# 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:** 2
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-travesty-to-end-someones-career-over-chink-in-the-armor/613474/21 "2012-02-21T01:31:15Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > I’m also curious about how that worked. Me three. I’ll note that given the frequency with which ESPN’s multiple sources are updated, editorial control is probably loose, at best. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-travesty-to-end-someones-career-over-chink-in-the-armor/613474/22 "2012-02-21T01:31:20Z")
This was bad but not _as_ bad as some things. There are certain phrases out there that use the word “nigger” and the people who use the phrases try to argue that the phrase is not deliberately racist. Let’s go down that trail of tortured reasoning and presume that maybe in a socially and historically neutral world you might be able to use the word nigger in a phrase in a way that wasn’t offensive. That _might_ be possible, but let’s be honest unless you’re talking about the word nigger and how it is used (or talking about the works of Mark Twain) any casual use of the word nigger is racist, period. However, chink has a very real use that isn’t racist. The phrase “chink in the armor” is a phrase I’ve seen honestly hundreds and maybe thousands of times in my life. It’s just a very common phrase (maybe more so to me than most people.) I’ve known the “chink” as racial slur thing my whole life, too. But for whatever reason, I guess because of the fact chink literally is a synonym for crack, fissure or etc and has been historically used that way and is used that way even in the modern world, I don’t automatically assume or even think about the racial slur when I hear the word chink. Yeah, if I ever hear it in reference to a person, I immediately think “racial slur.” I actually had a discussion about this with an Asian person, and they said that “any use of that word will result in someone going off on you.” The Asian person in question basically was not aware that chink had _any_ meaning in English aside from as a racial slur. That surprised me, and I’m not really ready to say that we can’t ever utter the word chink. If you look at even the etymology of the word nigger, even from its earliest usage, it was used to disparage blacks. The etymology of the word chink is totally harmless, and it has a consistent persistent use as a harmless word referring to a crack, fissure, or etc in something (usually armor.) I don’t even think chink is akin to the word faggot. Not too many years ago, faggot was truly just a reference to a bundle of sticks or twigs (in fact I see this use in 19th century literature all the time.) But today, anyone dropping the word faggot who tries to say they aren’t using it as a slur, are basically full of shit. No one says faggot to reference anything other than gays in this day and age. I’m not ready to concede chink has gone down that path, nor do I think we should ever. Chink is a real word and I don’t think we should have to give it up just because it is also used as a racial slur. To me it’d be as stupid as giving up the use of the word cracker. Now, for someone who is in the professional media I see no reason to assume they _weren’t_ trying to make a pun on the dual meaning of the word. That’s just plain stupid and the firing was justified. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-travesty-to-end-someones-career-over-chink-in-the-armor/613474/23 "2012-02-21T01:35:34Z")
I don’t follow basketball but did the Knicks have some particular vulnerability in their game that Lin discovered and exploited? Or did the Hornets play well and Lin just played better? In other words, was there a metaphorical “chink in the armor” in this game or did the writer come up with the phrase for other reasons? ---
**Author:** ![sitchensis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sitchensis/32/4892_2.png) [@sitchensis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sitchensis)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-travesty-to-end-someones-career-over-chink-in-the-armor/613474/24 "2012-02-21T01:40:30Z")
> [@Zakalwe](#): > > Me three. I’ll note that given the frequency with which ESPN’s multiple sources are updated, editorial control is probably loose, at best. Yeah, that would make the firing even more justified. If your only defense to the charge of racism is that you’re too stupid to know any better. You probably shouldn’t have the power to make the ESPN brand look bad. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-travesty-to-end-someones-career-over-chink-in-the-armor/613474/25 "2012-02-21T01:44:34Z")
> [@Zakalwe](#): > > Me three. I’ll note that given the frequency with which ESPN’s multiple sources are updated, editorial control is probably loose, at best. Yeah. I think the most likely explanation is that this guy was able to post content to the mobile site himself, and when a supervisor checked and saw this headline half an hour later (on his own or in response to complaints), it got yanked. > [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I don’t follow basketball but did the Knicks have some particular vulnerability in their game that Lin discovered and exploited? Or did the Hornets play well and Lin just played better? > > In other words, was there a metaphorical “chink in the armor” in this game or did the writer come up with the phrase for other reasons? Jeremy Lin plays for the Knicks. What happened in the game was they played like shit and the Hornets beat them even though the Hornets are a bad team. It was the Knicks’ first loss since Lin became a major contributor to the team two weeks ago. The Hornets did not discover any particular vulnerability in Lin or the Knicks- Lin turned the ball over a lot, but he’s been doing that every game. “Chink in the Armor” was just the worst of a lot of puns related to Lin’s name and ethnicity in the last couple of weeks. ---
**Author:** ![miss\_elizabeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@miss\_elizabeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/miss_elizabeth)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-travesty-to-end-someones-career-over-chink-in-the-armor/613474/26 "2012-02-21T01:49:58Z")
Oh, boo hoo, someone got fired for saying a racial slur! What ever shall become of our great nation if sports writers can’t make bad puns based around someone’s race? Between this and affirmative action, why, it’s amazing white men manage to get anything done! White people- the real victims. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-travesty-to-end-someones-career-over-chink-in-the-armor/613474/27 "2012-02-21T02:19:54Z")
> [@miss\_elizabeth](#): > > Oh, boo hoo, someone got fired for saying a racial slur! What ever shall become of our great nation if sports writers can’t make bad puns based around someone’s race? The point isn’t that he got fired for a racial slur, the point is that in certain contexts “chink” is a rather innocent word, and it’s up in the air whether or not it’s intentionally racist in this case. Chink isn’t akin to nigger, it’s closer to raging because “Spic ‘n’ Span” was in an article about a member of the hispanic community (without prior evidence that it was intentionally offensive). Sure “Spic” is offensive if used directly, but “Spic ‘n’ Span” is a very common product and phrase, it’s not immediately racist. I don’t quite buy the “he should have known better as a writer” argument. Editors exist for a reason, and he probably DID know better. People have bad days, he may have just had a massive brain fart, something that’s not exactly unheard of. I don’t really follow sports news, so I’ll defer to everyone else that it’s hard to swallow in this case because it’s last in a long line of stealth puns about Lin and it didn’t make much sense in the original context, but in general I don’t think it’s obviously racist. > [@](#): > > Between this and affirmative action, why, it’s amazing white men manage to get anything done! White people- the real victims. From what I’ve gathered, the writer was hispanic so… not really relevant. Besides, it’s not like this affects only white people, I don’t think the fallout would be any different for any ethnicity of writer (except perhaps Chinese, though on a text news article it probably wouldn’t have made much of a difference). ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-travesty-to-end-someones-career-over-chink-in-the-armor/613474/28 "2012-02-21T02:58:08Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **Marley23** : > > Let’s not be ridiculous here: even Federico is not denying he was making a pun on the two meanings of “chink.” OK, if that’s the case, then yes, firing is justifiable. Use of a racial slur in a headline (or anywhere else in a story, for that matter) is a valid reason to fire a journalist. The only relevant question for me is if the racial meaning was intended, and if it is, I consider the matter resolved. ---
**Author:** ![Omg\_a\_Black\_Conservative](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Omg\_a\_Black\_Conservative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omg_a_Black_Conservative)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-travesty-to-end-someones-career-over-chink-in-the-armor/613474/29 "2012-02-21T03:02:15Z")
I shudder to think what will happen to the guy who points out that Lin runs the slant well. ---
**Author:** ![Condescending\_Robot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a183cd/32.png) [@Condescending\_Robot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Condescending_Robot)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-travesty-to-end-someones-career-over-chink-in-the-armor/613474/30 "2012-02-21T03:02:36Z")
Typical dogwhistle racist apologism. Pretend that “a chink in the armor” would make sense as a headline about a basketball team losing a game (nope), complain about the unfairness of a private company choosing to end its association with an idiot, feign ignorance as to obvious racist content. Blah blah, boo hoo. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-travesty-to-end-someones-career-over-chink-in-the-armor/613474/31 "2012-02-21T03:18:22Z")
I can understand someone making a dumb mistake. But the link says Federico is a writer, and not an on-air personality reporting something as it happens. Shouldn’t somebody have caught that before it went to air? ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-travesty-to-end-someones-career-over-chink-in-the-armor/613474/32 "2012-02-21T03:19:55Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > The word “chink” is _not_ always offensive-- It depends on context. In reference to a person of Chinese ethnicity, it’s offensive. In reference to a gap in armor, it’s not. The tricky part here is that it’s not completely clear what the relevant context is. I see that the full headline was: “Chink in the Armor: Jeremy Lin’s 9 Turnovers Cost Knicks in Streak-Snapping Loss to Hornets.” It would seem the context is pretty clear: Lin is being identified as the “chink.” ---
**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-travesty-to-end-someones-career-over-chink-in-the-armor/613474/33 "2012-02-21T03:20:25Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > Of course Lin is going to shrug it off! If he didn’t shrug it off, people would be calling him a hypersensitive jackass. How often do people get fired for hypersensitivity? ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-travesty-to-end-someones-career-over-chink-in-the-armor/613474/34 "2012-02-21T03:43:19Z")
> [@rat\_avatar](#): > > I’m not so sure about this “chink in the armor” is a common used sports phrase, there is no indication the “chink” was used due to the Asian connection. The full headline quoted by **Ravenan** indicates it was indeed used thus. Try these parallel innocuous phrases for size: **There’s a nip in the air: New York gripped by cold snap** versus: **There’s a nip in the air: Tokyo gripped by cold snap** You’d have to be a massive dumbass to pass the second, even if there is no racist intent. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-travesty-to-end-someones-career-over-chink-in-the-armor/613474/35 "2012-02-21T03:44:56Z")
> [@Condescending\_Robot](#): > > Typical dogwhistle racist apologism. Pretend that “a chink in the armor” would make sense as a headline about a basketball team losing a game (nope), complain about the unfairness of a private company choosing to end its association with an idiot, feign ignorance as to obvious racist content. Blah blah, boo hoo. It COULD make sense. After seeing what the headline actually was, oh yeah, in this case it’s certainly ill advised, stupid, and insensitive, if not necessarily racist. But if you’re talking about a team’s defense, that metaphorically is their “armor,” and if the defense is falling apart, “a chink in the armor” works well enough as a turn of phrase. That said, I don’t think “racist” is the only option. Again, we’re not talking about “nigger” here, “chink in the armor” is a pretty common turn of phrase. It’s entirely plausible that somebody wasn’t thinking at the moment and just stupidly didn’t catch the pun. I don’t think that’s the case here. Even so, even if we assume it was intentional, it’s not immediately “racist” if somebody uses a slur – some people just aren’t as funny as they think they are. Insensitive and ill-advised, certainly. I’ll even give you that they’re probably a douchebag if they try to make the joke, but I’d wait and see what their opinions towards actual issues and people are before I’d play the racist card. People can use the word “spic” to try and fail at being funny while supporting Latin American issues, or they can be a moron who thinks “they” need to “get out of our country” and never use a slur in their life. I think stupidly offensive and racist are on completely different axes, unless you’re willing to call every 14 year old on XBox Live a racist. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-travesty-to-end-someones-career-over-chink-in-the-armor/613474/36 "2012-02-21T04:34:26Z")
The thing is, turning the ball over (which is apparently what Lin did too often) isn’t a problem of defense. The turn of phrase isn’t even apt! If the headline was, “Chink in the Armor: Hornets Offensive Rebounds Break Knicks Win Streak,” then racism wouldn’t enter into it, as far as I see. But the term “chink” seems to be used specifically in reference to Lin. Again, I’m willing to give the journalist a chance to explain himself, but the phrase doesn’t really make very much sense except as a off-color racial pun in the context that it actually appeared in. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-travesty-to-end-someones-career-over-chink-in-the-armor/613474/37 "2012-02-21T04:44:38Z")
It was either an intentional use of the term to highlight it’s multiple meanings, or a dumbass mistake, or both. Either way, some disciplinary action was warranted, because everyone on earth knew about the overload of racial references used in this story already. And that would extend to any editors that let it pass. Anyway, the guy’s career isn’t over. He should be mulling over an offer from Fox News right now. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-travesty-to-end-someones-career-over-chink-in-the-armor/613474/38 "2012-02-21T05:48:53Z")
I was in the newspaper business for a short time. This slip was inexcusable and it surprises me that there are not at least two people or more being let go. There are any number of people along the way that should have known better and had the authority to stop this. It just isn’t plausible that one person, much less several did not know the derogatory meaning, and if they didn’t, they shouldn’t be in that business. Racists shouldn’t be copy editors or news writers in the same way that drunks should not be bus drivers. ---
**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 21, 2012, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-travesty-to-end-someones-career-over-chink-in-the-armor/613474/39 "2012-02-21T06:33:11Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > I can see where the guy didn’t mean to be offensive to Lin, personally. And Lin is on record as having shrugged it off. But they guy used a racial slur in a headline. He needs to be operating only with a learner’s permit. I don’t believe he did use a racial slur. He used a \*homonym \*of a racial slur. How many of those who are willing to condemn the guy saw the headline before they knew there was a controversy about it? Very very few, I bet. I actually somehow managed to, and despite my nearly perfect SAT and ACT scores (mentioned just for reading comprehension credentials), it didn’t occur to me at all that it was meant as a slur. My reaction was “give the guy a break, he’s going to have an off game now and then–no one’s perfect”. Anyone saying that I’m guilty of “dogwhistle apologism” clearly doesn’t know me at all. I’m a liberal Democrat, albeit not one of those who constantly complains about Obama (I wear my Obama 2012 pin wherever I go). I denounced Gingrich’s “food stamp president” line, and am currently in a feud with my kids’ stepfather because he put a photo on Facebook of a billboard that implied Obama was elected because of white guilt, and was sponsored by the “Council of Conservative Citizens”, which is what they used to call the “uptown Klan”. I organized a march to protest a case of a bunch of white cops in my town beating a black guy nearly to death, which led to the police chief resigning. So don’t tell me I’m supporting dogwhistles! I just think this was an innocent mistake, or at least cannot be provably shown to be otherwise. ---
**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 21, 2012, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-travesty-to-end-someones-career-over-chink-in-the-armor/613474/40 "2012-02-21T06:36:17Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Let’s not be ridiculous here: even Federico is not denying he was making a pun on the two meanings of “chink.” Do you have a cite for that? Because if you do, I will unhesitatingly, unequivocally withdraw my support for him. I’m not at all making a “lighten up, it was just a joke” defence–I’m making a “‘a chink in the armor’ referred to his not being perfect after all, and he wasn’t even thinking about race” argument. But if I don’t have all the information, and Federico has admitted he was knowingly using a pun, then throw him to the wolves for all I care! ETA: Looks like you were just making an assumption, **Marley** , without strong info. What say you about this: > [@](#): > > The ESPN editor fired Sunday for using “chink in the armor” in a headline about Knicks phenom Jeremy Lin said **the racial slur never crossed his mind - and he was devastated when he realized his mistake.** > > “ **This had nothing to do with me being cute or punny** ,” Anthony Federico told the Daily News. > > […] > > He said he has used the phrase “at least 100 times” in headlines over the years and thought nothing of it when he slapped it on the Lin story. Source: [http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basketball/knicks/jeremy-lin-slur-honest-mistake-fired-espn-editor-anthony-federico-claims-article-1.1025566#ixzz1mzoDYbbL](http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basketball/knicks/jeremy-lin-slur-honest-mistake-fired-espn-editor-anthony-federico-claims-article-1.1025566#ixzz1mzoDYbbL) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-travesty-to-end-someones-career-over-chink-in-the-armor/613474.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-travesty-to-end-someones-career-over-chink-in-the-armor/613474.md?page=3)