becoming a huge global story being talked about. However, I do think that the author was not trying to offend Lin or any asain population. I think the writer was just trying to draw in as much attention to the article by using poor word choice. Society just needs to realize what may not be offensive to one person may be offensive to another.
-John Ruppert