racist jeremy lin espn headline poll

he wasn't making a pun. it's a very commonly used sports cliche, and i don't see any reason to impugn his sincerity if he says it was unintentional. there's a pretty clear difference between headline writing, where you should obviously be aware of these double meanings (that's more or less your job), and saying something like that in a conversation

well he still probably does not understand the full context of 'the thing he did', remember he is a fundamentally stupid human being

we're talking about the anchor now, right? what has he said that would lead you to believe he's stupid?

I differ w/ kev in that I think it's pretty unlikely he didn't know there was a pun, he just didn't really understand what kinda pun it was.

we're talking about the dude who typed 'chink in the armor'

uh yeah if his wife is asian i'm gonna go ahead and guess he's familiar with that slur

xp no i'm talking about the anchor who said that and was suspended for 30 days

i am totally not defending the headline writer

oh i thought it was the headline writer who had mentioned his asian wife in his apology

...it still seems unnecessary to me

it was the anchor

he wasn't making a pun. it's a very commonly used sports cliche, and i don't see any reason to impugn his sincerity if he says it was unintentional. there's a pretty clear difference between headline writing, where you should obviously be aware of these double meanings (that's more or less your job), and saying something like that in a conversation

― ploppawheelie V (k3vin k.), Monday, February 20, 2012 1:29 PM (17 minutes ago) Bookmark

hey man, initially ,I wasn't too hard on the anchor either, I'm just pointing out that what he tweeted is a standard default position for ppl who make offensive comments to take, or at the very least smells like it, and is sometimes used to hide the ball.

agnostic on this. there's no way to know what either of these dudes was thinking. whether or not the slurs were intentional, both deserve the punishment they got.

i dunno -- i do feel these guys were 'thrown under the bus' (to use a cliche that i would be equally ok with them being punished for.) inadvertent racial slurs are an inevitable consequence in a culture of overused metaphors and "wacky" wordplay. one of these "linsanity" puns is gonna go over the line, just wait.

I'm glad the writer was fired. Deserved imo.

I genuinely feel bad for Max Bretos. I think the suspension is only the network trying to save face and I believe what he is quoted as saying above. He has worked MLS for years and has always come across as a very enthusiastic sports fan who got his dream gig and ran with it.

I was actually glad he stopped doing play-by-play because he was terrible at it, which is also why I surmise he was reading copy when he said it and probably didn't realize exactly what he said until after the fact when it blew up. When he did play-by-play he was constantly stumbling for words and his goal call was just god-awful.

inadvertent racial slurs are an inevitable consequence in a culture of overused metaphors and "wacky" wordplay.

o rly

it says a lot about ESPN in 2012 that the best you can hope for is that they are *just* incredibly stupid

i've said my piece, still think the anchor caught a raw deal

Dave Zirin's take.

No one at ESPN would talk or write about a lesbian athlete and unconsciously put forth that the woman in question would have a “finger in the dike.” If an African-American player was thought of as stingy, it’s doubtful that anyone at the World Wide Leader would describe that person as “niggardly.” They would never brand a member of a football team as a “Redskin” (wait, scratch that last one.)

i like zirin, but implying that these phrases are used equally as frequently in sports journalism is absurd.

again, apologizing for only the anchor here

what's your point?

think kev's point is that it seems plausible enough that the anchor could use a commonly employed sports trope ad lib without any intention to offend, or to even reference nationality/ethnicity.

Headline writer, not so much

my point is that suspending an anchor for using "chink in the armor" off-the-cuff, given the fact that afaik it has no malicious etymology or connotations to speak of, is ridiculous. saying what he did is not racism; it's not even casual racism. and i think it's bullshit that he's becoming a scapegoat for it. the sanctimony all over the internet is unbearable: good guys win, racists lose, rah-rah, meanwhile this guy who did nothing wrong gets suspended

i'm not trying to minimize how this whole ordeal might affect asian-americans. my point is that i don't think bretos had to take the fall for the point to be made

i'm not trying to minimize how this whole ordeal might affect asian-americans.

and yet that is precisely what you are doing

good guys win, racists lose, rah-rah

I don't think the anchor is racist. I think it's insensitive, stupid and worthy of suspension, but the phrase is racist, not the anchor.

Okay, so no TV announcer would ever say "niggardly", even about some white hockey player, just because it's too close to something else. But innocent phrases like "chink in the armor" or "finger in the dike" do become horrible double-entrendres when used with certain contexts. Dude should've been taught that in Broadcasting 101.

plus he wasn't canned. just got a 1-month suspension, right? i mean, i'm sure he needs the money, but he got off way easier than the editor.

yeah he'll survive

Okay, so no TV announcer would ever say "niggardly", even about some white hockey player, just because it's too close to something else. But innocent phrases like "chink in the armor" or "finger in the dike" do become horrible double-entrendres when used with certain contexts. Dude should've been taught that in Broadcasting 101.

― pplains, Monday, February 20, 2012 6:21 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i'd love to be a fly on the wall of this completely hypothetical class

"Circle the phrase that best resembles a racist double-entrendre."

a) stevedore
b) mendacious
3) niggardly
4) blue-footed booby

http://i.imgur.com/X5q5m.jpg

http://deadspin.com/5886232/what-about-his-eyes-other-moments-in-media-stereotyping-or-racism-about-jeremy-lin

http://www.iamyellowperil.com/2012/02/20/linsanity/

*forehead*

O_o

"Akbar, a trendy gay dive in the Silverlake neighborhood of Los Angeles."

http://twitlonger.com/show/g2gn26

could do w/o the third paragraph but not bad really

Terrible journalism, should be "chink lin the armor"

...

necessary AND timely

sorry, was pretending i didn't get it

sports editors get fired for less

jay caspian kang weighs in

^word

man, that is a great fucking piece.

Try to understand, everything said about Jeremy Lin, whether glowing, dismissive, or bigoted, doubles as a referendum on where we, as a people, stand. This, by definition, is absurd. But when there's almost no other public representation of your people in the mainstream media, Hollywood, or in politics, you hawk, fervently, over whatever comes your way.

...What I can say is this: "Chink in the Armor" was completely unacceptable and made me seriously reconsider my continued employment with the company. I spent most of Saturday fielding calls, e-mails, and messages about "Chink in the Armor," and I share in the collective anger and exasperation. The response and the apologies seem largely beside the point — the damage was done at the point when we realized that Jeremy Lin had not single-handedly solved racism in America. But I've never seen the Asian American community speak out with such unified force and coherence. Perhaps it's a bit damning that four words about a basketball player sparked such outrage while a tragedy like the death of Private Danny Chen went largely unnoticed, but the fucked-up truth is that the story of Danny Chen might have received its proper respect had it come post-Linsanity.

bombs away

so, my final word on max bretos & k3v k's defense upthread:

when you're speaking through a megaphone like espn.com or on espn TV or radio, intent doesn't matter. what's said matters.

the fact that both max bretos and another espn radio host used the phrase, AND the espn headline used it, all in one night - lightning strikes three times in the same spot? the most likely story seems to me that the headline copy was written, circulated to espn anchors, who then incorporated it into their commentary. in which case...

...if you're wife is asian, and you see that headline, shouldn't alarm bells start ringing in your head? or hell, if your wife is asian, shouldn't you have addressed this phrase much earlier in your career? shouldn't you be aware of slurs that could be and probably have been used against your wife?

and hey, he's only getting 30 days off. all things considered, pretty lucky.

also good reading on this:

http://gothamist.com/2012/02/21/jeff_yang_on_espns_terrible_headlin.php

Also, re: ESPN sportscaster's Max Bretos's suspension, is having an Asian wife (or spouse) really a good excuse for why he didn't mean any harm?

Uh, no. Max, Max, Max, I'm on your side, but "My wife is Asian" is the new "Some of my best friends are black." Just...don't. Love your wife, cherish her, and don't use her as a freaking human shield, kthxbai.

also

http://youngphillypolitics.com/buzz_bissingers_spouts_race_and_jeremy_lin_and_we_all_cringe

lol:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/02/17/ok-ok-so-jeremy-lin-of-the-new-york-knicks-is-on-fire.html

[Jeremy Lin] has not solved Michael Vick’s dog-killing problem that continues to make him the most hated athlete in America, although he could by opening a Vietnamese-style restaurant with him and carefully planning the menu together.