# It's a travesty to end someone's career over "chink in the armor" **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [February 21, 2012, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-travesty-to-end-someones-career-over-chink-in-the-armor/613474 "2012-02-21T00:06:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-travesty-to-end-someones-career-over-chink-in-the-armor/613474/181 "2012-02-22T11:37:25Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > There are police officers who were fired for doing things wrong, and then get jobs as police officers in another city/county/state. > > Actors who have fucked up criminally who continue to get jobs acting. > > Musicians who get busted and go to jail, sometimes for murder, who continue to get recording contracts. > > Marion Berry went to jail for buying and using crack on video, and still got elected again when he was done serving his sentence. > > There are even writers who fuck up, sometimes with drugs or alcohol or, say, killing their spouse, who continue to find publishers who will pay them. > > No, I don’t think his one firing will “likely be a show stopper”. Only the police officer example seems relevant here. I’ll admit I actually am surprised if it’s typical for fired police officers to be able to get jobs as police officers. I would expec that to be extremely rare and exceptional. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-travesty-to-end-someones-career-over-chink-in-the-armor/613474/182 "2012-02-22T11:39:43Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > Never seen [Gran Torino](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1205489/)? It’s on my list. But again, my claim was that I’ve never heard it used _straightforwardly_ with _derogatory intent_. The only contexts I have ever heard it used in are ones where it is being discussed as a word, or in quotations. Movie scripts would fall under the latter two categories IMO. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-travesty-to-end-someones-career-over-chink-in-the-armor/613474/183 "2012-02-22T11:59:48Z")
> [@FixMyIgnorance](#): > > It’s careless. It’d be like writing that Lin’s victories lately have been sweet and sour. Heh, I had to think about that one for a couple of seconds as well. This one actually seems worse to me, for some reason. I think because “sweet and sour” is not really a cliche the way “chink in the armor” is. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-travesty-to-end-someones-career-over-chink-in-the-armor/613474/184 "2012-02-22T12:00:01Z")
I was listening to a BBC call-in show yesterday, and the point was made that younger people are less likely to know the innocent meaning of “chink” and be much more familiar to its other connotation. Which makes perfect sense to me. I don’t use “chink” in my daily language at all. “Chink in the armor” isn’t exactly waiting to roll off my tongue either. But I have heard “chink” being used as a racial slur. Either as something addressed to someone in an insulting way or something being discussed as a racial slur. I would be shocked to meet a person–especially someone young–who has a different experience. ---
**Author:** ![SecondJudith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@SecondJudith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SecondJudith)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-travesty-to-end-someones-career-over-chink-in-the-armor/613474/185 "2012-02-22T12:37:51Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > And I just wonder if twentysomethings with journalism degrees might not be disproportionately likely to have the kind of background like mine where they aren’t exposed to this word. I’m a twentysomething (barely, but I’m still hanging on!) with a journalism degree. I’m not even US American and I was aware of the racial connotation. Please stop pretending your background is unique or even that unusual. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-travesty-to-end-someones-career-over-chink-in-the-armor/613474/186 "2012-02-22T12:57:43Z")
> [@SecondJudith](#): > > I’m a twentysomething (barely, but I’m still hanging on!) with a journalism degree. I’m not even US American and I was aware of the racial connotation. Please stop pretending your background is unique or even that unusual. This makes absolutely no sense. If I thought my background was anywhere close to unique, I wouldn’t be opining that there are likely to be _lots of other people who share it_ and thus lots of people who don’t hear the word in this racist way. I mean, huh? Maybe you need another cup of coffee and then try again. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Lance\_Turbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lance_turbo/32/6156_2.png) [@Lance\_Turbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lance_Turbo)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-travesty-to-end-someones-career-over-chink-in-the-armor/613474/187 "2012-02-22T13:47:21Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > Heh, I had to think about that one for a couple of seconds as well. > > This one actually seems worse to me, for some reason. I think because “sweet and sour” is not really a cliche the way “chink in the armor” is. Some hits from googling ‘[site:http://espn.go.com/ “sweet and sour”](https://www.google.com/#hl=en&safe=off&sclient=psy-ab&q=site:http%3A%2F%2Fespn.go.com%2F+%22sweet+and+sour%22&pbx=1&oq=site:http%3A%2F%2Fespn.go.com%2F+%22sweet+and+sour%22&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=3&gs_upl=34132l34132l2l34977l1l1l0l0l0l0l35l35l1l1l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=82fc1a7cbf0487f4&biw=1280&bih=923)’ [http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page3/story?page=neel/040727](http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page3/story?page=neel/040727) [http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story/\_/id/1016782/premier-league-spotlight:-wolves,-mccarthy,-arsenal,-de-gea?cc=5901](http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story/_/id/1016782/premier-league-spotlight:-wolves,-mccarthy,-arsenal,-de-gea?cc=5901) > **[Garber: Clijsters crushes Zvonereva to win U.S. Open](https://www.espn.com/sports/tennis/usopen10/columns/story?columnist=garber_greg&id=5559670)** > > The crowd begged for more, but much to its chagrin, Kim Clijsters beat Vera Zvonareva in a 59-minute bashing to win the U.S. Open. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-travesty-to-end-someones-career-over-chink-in-the-armor/613474/188 "2012-02-22T13:55:25Z")
> [@Lance\_Turbo](#): > > Some hits from googling ‘[site:http://espn.go.com/ “sweet and sour”](https://www.google.com/#hl=en&safe=off&sclient=psy-ab&q=site:http%3A%2F%2Fespn.go.com%2F+%22sweet+and+sour%22&pbx=1&oq=site:http%3A%2F%2Fespn.go.com%2F+%22sweet+and+sour%22&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=3&gs_upl=34132l34132l2l34977l1l1l0l0l0l0l35l35l1l1l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=82fc1a7cbf0487f4&biw=1280&bih=923)’ > > [http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page3/story?page=neel/040727](http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page3/story?page=neel/040727) > > [http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story/\_/id/1016782/premier-league-spotlight:-wolves,-mccarthy,-arsenal,-de-gea?cc=5901](http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story/_/id/1016782/premier-league-spotlight:-wolves,-mccarthy,-arsenal,-de-gea?cc=5901) > > [U.S. Open: Clijsters crushes Zvonereva to win U.S. Open - ESPN](http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/tennis/usopen10/columns/story?columnist=garber_greg&id=5559670) So it’s a cliche in sports writing I guess? I never read about sports so I didn’t know that. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-travesty-to-end-someones-career-over-chink-in-the-armor/613474/189 "2012-02-22T13:58:06Z")
I do find occasional non-sports uses through google, though. For example: [Sweet and Sour Newt](http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2011/11/why_newt_gingrich_is_full_of_scorn_for_everyone_except_his_rivals_for_the_republican_presidential_nomination_.html) and [President’s speech hits sweet and sour notes](http://www.chieftain.com/news/local/president-s-speech-hits-sweet-and-sour-notes-with-puebloans/article_ef37ce5a-4712-11e1-b886-001871e3ce6c.html) ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-travesty-to-end-someones-career-over-chink-in-the-armor/613474/190 "2012-02-22T14:12:08Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > If I thought my background was anywhere close to unique, I wouldn’t be opining that there are likely to be _lots of other people who share it_ and thus lots of people who don’t hear the word in this racist way. Opine away, but over 60 people have posted in this thread, have any of them agreed with you that they don’t hear “chink” as a racial slur? The guy’s an editor, it’s his JOB do know different meanings of words and phrases, and make sure he doesn’t make his company look bad by overlooking inappropriate meanings. You can’t say “Sorry, I didn’t know what Dirty Sanchez meant” or “When those two young women won the Beach Volleyball Cup, the headline practically wrote itself.” ---
**Author:** ![you\_with\_the\_face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ecccb3/32.png) [@you\_with\_the\_face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/you_with_the_face)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-travesty-to-end-someones-career-over-chink-in-the-armor/613474/191 "2012-02-22T15:03:46Z")
A sportswriter who doesn’t know the offensive meaning of “chink” is about as qualified to write professionally as a sportswriter who doesn’t know that “football” in Spain is different from “football” in the US. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-travesty-to-end-someones-career-over-chink-in-the-armor/613474/192 "2012-02-22T15:06:03Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > I was listening to a BBC call-in show yesterday, and the point was made that younger people are less likely to know the innocent meaning of “chink” and be much more familiar to its other connotation. Which makes perfect sense to me. I don’t use “chink” in my daily language at all. “Chink in the armor” isn’t exactly waiting to roll off my tongue either. I don’t know what exactly they mean by “young people”, but I’m 29 and I heard “chink” all the time in both British and American schools. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-travesty-to-end-someones-career-over-chink-in-the-armor/613474/193 "2012-02-22T15:30:39Z")
“Dock that editor a day’s pay for napping on the job!” ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-travesty-to-end-someones-career-over-chink-in-the-armor/613474/194 "2012-02-22T15:32:26Z")
I think any argument that boils down to “I didn’t see the problem with this and I’m super good at this sort of thing!” will fail for two reasons: 1. Lots of other people saw it, and 2. It was someone’s job to see it. This wasn’t some super hidden obscure word. This wasn’t something only a handful of people in the US would recognize. This wasn’t a slur only in a foreign country (we had a brief, amicably settled kerfuffle on this board over a username that was this type of slur). And people are held to a higher standard when they are on the job than when they are not, even if those not on the job are splendiferous lexicographers and all around swell people. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-travesty-to-end-someones-career-over-chink-in-the-armor/613474/195 "2012-02-22T15:50:10Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > I will, thank you, because it \*is \*a homonym. I actually just learned the word “homonym” the other day in the wake of this incident I find this even more dumbfounding than your claims that chink is obscure. You didn’t know “homonym?” It’s a basic element of language. > [@](#): > > It’s not far before we’re down the rabbit hole if we do make it a policy that homonyms mean the same thing. There’s no such policy being made. What _is_ being said is that this is one of the reasons you have to be careful in printing homonyms: you can confuse people and leave unwanted impressions. This is something journalists are supposed to pay attention to, and it’s why your pleas about Federico’s potential ignorance don’t count for very much. It’s understandable if you and I don’t know how a nuclear reactor works, but if it comes out that a nuclear technician doesn’t know, he’s going to be fired. You and I might not know how to properly ground electrical wiring, but if an electrician doesn’t know, he’ll lose his job. Those are sort of extreme examples, but your comments about Federico not knowing about the racial slur - assuming he’d never heard it, never seen it in a movie, never read it in a book because it’s so obscure - doesn’t help him because by virtue of his job, he is expected to pay more attention to language than you are and know more about it. This is stuff journalists have to do. > [@](#): > > Yet several of us have said we have not actually heard anyone, you know, \*use \*it. I think you’re the only one who cares if you have heard it. Your personal experience is not the issue here. It’s beyond dispute that chink is sometimes used as a racial slur. That’s really all that matters here. > [@](#): > > It’s beyond absurd to say that it is like the n-word or c-word. Why? Because you personally haven’t heard it? [For the record, I did not make that comparison and you may be confusing me with somebody else.] > [@](#): > > What do we know, at minimum, if Twitter “blows up” with something? It shows that people understood the headline could be read as containing a racial slur. That’s all that matters to ESPN, although it does indicate that maybe the slur isn’t so fusty and obscure. It doesn’t matter if people were applying 20/20 hindsight or how they read it “fresh.” These things matter to you for whatever reason, but they don’t matter to ESPN. ESPN does not want to be publishing racial slurs even if the slurs are clearer in hindsight. Their articles are published on the internet and they stay there for a long time, so plenty of people read its articles in the cold light of day or after hearing their friends and coworkers talk about them. ---
**Author:** ![sachertorte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sachertorte/32/3727_2.png) [@sachertorte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sachertorte)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-travesty-to-end-someones-career-over-chink-in-the-armor/613474/196 "2012-02-22T16:09:05Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > Wow. I just want to be clear that I utterly dissociate myself from your position, a position that I find ugly and surprising to encounter in this day and age! Yikes. I find your stance baffling. You yourself find nothing wrong with the headline, yet you chastise someone else for finding the headline funny? If there isn’t anything wrong with the headline, then why can’t **curioushat** find the headline funny? As for your general ignorance regarding Asian discrimination in the United States, I suggest you open yourself to the possibility that Asian discrimination is real and has a harrowing effect on real people. If you have truly gone through life without ever witnessing or even hearing about Asian-discrimintation, then well… you aren’t paying attention. An Asian-American sportswriter at ESPN: [Jay Caspian Kang’s take on Lin and Race](http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7601157/the-headline-tweet-unfair-significance-jeremy-lin) His article links to a NY Magazine article on Asian discrimination in the US Army: [http://nymag.com/news/features/danny-chen-2012-1/index3.html](http://nymag.com/news/features/danny-chen-2012-1/index3.html) > [@](#): > > Nine months later, he was found dead in Afghanistan of what the Army has described as “an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.” Since Danny Chen’s death, details of his story have slowly emerged, relayed by Army officials to his family. A group of his superiors allegedly tormented Chen on an almost daily basis over the course of about six weeks in Afghanistan last fall. They singled him out, their only Chinese-American soldier, and spit racial slurs at him: “gook,” “chink,” “dragon lady.” They forced him to do sprints while carrying a sandbag. They ordered him to crawl along gravel-covered ground while they flung rocks at him. And one day, when his unit was assembling a tent, he was forced to wear a green hard-hat and shout out instructions to his fellow soldiers in Chinese. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-travesty-to-end-someones-career-over-chink-in-the-armor/613474/197 "2012-02-22T16:14:10Z")
> [@sachertorte](#): > > I find your stance baffling. You yourself find nothing wrong with the headline, yet you chastise someone else for finding the headline funny? If there isn’t anything wrong with the headline, then why can’t **curioushat** find the headline funny? If you think that the thing that makes it seem funny to people of poor character involves a misunderstanding of it, then you don’t think there’s anything wrong with it, and you do think there’s something wrong with the people who find it funny. > [@](#): > > As for your general ignorance regarding Asian discrimination in the United States, I suggest you open yourself to the possibility that Asian discrimination is real and has a harrowing effect on real people. If you have truly gone through life without ever witnessing or even hearing about Asian-discrimintation, then well… you aren’t paying attention. This is some whatthefuckery right here. **Slacker** has never stated nor said anything that could plausibly be interpreted as implying that he’s not familiar with the existence of serious discrimination towards Asians. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-travesty-to-end-someones-career-over-chink-in-the-armor/613474/198 "2012-02-22T16:19:37Z")
> [@sachertorte](#): > > An Asian-American sportswriter at ESPN: [Jay Caspian Kang’s take on Lin and Race](http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7601157/the-headline-tweet-unfair-significance-jeremy-lin) Kang\* notes that Lin used the online handle ChiNkBaLLa88 when he was in high school. I wonder how a young Jeremy Lin became familiar with such a fusty, obscure racial slur that nobody uses. Incidentally, why does any publication pay Jason Whitlock to write about anything? He finally takes a break from talking about Serena Williams’ ass and does it by sending a tweet saying Jeremy Lin has a small penis. How does this guy have a job at all? \*Point of stupidity: I didn’t know Kang was Asian because I’d always read his last name as “King.” ---
**Author:** ![FixMyIgnorance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7feea3/32.png) [@FixMyIgnorance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FixMyIgnorance)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-travesty-to-end-someones-career-over-chink-in-the-armor/613474/199 "2012-02-22T16:21:11Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > I will, thank you, because it \*is \*a homonym. I actually just learned the word “homonym” the other day in the wake of this incident, because a friend of mine who is an English professor at a prestigious university remarked that he “shudder(s) at the idea that homonyms mean the same thing”. Again, see my post referring to words like “broad”, “gable”, “slant”, etc. It’s not far before we’re down the rabbit hole if we do make it a policy that homonyms mean the same thing. It is a homonym, but who cares? Did he _really_ have to use the word “chink” when referring to an Asian athlete, even if only figuratively? As a major sports writer, he couldn’t think of _any_ better analogy? Any better word that would avoid the obvious backlash that would result? Really? > [@SlackerInc](#): > > Yet several of us have said we have not actually heard anyone, you know, \*use \*it. If you’re a writer for a major network, you are held to higher standards. Tact and word choice are huge components of the job itself. Journalism spends a great deal of time with this. I rarely hear people use “spic and span” but I sure as hell wouldn’t use it in a major headline in conjunction with someone of Hispanic descent. Just because you don’t hear it being used doesn’t mean you don’t necessarily know about it at all or understand that in other contexts it _is_ used frequently enough to be considered offensive. > [@SlackerInc](#): > > No, because no one ever says that in sports articles, unlike (until now) “chink in the armor”. Okay. What about “white on rice”? With a bit of Googling, I found (funnily enough from a 2003 post on SD here [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=3254605&postcount=3](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=3254605&postcount=3) ) that a Mark Jones of ESPN has used that phrase to talk about defense before. It’s also a pretty commonly used phrase. Or how about “Nipped in the bud”? The point still stands, either way. > [@SlackerInc](#): > > I am not playing “plausible deniability” and I am offended by the accusation, which implies that my motive here is for a racist to be able to get away with purposeful “dogwhistle” type comments while maintaining a superficial alternate explanation for them. Nothing could be further from the truth: I loathe the very notion of anyone doing that. By “plausible deniability” I mean the sort of defense where you can say, “Look, this is a common idiom. It’s even been used before in past articles. Not a whole lot of people use it, in my experience. And I have an Asian wife – why would I make such a screwup intentionally?” It’s a \*plausible \*way to \*deny \*any sort of intentional malice or even bad punning. > [@SlackerInc](#): > > It’s beyond absurd to say that it is like the n-word or c-word. Neither I nor anyone else would look at any headline that contained those words and not see an obscenity. Neither of those words are contained within commonly used (until now) innocuous phrases with no ethnic or racial connotation. Furthermore, I actually hear those words from time to time (the n-word mainly in hip hop lyrics but occasionally elsewhere as for instance in the mini-scandal over Rick Perry’s ranch). I never ever hear anyone say “chink” in a racially oriented way. I’d say this is fairly ignorant. Calling an Asian person a c-word makes me feel the same way as if I called a black person the n-word, and I can guarantee many others feel the same. Either way, it doesn’t matter: If you’re in charge of writing for a major network, the standards are higher for you. If you can’t handle the job functions, you’ll get booted out in favor of someone who hopefully can. ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-travesty-to-end-someones-career-over-chink-in-the-armor/613474/200 "2012-02-22T17:05:25Z")
SlackerInc, you are a wordsmith whose avocation is copy editing, and who until recently did not know the word homonym. You are the product of college professor parents whose grandparents lived a Park Avenue/ Palm Beach existence, yet you lived in ghettos as a child. You are a cinephile who has never seen Blazing Saddles and who made it only partway through Gran Torino. It seems to me that your experiences are very oddly inconsistent and atypical. I suggest that you may not be in a very good position to judge what the average person should be expected to know or perceive as regards fairly common racial slurs. I further suggest that if you ever find yourself in a job like that of the guy in the matter under discussion, that you make use of the Urban Dictionary on a daily basis. You wouldn’t want to miss the fact that a writer tried to describe the Jets quarterback as dirty Sanchez, for instance, even if he were literally covered in mud after a game. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-travesty-to-end-someones-career-over-chink-in-the-armor/613474.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-travesty-to-end-someones-career-over-chink-in-the-armor/613474.md?page=11)