It's a travesty to end someone's career over "chink in the armor"

[FixMyIgnorance]

@SlackerInc

You can say it until the cows come home, but it won’t stop me from gritting my teeth every time I read that this was a “stupid and obvious failure”.

Using a word that could be easily interpreted as a racist quip in a headline about a man whose race has been a hot topic lately… that’s just got negligence written all over it, regardless of intention. It’s careless. It’d be like writing that Lin’s victories lately have been sweet and sour. Play plausible deniability all you want – it’s still incredibly poor judgment and I think falls well within the definition of a stupid, obvious failure.

@SlackerInc

So, while we still can’t know what was in Federico’s heart, we now know that his boss is 100 percent sure Federico did not make the connection with a racial slur. (Or his boss says so, anyway; but I’m not sure why he would lie about that.)

Again, I don’t think intention here is all that important. What matters is that it was a poor choice of words.

@SlackerInc

Or he just doesn’t think about fusty old racial slurs no one ever uses when he hears the phrase “chink in the armor”. Or, that is, he didn’t; now I’m sure he can’t stop thinking about them.

It’s not some “fusty old racial slur.” It’s a slur most people are well aware of, like the f-word or the n-word. This should be obvious considering the level of backlash this has gotten. I have a hard time believing that someone can use a phrase like that on a topic that is largely on everyone’s minds because of race and simply chalk it up to ignorance. My money’s on bad-pun attempt.

@SlackerInc

So explain to me how he’s so irresponsible or clueless that he needed to be fired immediately, but he’s got a “good resume” and “skills” that would be attractive to other journalistic outlets in an economy where newspapers and magazines have massively downsized over the years? Or you mean he can get some low profile cubicle job at an insurance company or somewhere? Maybe so; but that would still mean his career is over. I doubt he was just doing that as a job–rather, it was likely a labour of love. His future is more likely filled with “just a paycheck” kind of employment.

1. What he did was inexcusably sloppy and hurts ESPN’s image. Very warranted justification for insta-firing.

2. Plenty of people in highly-esteemed positions screw up and still find work afterward. Even high-ranking financial officers who lose TONS of money for their firms still go on to land high spots at other firms after they’ve been canned. Sometimes employers/other firms just chalk it up to bad luck or a silly mistake or crappy situational circumstances, and care more about skills/experience and won’t hesitate to “buy” when the “price” is low.

[Marley23]

@SlackerInc

Or he just doesn’t think about fusty old racial slurs no one ever uses

@FixMyIgnorance

It’s not some “fusty old racial slur.”

Yes. The claim that it’s a “fusty old racial slur no one ever uses” is belied by the immediate reaction to the story. As Poynter wrote:

Federico pushed the headline out himself — and, when Mormile was alerted a little after 3 a.m., Twitter “was blowing up with people putting up screen shots and condemnations.”

I think you are just cutting the guy too much slack, SlackerInc. (Heh.) He’s in a position where he is supposed to be more informed and selective about language than the average person, and here, he was much less. The racial slur is not particularly old and fusty and it’s definitely not obscure. It’s not unreasonable to expect a journalist to be aware of it and avoid it when writing about a prominent Asian guy.

[The_Bith_Shuffle]

What makes me think the phrase was racially motivated is that its use was pretty awkward. It follows the “Bold Title: Explanatory Subtitle” model used for the titles of books and academic papers. If he just wanted to relay factual information, he could have used the title “Jeremy Lin’s 9 Turnovers Cost Knicks in Streak-stopping Loss to Hornets.” But instead he starts with some phrase that’s supposed to be punchy but really draws too much attention to itself. It’s like he really went out of his way to say “chink.”

[pulykamell]

@Marley23

The racial slur is not particularly old and fusty and it’s definitely not obscure.

Indeed, where I’m at in my part of Chicago, the word “chink” is not exactly uncommon. “Nip” is another story–never heard that one in the wild here (perhaps because there aren’t a lot of Japanese where I’m at.) “Chink,” though, is alive and well.

[SlackerInc]

@Marley23

And assert that it’s a homonym all you like

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.

The racial slur is not particularly old and fusty and it’s definitely not obscure.

Yet several of us have said we have not actually heard anyone, you know, *use *it.

@FixMyIgnorance

It’d be like writing that Lin’s victories lately have been sweet and sour.

No, because no one ever says that in sports articles, unlike (until now) “chink in the armor”.

Play plausible deniability all you want

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.

It’s not some “fusty old racial slur.” It’s a slur most people are well aware of, like the f-word or the n-word.

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.

when Mormile was alerted a little after 3 a.m., Twitter “was blowing up with people putting up screen shots and condemnations

Let’s think about that for a second. In the old days, if a switchboard lit up with people calling to complain about something, you knew that a lot of people had independently found it outrageous. What do we know, at minimum, if Twitter “blows up” with something? That at least one person read a homonym as its homonym, tweeted about it, and it went viral with lots of people (who never saw the headline in its native form, just the tweets with screenshots) applying their 20/20 hindsight and retweeting it. That’s it. We do not in fact know that more than a tiny fraction of the people who read the headline “fresh” saw it as anything but innocuous.

ETA: I clearly don’t hang out with the kind of people you do, pulykamell. Are these people you actually like? I just can’t imagine. And maybe that’s part of the problem: some people can’t imagine it the other way, that lots of us don’t ever rub elbows with people who hurl racial invective and so don’t look for it in our environment.

[pulykamell]

@The_Bith_Shuffle

What makes me think the phrase was racially motivated is that its use was pretty awkward. It follows the “Bold Title: Explanatory Subtitle” model used for the titles of books and academic papers. If he just wanted to relay factual information, he could have used the title “Jeremy Lin’s 9 Turnovers Cost Knicks in Streak-stopping Loss to Hornets.” But instead he starts with some phrase that’s supposed to be punchy but really draws too much attention to itself. It’s like he really went out of his way to say “chink.”

That style is common in journalism. A short, punchy headline (“hammer”) followed by a smaller explanatory headline (“deck”) is pretty standard for features, sports, breaking news, etc. Anything you want to grab attention. You headline, honestly, is way too wordy for a main head. It’s long enough to be a lead.

[grude]

You know I was aware in a VAGUE sense that spade was a racial slur of some kind(probably from a novel or film) but was not aware of what race it referred to until this thread.

I also had to have slope explained, and for the longest time thought a spook was either a ghost or a spy.

It is possible for people, especially younger people who would never have heard the more obscure slurs in real life, to not know their meaning.

[pulykamell]

@SlackerInc

ETA: I clearly don’t hang out with the kind of people you do, pulykamell. Are these people you actually like?

I live in a working class city neighborhood. People use all sorts of derogatory racial words here. I don’t have to be friends with them to hear them. Plus, yes, I have family and acquaintances that will use such words. I can’t imagine growing up in a blue collar neighborhood in Chicago and that not being part of your experience. Yeah, it’s not great, and it’s nowhere near as out in the open as it was when I was a kid, but it’s still omnipresent.

When I see the headline in the OP, I find it very, very hard to believe the headline writer wasn’t trying to be clever with a pun. I’ve spent a spell copy editing and writing headlines, and that’s exactly the sort of wordplay you live for when writing headlines. I mean, it’s certainly possible that it was an innocent mistake, and the headline writer just trotted out another tired cliche out of sheer laziness. But I doubt it. “Chink in the armor” on its own is a boring sports headline. It’s the double meaning that makes it clever. And offensive.

[SlackerInc]

@grude

You know I was aware in a VAGUE sense that spade was a racial slur of some kind(probably from a novel or film) but was not aware of what race it referred to until this thread.

I also had to have slope explained, and for the longest time thought a spook was either a ghost or a spy.

It is possible for people, especially younger people who would never have heard the more obscure slurs in real life, to not know their meaning.

Appreciate this report! I wonder: how many of those who condemned Federico ITT are 28 or younger?

BTW, you’re not wrong about “ghost or spy” for “spook”, and I’d think those meanings are used *much *more often than the racial one. That’s what makes these circumstances so ambiguous (and, again, why it’s nothing like the c-word or n-word, which don’t have alternate and innocuous meanings).

Oh, and almost forgot to ask, grude: what about “chink”? Did you know that one? Have you heard it used before as a racial slur? What about “chink in the/his/her* armor”? Which have you encountered more often?

*Would this whole thing have fizzled out if Federico had instead written “chink in *his *armor” instead of “chink in *the *armor”?

ETA: Pulykamell, My parents were college professors, my dad a Ph.D. from Stanford who grew up with Palm Beach/Park Ave. parents, and my mom grew up with a socialist father (a civil engineer as well) who got hauled before the HUAC in the McCarthy era. I can’t imagine having family or even acquaintances like yours; but can you concede that you might have a hard time imagining what it’s like to grow up in a highly educated, non-blue collar milieu?

[pulykamell]

@SlackerInc

but can you concede that you might have a hard time imagining what it’s like to grow up in a highly educated, non-blue collar milieu?

I’m not sure what point you’re trying to get at here. What if I say that yes, I have some inkling? What does any of that have to do with the point? I was just reporting that the term “chink” is still alive and well.

[HazelNutCoffee]

In what world is the racist meaning of chink obscure? Even in the wilds of Northren Ireland, where most people have never even seen a Chinese person their entire lives, I’ve heard the word chink used in the derogatory sense. That must be some bubble you live in. And my dad’s a professor too, la-di-dah.

[SecondJudith]

And yet you’ve just learned the word “homonym” the other day?

I worked as a sub editor for five years before being promoted to my current job and I completely agree with Marley23 - it was extremely obvious and the editor should have caught it.

[SlackerInc]

@pulykamell

I’m not sure what point you’re trying to get at here. What if I say that yes, I have some inkling? What does any of that have to do with the point? I was just reporting that the term “chink” is still alive and well.

Yes, and I told you I found that fact morbidly fascinating, something I was not aware of. I was trying to persuade you that your feeling that it was “very hard to believe” this could be an innocent mistake might be in part because you are in an environs where you regularly hear “chink” used in reference to people of Chinese descent. Whereas well over 99.9 percent of the times I’ve ever heard it, it referred to a little notch missing from a piece of armour. I’m just getting at psychology and linguistics here.

I don’t know Federico’s background but I and a few others are reporting that for us at least in our “bubbles” if you wish (though why isn’t your environment the real bubble, when people are saying things that wouldn’t fly on the radio or TV?), we have a linguistic environment that trains us to see this word differently.

BTW I want to mention that I didn’t mean to imply that my paternal grandparents (summers on Park Ave. and winters in Palm Beach) were not racist. They were, no doubt about it; in fact, my grandfather’s fortune was a legacy of slave plantations in Barbados, which led my dad (an anthropologist) to become a black sheep and renounce the “family business” (by that time, real estate, slumlording as I understand it). But they wouldn’t have dreamt of being so uncouth as to use course, vulgar racial epithets. Their racism was more in practice than in word.

[SlackerInc]

@HazelNutCoffee

In what world is the racist meaning of chink obscure? Even in the wilds of Northren Ireland, where most people have never even seen a Chinese person their entire lives, I’ve heard the word chink used in the derogatory sense. That must be some bubble you live in. And my dad’s a professor too, la-di-dah.

Well, la-di-dah for him then!

Do I sense some sort of pride that you spend your time around people who use racist language? That strikes me as curious. I’m quite glad not to hear those words, or have my children exposed to them–I would find it very discomfiting, even distressing. I also don’t know that I could hold my tongue (or that I’d feel good about myself if I did), which (at least based on my stereotypical idea of what racial epithet-spouting people are like) I would worry might lead me to get my face bashed in or worse. (I did organise that police brutality march, but when we got down to the town square, there were hundreds of people behind me, including dozens of pissed off African American football players from the local university, and I felt very safe.)

And indeed, Judith: I don’t claim to know every word in the English language–just a lot more of them than the average bear. I may have seen “homonym” somewhere before but probably scanned it as meaning the same thing as “homophone” (a conflation which some websites, including the onethat comes up right after the Wikipedia entry when I Google “homonym”, erroneously perpetuate as well).

[grude]

@SlackerInc

Oh, and almost forgot to ask, grude: what about “chink”? Did you know that one? Have you heard it used before as a racial slur? What about “chink in the/his/her* armor”? Which have you encountered more often?

I’ve heard it and was aware of it’s meaning, but I believe gook was more popular as a slur for asians where I grew up.

I didn’t grow up in a sheltered enviroment at all BTW.

[HazelNutCoffee]

@SlackerInc

Well, la-di-dah for him then!

Do I sense some sort of pride that you spend your time around people who use racist language? That strikes me as curious. I’m quite glad not to hear those words, or have my children exposed to them–I would find it very discomfiting, even distressing. I also don’t know that I could hold my tongue (or that I’d feel good about myself if I did), which (at least based on my stereotypical idea of what racial epithet-spouting people are like) I would worry might lead me to get my face bashed in or worse. (I did organise that police brutality march, but when we got down to the town square, there were hundreds of people behind me, including dozens of pissed off African American football players from the local university, and I felt very safe.)

Wow. Where the hell do you get the idea that I like to hang around racist people? Do you think I enjoy being called a chink? Because I don’t, just to make things clear. I am merely curious as to how anyone can think the word “chink” has fallen into disuse as a racial slur. Every single Asian-American person I know has heard that particular term hurled at them at least once in their lives, and it’s not like Asian- Americans are known for living in particularly ghetto neighborhoods.

[SlackerInc]

@HazelNutCoffee

Wow. Where the hell do you get the idea that I like to hang around racist people?

I didn’t mean that you *liked *it; however, I thought I got the impression from your mocking tone of “that must be some bubble you live in” and “la-di-dah” that you thought your being exposed to more uncouth characters was, if not necessarily more pleasant per se, more “real” or “gritty” or “character-building” or something like that, whereas I was some kind of pitiable hothouse flower for not being exposed to that kind of language. No? Anyway, you did seem to be kind of contemptuous there, which is why I got defensive; but if I’ve misunderstood you I apologise.

ETA: BTW, I have lived in ghetto neighbourhoods, where there was a lot of racial diversity, as well as liberal college towns. I never heard racial epithets in the inner city, probably because that would be asking for bigtime trouble. I have never however lived in a mostly white low income neighbourhood, which is where I assume you hear most of that talk.

[HazelNutCoffee]

I’m not saying that being exposed to the word “chink” is character building. I’m expressing sincere disbelief that people can live in the US and not think “chink” in conjunction with “Asian person” is racist. Also, I thought it was weird that you brought up your background as an explanation for not making the association yourself. My point was that an upper-middle-class background does not necessarily mean you won’t be exposed to that sort of language. Really, I went to grad school with plenty of uppity types (really, like Eton/Oxbridge/my-grandfather-is -a-lord-sort-of-types) and none of them think that the headline was some kind of honest mistake.

Having said that, I’m not making any kind of judgement about you or your background. I believe you’re sincere when you say you believe it was an honest mistake. I’m just wondering if you realize that you are in a minority.

[SlackerInc]

@HazelNutCoffee

I believe you’re sincere when you say you believe it was an honest mistake. I’m just wondering if you realize that you are in a minority.

That’s been made abundantly clear! However, there have been a few others (not my sock puppets, I promise you) who have expressed a similar opinion–I’m not all alone either. 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.

ETA: I’ll also repeat that anyone who heard about the controversy and then expressed their certainty that the headline couldn’t be an honest mistake can’t really know for sure because of the hindsight 20/20 thing. Hell, I can’t be sure I wouldn’t be right there with you! It just happened that I saw it “unspoiled” and so was aware that it didn’t set off any alarm bells.

[Frylock]

@Snowboarder_Bo

So you knew it was a slur, but had never heard it used as a slur, except maybe in a discussion of the fact that it was slur? Do I have that right?

Are you saying you’ve never seen Blazing Saddles?

I’ve never seen that movie in its entirety, and I do not recall seeing a part of it where “chink” is used as a slur. (It was long, long ago, though.)

I wouldn’t have counted that use anyway–it’s a “commentary” use, not a straightforward use. What I was saying is I don’t think I’ve ever heard it used straightforwardly with derogatory intent. If that’s not what you were asking about then never mind.