When I was a kid, some forty or so years ago, we knew that Chink was a bad word for a Chinese person, just like a lot of other racial slurs. Using the phrase ‘chink in the armour’ in reference to an Asian man, is indeed a good pun, but I don’t see it being innocent or inoffensive.
Doubly so since the villain for Iron Man 3 is rumored to be The Mandarin.
Seriously. The reason there ever was a brouhaha in the first place was because the word was used so rarely in the first place. And all of you whining about not being able to use it, who’s stopping you?
Bullshit. As applied to Lin, who is of Chinese ancestry, there is clearly a racist connotation, whether intentional or merely negligent.
There is absolutely nothing racist with that phrase when applied properly, which in this case it was.
I think the headline was done with racist intent.
Niggardly armor is more likely to have chinks in it.
Times I have heard or read a sports headline referring to a loss after a series of victories by any athlete other than Lin as “a chink in the armor”: Zero.
First loss after a series of outstanding games by an American born athlete of Chinese descent and, just out of shear coincidence, the word “chink” is used.
Yeah, just coincidence, no racist pun being made … you keep believing that, DigitalC.
In what was was it not a valid use of the phrase in the context in which it was? The guy commits a lot of turn overs and the knicks finally lose a game, a situation which exactly fits the meaning of the word.
The phrase is not racist per se.
However, used to describe the actions of a Chinese basketball player, duh, of course it fucking is.
I honestly can’t believe anyone is hand-waving this away. I spent a brief time writing for a newspaper. In my experience subeditors are not stupid, they’re wordsmiths - they consider headlines carefully and look at them from several angles before committing them to print. They knew what they were doing. ETA: and if they didn’t, they don’t deserve to keep their job.
TL:DR: depends on context.
Anyone remember this article?
I said no, but I can see how it could be in a headline in a field where people often use puns. Even then I’d give the benefit of the doubt absent more evidence of racism.
I actually thought the term chink as a term of racist abuse was really uncommon now. I remember one time a Chinese ex of mine was called a chink and was surprised because she hadn’t heard it for so long.
Uh yes. That is how puns work. If it did not have two meanings, both of which that made sense, then it would not have been a pun. (There are not roll eyes big enough.)
It wasn’t until the 1st “n word” controversy that I was aware of, that I even heard the word.
I think people that worry about it need to get lives.
Does he steal Iron Man’s suit? THAT might be a tad over the line.
Nailed it, I think. The word ‘chink’ on its own is inoffensive, and if you’re talking about things that have genuine chinks in them, like armor, then you can use it all day without a problem. We’ll call that the A-definition. Calling someone a chink as a slur for Chinese, on the other hand, that’s unambiguously bad. Call it the B-definition.
This particular perfect storm of outrage came when someone who someone else might called B-chink, but referring to him as an A-chink… that’s just grotesque. Unless it sincerely never occurred to the writer that ‘chink’ is an ethnic slur, then it should have flashed in front of his eyes instantly and he should have checked himself. This is serious bad taste.
On the other hand, if there was a convention of Asian-American BDSM enthusiasts, and they put on a parade of people in gimp outfits, a reporter could, I feel, call it ‘a parade of zipperheads’ and convincingly plead innocence. But I think ‘chink’ is too fresh in the mind for that to work.
Naturally, I was directing this at those that are actually getting into a huff about it, not those who want to discuss/argue/etc… about it.
This reminds me of an incident here (Seattle area) a few years ago. Some minor bureaucrat used the ancient and honorable word ‘niggardly’ in a perfectly correct way to describe something in the budgeting process that he considered less than adequate for the subject of the budget (in a word, stingy). Well this stirred up a firestorm in the media here, and IIRC the guy got fired.
Can’t be too careful when talking to the media, even if one is a lot better educated than they are.
You see that would be a parallel IF the bureaucrat was using that rarely used word to criticize a hypothetically newly elected Black mayor of Seattle cutting services rather than raising taxes. Oh let’s imagine this as a headline in the paper:
Yup, a perfectly “correct” use of the word. Y’all are just too sensitive.
In the context of the Lin brouhaha, clearly offensive. Most other uses, fine.
It’s like the term “disarming.” A perfectly useable word, even after that rapist cut the girl’s arms off. But if you headlined “Convicted rapist/dismemberer gives disarming interview,” you’d be fired.
But it would still be a useful word in other contexts.