UPDATE: According to Fox News ESPN “says it fired an employee responsible for an offensive headline referring to Knicks sensation Jeremy Lin” and the “anchor who used the phrase has been suspended for 30 days.”
Linsanity just jumped the shark with the ESPN mobile website using the headline a “Chink in the Armor” to refer to the Knick’s loss to the Hornets. This came on the heels of an ESPN commentator* making the same comment on-air Friday night.
I’m not a sports writer, so I tried to avoid the whole Linsanity phenomenon; my sense of it was that five stand-out performances in a long season did not make a trend, so now that the absurdity of Linsanity has taken a turn for the racist, I think we should pause for a second and get our bearings.
Was the on-air commentary a poor choice of words? Of course, but if you watch the video clip (it’s just 8 seconds long), I don’t think the commentator was trying to make a pun. Judge for yourself:
Now, the headline is a different matter. As anyone who has worked in digital media knows, the headline is what draws attention and hits. Editors and writers try to maximize visitors and shock value with their headlines (check out mine, it got you here didn’t it?). Unlike an on-air comment, most writers and editors obsess over the headline even after they click the publish button. So my sense of things is that whoever posted the headline thought about it, giggled, and clicked publish. In fairness to the writer/editor, the term “chink in the armor” has been used over 3,000 times on ESPN.com, but just because it is a frequently used term doesn’t absolve the writers and editors of responsibility to use common sense. But, the problem may be an institutional one, not an individual one, at least judging by ESPN’s track record and their inept statement in response to the outrage— Here is what they wrote after pulling the headline:
Last night, ESPN.com’s mobile web site posted an offensive headline referencing Jeremy Lin at 2:30 am ET. The headline was removed at 3:05 am ET. We are conducting a complete review of our cross-platform editorial procedures and are determining appropriate disciplinary action to ensure this does not happen again. We regret and apologize for this mistake.
The initial comments may have been a poor choice of words, rather than racist or in poor taste, but you wouldn’t know that from ESPN’s statement. Note the avoidance in the language used by ESPN— ESPN.com’s “mobile web site” apparently did the posting, not a writer or editor. There is also no admission of wrong-doing or acknowledgement that this may have been an intentionally offensive posting, just some regret and an apology for “this mistake.” How about a statement that this was insensitive or could be perceived as insensitive? How about some acknowledgement that this is not consistent with the values of the company? As a matter of crisis communications and public relations this statement is a failure.
SB Nation Sports Editor Brian Floyd nicely summed up the controversy when he wrote: “The headline was unintentional — it had to be unintentional. Someone is going to get buried for this, making it a hard lesson to learn. But dang, don’t plaster the word ‘chink’ underneath Lin’s name on a huge national website without understanding exactly what the backlash will be. It’s not edgy or funny; it’s a ridiculously terrible mistake.”
I agree with the fact that someone is going to get buried, but I’m not certain that the headline was unintentional. Let’s not forget ESPN has a bit of a record with inappropriate comments: Remember the “Trail of Tears” reference? How about the “ He’s out having a Taco” comment? Or the “ white boy wasted” comment?
Those three examples plus the two “ Chink in the armor” comments get us to five, and while five isn’t a trend, it’s certainly enough for Linsanity.
Follow me on Twitter @GregoryMcNeal
*I made an edit here to change this to commentator after a reader’s helpful correction.
Comments
Walt Frazier did not make the comment originally, it was the ESPN commentator interviewing him, as shown in the video you linked to this page. Please correct this, and do not attribute such a disgusting remark to Walt Frazier.
the idea that America is a progressive melting pot is a total fallacy when things like this are allowed to occur. Racism is as bad as it always was- it’s not out in the open anymore. Oh, oops, I guess it is, when people can make public “jokes” like this and not get fired
Thanks for catching that Robert, I just changed it.
Good point, and I’m glad you examined this; too often we just let these things roll by. But while you’re correcting, could you take the apostrophe out of “Hornet’s” please?
;-) thx!
I feel warm and fuzzy that people are commenting on tangential elements like the grammar of this article rather than discussing the heinous racism it so valiantly points out. Not.
Greg McNeal, I salute you for getting the word out hot off the presses this morning. No other major news providers are even talking about this.
Thanks Dillon, and no worries about the tangential comments, it’s nice to have a crowd of engaged readers who are willing to help out on substance and style. Those were two things I should have caught.
Of course, on substance I do appreciate your support of the piece. Thanks for reading it and taking the time to weigh in.
Greg, on a more substantial point, you noted: “In fairness to the writer/editor, the term ‘chink in the armor’ has been used over 3,000 times on ESPN.com…” [with a Google search link for verification].
Clicking that Google search link now gets zero hits. Not even cached pages.
Which makes ESPN as a company look innocent as a Spring flower, but puts the two men’s words in a damningly false context of rarity rather than run-of-the-mill ordinariness. Makes guilt easier to pin, and the firing and 30-day suspension easier to justify, I suppose.
But doesn’t this amount to destruction of digital evidence, in case the employees were to protest the penalties in court?
Hi John, the link still works for me and returns 3,430 hits.
Here is the link again.
Media Failed.
Chink in the Armor has been a saying for years that every race has used. All it means is a persons weakness. I watched the video and ESPN used the term correctly, ESPN has used it plenty of times in the past. Was it a bad time for ESPN to use the phrase at the time? Definitely, but the phrase itself is not racist. It’s sad that our society has to be so strict with political correctness and people are so quick to play the race card with everything.
you are downplaying both the intelligence and maliciousness of the ESPN writers, editors, managers, approvers, webmasters, and programmers. When something like this gets into the media, it doesn’t come down to one person. You seriously think this phrasing was not intentional and instead passed through all these checks and balances unnoticed?
By you calling it intentional you are making it intentional. Racism is only in our minds. I could say anything and anyone can make the claim that it’s racist. I could say I hate rap music and you could say “Oh cause it a predominately black genre?” Progression starts with deciphering the difference between racism and ignorance. Racism is not a battle of races, its a battle of ignorance. Morgan Freeman once said the only way to stop racism is to stop talking about it therefore ending the cycle. I agree 100% with that statement. I’m with you saying that ESPN used it at a bad time, but calling them racist is a claim your making up.
Give me a break. There was an intention to use the phrase “chink in the armor” with Jeremy Lin, who by the way, is a Taiwanese American. There’s no race card being played here- after all, we’re living in a post-racial United States, aren’t we? Let’s be real here.
You’re right; people are quick to play the race card but then they feel justified b/c people defend indenfensable things like this. To suggest that ESPN didn’t think or realize what they were doing when they used that phrase is completely absurd. Of course it’s been used in the past but this was more than poor timing. They were trying to be cute with all the “Lin” phrases and in the end, just look like insensative idiots. you defending them makes you look much worse.
Really the race card? Who exactly is playing it and for what advantage? The phrase “playing the race card” means falsely accusing someone of racism usually for one’s own personal gain. It’s not like Jeremy Lin complained about it. No the phrase chink in the armor is not racist by itself, but you don’t see when applied to an Asian American it is? Like the author said, you might accidentally say a pun on the air, but when a headline goes through an editorial process it’s not an accident.
wait a minute, “he only way to stop racism is to stop talking about it therefore ending the cycle”
what? if people didn’t talk about racism, the whole civil rights movement never would have happened. In fact, racism still is alive and kicking in the media especially *because* not enough people are talking about it and are letting things be swept under the rug
youre right when it comes to something like a headline that says “AMASIAN” and people get mad at that. Fact is, he IS Asian, so its not racist to notice. But just because something is a popular phrase in one sense doesnt mean in the wrong context it cant be extremely racist/insensitive/inappropriate. The commentator was just using it in a sentence. no harm there … but to post this as a headline is UNIMAGINABLE!
I think it all depends what definition we give racism. Like I said they were definitely wrong for saying it and they shouldnt have posted it at all, But calling ESPN racist is a whole other can of worms. My personal definition of racism is through hate and discrimination. KKK, definitely racist. Tosh. O, white guy who cracks a few race jokes on Comedy Central, not racist. Why? His jokes aren’t intended for hate, thats why he can get away with it. Do you REALLY think ESPN said this out of hate for Lin’s race? Do you REALLY think that ESPN is really some underground hate group? Probably not, so why should we consider them racist? Like I said the phrase itself isn’t racist, its the context and how we view it.
commentators largely read off a prompted script. So it’s not like it’s something he said off the top of his head. Whoever wrote that for him to read (and it could have been he himself, not to mention that he must have reviewed it before going on air) are definitely to blame.
I thought of that but hesitated to write about it because there was no way to tell if he was improvising or reading off the teleprompter. I wonder if ESPN will take a stand on it. If it was off the prompter then it seems this was a scripting/editorial decision across all platforms (on-air and digital). Of course, we are just theorizing.
though there are definitely degrees of racism (at the high end of the spectrum, being violent acts), as long as an act or phrase degrades someone solely based on his race, that’s racism.
the ESPN writers committed 2 sins of racism:
1. they were having a good laugh at it
2. they were abusing their positions of power and systematically perpetuated the idea that’s it’s ok to do something like this (being providers of media to the masses). In fact, if someone doesn’t get fired for this, they are setting a precedent.
I do actually agree that “chink in the armor” is itself not a racist term. The problem is that it’s not being used here by itself. It’s being used in the context of someone who is of Chinese descent. By itself “chink in the armor” is fine, but in its context here, it cannot but evoke the epithet Chink, which has been hurled at people of Chinese heritage in America for decades. If this is innocent, great, but it was an appallingly poor word choice here, and I’m sure ESPN can find better writers who aren’t so ignorant.
you are right, it is a common phrase to use but this is where the definition of PUN comes in. A pun is a play on a common word or phrase that has a greater meaning in a particular situation where outside of it would be of no offense. In this situation, ESPN editors and writers should be educated enough to know that “chink” meaning hole or weakness is a double insult to Lin because they are suggesting he is the “reason” they lost this game and because it jabs at his nationality. It is also known that he has received chink comments from opponent fans. There is no way to argue ESPN out of this.
We all know what “chink in the armor” means and I don’t care if its been used “over 3000 times” on the ESPN network. This is definitely one time where it should not have been used. I personally think it was an intentional use trying to be clever with the use of the phrase by “someone” on the ESPN staff. You think ESPN would post a headline, “Niggardly (scant, meagre) Score Loses It for the Knicks”…I don’t think so. Being of Chinese descent, born here, I’ve been called “chink” many a time. It is a term that still sends shivers up and down my spine (even when I see it used as chink in the armor)…equivalent to the “N” word for a Chinese American if you don’t know. A large organization like ESPN has to be smarter than this…while the “race card” is played out far too many times, it is of my opinion that it is not used enough by the Asian community…then perhaps all of these insensitive comments/commentary (intentional or not) would not surface.
Someone could’ve changed it to “weak Link in the chain”.
I completely agree with Gordon. When I watched that video on ESPN, I didn’t even realize until I saw a article about it on Yahoo. People are too quick to relate everything to race and in this case, it’s not true.
I disagree, this is the first fail for J. Lin and the first headline to come out is that? When Lebron James got so much hate and they only spoke about his flaws when have you ever heard that term of chink in the armor.. ooh lets not forget Chris Bosh’s flaws all over ESPN.. never heard chink in the armor.. It’s obvious this was intentional.
“Chink” is a well known racial slur word aiming directly at chinese. This was not a mispoken harmless gaffe because it had to passed thru writers and editors. Very stupid for espn to use this word. Billions of chinese out there knows this word, Do you think they will ignore it ?? Political conrretness and hyped up offense, I think not.
Racism is only in our minds? Well let’s just say that it starts there. It manifests itself with discernible and actual behavior. Behavior like violence, segregation, scapegoating, and of course slurs. How would it be if a media piece described a negative trait of a black player as niggardly? Legit word there right? America is very race sensitive in these times because for a couple of hundred years it was so very race insensitive. PC may be overused at times but in the sixties and seventies I remember the “n” word and “chink” being used openly by many on a regular basis.
You are truly a racist pig indeed.
Ignorance equals racism…Still cannot believe that ESPN would unintentionally make such a “mistake”. Whoever made that “mistake” should be fired.
Gordon,
You are an idiot if you don’t this is a racist comment. How do you feel if I say something that will insult your race?
It’s sad that our society plays the race card with everything?? Well if you’re white it’s easy to say that. Step in the shoes of person of color and see if you’re posing the same thing on here. I agree that’s it’s a saying and is used quite frequently but don’t talk about it’s sad to see society how it is. I wonder who made it that way….
Chink (also chinki, chinky, chinkie) is an English slang term referring mainly to a person of Chinese ethnicity but sometimes generalized to refer to any person of East Asian descent. Contemporary usage of the word as an ethnic slur has sparked controversies in the media for many years and many people consider the term an insult. -this is from wiki.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chink
I think you meant “Kink in the Armor”. “Chink in the Armor” IS racist no matter the context.
Gordon please stop defending a racist comment. It was either racist, sub consciously racist or complete stupidity.
I totally agree with you, Gordon. I’m all for sensitivity, but this is going way too far… How long until someone can sue their dentist for saying, “You’re just going to feel a little prick”? You know… For sexual harassment…
Rookie, I’ll see your wiki article and raise you an English lesson…
http://www.english-for-students.com/Chink.html
people are defended and their anger is justified because clearly when someone mentions the word chink in USA (especially), the first thing that comes to mind is the Chinese decedent. sure it’s an old saying from the 1400′s but i am very positive that ESPN knows this etymology and thinks it’d ok to say it with pun intended because they will have a “righteous” excuse. what if Chicago Bulls coach Del Negro goes to Miami homecourt and a ginger white dude yells to the Chicago bench “Negro you are not welcome here”, would D. Rose or other African American players turn around and find that offensive?
in my opinion, racism will only end when people are open to talk about it, meaning ever race will take turn to get hammered equally so much that everyone just accepts these comments
people are defended and their anger is justified because clearly when someone mentions the word chink in USA (especially), the first thing that comes to mind is Chinese decedent in a mocking way. sure it’s an old saying from the 1400′s but i am very positive that ESPN knows this etymology and thinks it’d ok to say it with pun intended because they will have a “righteous” excuse. what if Chicago Bulls coach Del Negro goes to Miami homecourt and a ginger white dude yells to the Chicago bench “Negro you are not welcome here”, would D. Rose or other African American players turn around and find that offensive?
in my opinion, racism will only end when people are open to talk about it, meaning ever race will take turn to get hammered equally so much that everyone just accepts these comments
It’s apparent Gordon that you are a racist bigot and a poor excuse for a human being. You also make caucasian males look like fools. Continue to live in your bubble of delusion. Denying racism’s existence? You mines well deny the holocaust as well. You probably think the earth is still flat. Where are you from Gordon? Alabama?
If someone used the word ‘niggardly’ or ‘niggle’ in an article regarding a black person that would be RACIST. Using the ‘chink in the armor’ headline for an asian is the same thing. Got it?
are you going to write a follow up piece about SNL spoofing this entire story, making fun of everybody’s oversensitivity ??? i think they did a right thing, but nobody is taking them apart for what they did last night.
of course, in their piece the sports writer was dismissed mid show, and disappeared.
Morgan Freeman being a respected black man does not make him an expert of human psychology and history. Just because he was in Glory doesn’t mean he knows why racism exists.
Did we do away with slavery by sitting back and watching in silence?
Did Jim Crow end because we ignored it?
Will international sex trafficking end if we stop talking about it?
Will gay men and women be allowed to marry if we ignore their current state as second class citizens?
Not talking about something never fixes it. Morgan Freeman was pissed off about Black History Month at that point in the interview, just to put his comment in context. His statement is completely ignorant. Things don’t go away if you ignore them. And to put BHM into context, the original creator, a black man, did not intend it to become a permanent fixture in our schools. He intended that the history of black people in America would eventually be included in our regular US History textbooks. Morgan Freeman’s hatred of the month is based on an ignorant view of why it was created in the first place.
Knowing that something is racist, or can be taken in a racist way, and still going through with it? That smells kind of like intentional racism, which is fine in comedy, but ESPN is not a comedy network.
Oh, Gordon,
The saying has been around for years is such a lame excuse, give it up, man. There’s no excuse for such a linsensitive remark, lol. I’m surprised they didn’t add the “no pun intended” caption. While I shrugged off the fortune cookie picture and imagined that some might find it funny, I was quite offended by the distasteful “chink in the armor” line. Glad to see that there are still people out there who manage to see that there is a line that you shouldn’t cross.
I read ESPN a lot and the only other time I remember this term being used in a headlining way was when China beat Spain at the 2008 Olympics in basketball. It seems very unlikely that they happened to both be used in reference to Asians.
It was used for the purposes of a the title being a double entendre. Writers love making them when creating titles newspaper articles because it is attention grabbing. The fact that it was used for the title cements the idea that it was intentional. With all that said, a word or a finger from a stranger shouldn’t have power over you where you lose your cool. Get over it.
Agreed
the phrase is chink (CINK) in the armor not chink (CH-ink). it was indeed racial .
I for one believe this was entirely unintentional. Chink in the armor is a common phrase, and in no way refers to people of asiatic ancestry. These allegations of racism are moronic and childish.
I agree with you Gordon. I should be able to call the race card on McDonald’s restaurants. That’s because when the name is spoken audibly the work “mick” is muttered, which is racist against my people the Irish.
Of course that’s stupid, and so is this chink in the armor crap.
I think it says more about the people who took offense to it than the writer who wrote the headline. For example I read the headline and was thinking “what is all the uproar over”. Why? Because I generally give people the benefit of the doubt and take what is said exactly as said instead of trying to read my own “personal” desires into the message.
Second it is not an obscure term. Read some books, watch some movies, I’ve seen it referred plenty of times. Heck the headdline author himself admit to having used the term several times over the years in the exact same way, but because THOSE players were not of Chinese heritage no one of course thought he was making a snide comment, and now all of a sudden they do? The problem is everyone tries to put their own personal spin on it and in my opinion I think the people being offended by it are offended because they are people that like to be offended. They get some kind of twisted satisfaction by raging against people they feel have wronged them rather than reading exactly what is said. What kind of ignorant and unintelligent society have we become to automatically assume there is some hidden meaning behind everything? Frankly it dissapoints me that so called enlightened individuals would automatically assume that the author is a bad bad man. Of course these days everyone is suspect right?
Frankly I’m dissapointed in the response of ESPN and the new media. What should of happened is they should have come out and said “You know what you’re all a bunch of idiots for even considering this to be an issue. He’s used the exact same wording before in other headlines, and this is much ado about nothing. Grow up for crying out loud” and left it at that. Instead they’ve just given justification and support to all those people who got offended after those self same people first probably said to themselves “hehe he said chink”. Yeah real sign of maturity there.
Why is this even an issue? I am Chinese and I don’t consider myself of low enough intelligence to be offended by a word; a sound. You’d have to be pretty confused or lacking a few brain cells to actually find sounds personally offensive. Oh no! Someone said “Chink!” (gasp). Who really cares? It’s only racist if you perceive. I have 3 kids and I call them little chinks all the time and we laugh. They will never be offended by words. I am a proud chink myself! Get a life and find something more meaningful to report on. I love reading Forbes, but this? Really. Holy &$@)! Chink-off already!
J_Dunn, I agree. They’d used the phrase many times in its innocent meaning. There’s no indication they’d ever used the slur (especially since one man has an Asian wife). They may simply have let the slur meaning of the word slip out of mind.
Analogy: a guy drives through Burger King to get a big bag full of cheeseburgers for his group (team, whatever). Gets back, passes them out to a happy Kowalski, Smith, Nogales, Krieger, Petrov, Mbutu, Kuular, Andrutsang, and one furious Martino who punches him in the nose. Why? The box says “Whopper,” which Martino takes to be a slur on his Italian ethnicity. But he hadn’t been singled out; everyone got the same type of burger. The box would have said the same thing if he’d been Greek.
At what point do you conclude that Martino is looking to take offense where no-one intended to give it? (Which is the behavior of a bully.)