A sorry comment on our craft; and a brilliant combination of holidays

Everyone have a nice weekend?

I’d like to thank Dwane for giving us Sunday totally off, was a nice day of rest in a long stretch of Days With No Games.

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This arrived Sunday and I’m sure it’s a question on a lot of minds, and a perfect way to get into today:

Q: Doug, how, really HOW, could the racist slur by ESPN re Lin happen? How many eyes must have seen the headline? I cannot imagine this appearing in any of our regular newspapers. What do you think it means? Is it a commentary on the seemingly impossible task of erasing racism in sports (see recent events in British soccer ); is it a commentary on certain kinds of journalism in an electronic age?

Charles N, Mexico

A: Obviously I don’t know the specifics of how it happened since I’m not privy to ESPN’s staffing and editing system but it does suggest to me one of the true failings of our craft these days at so many levels I’m not sure where to start.

First, it speaks to the fact papers, and websites, and whatever, have cut staffing levels to the bone so much that there is no true sense of checks and balances anymore. We often let too many people with no true sense of the business work unedited, all too often we leave them to their own devices and, in this case at least, it was one person with no brain or true measure of common sense working on something that would be seen by potentially hundreds of thousands of people. If we’re going to rush to get things up or get them published somehow, there have to be senior editors, people with experience, to vet everything. That’s the shame of our craft today.

But the bigger problem is why anyone – senior, junior, male, female, what have you – would think to write, or even say, something as obviously racist and blatantly hurtful and stupid as that, especially someone purporting to be a journalist, someone who should be in tune with the times in which we live.

I am cynical enough, if that’s the right word, to realize that things haven’t progressed as far as we’d like because there are far too many people who don’t see the blatant racism in the use of such phrases, either in the search for a “tee-hee” moment or in lashing out in anger, as happens far too often in the heat of competition. It is wrong, it is not explainable but it is, sadly, still too much a part of society; we’re better, we’re just not entirely good at the moment and that’s a shame we all have to bear.

Journalists -- and that goes for me and other writers to editors at papers and people who work the graveyard shifts at websites – have a huge responsibility to think about the impact of our words, on the people they are about and the people that read them.

Sadly, sometimes too many of us don’t think before writing something and it diminishes us all.

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Happy Family Day to those living in Ontario, and Alberta Saskatchewan, I believe; and happy Monday in the other provinces.

(Oh yeah, happy Washington’s Birthday to our American friends and, sadly, I don’t think our European Irregulars have anything to celebrate today; not sure about the folks from the other continents)

Think I’ve missed every other Family Day going because it’s always been the day after NBA all-star weekend and there’s been a flight somewhere.

Anyway, since it really has no traditions – nothing that’s been around as few years as it can should have any “traditions” – not sure what to do to celebrate it here.

So …

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It’s not too often I’m able to simply lie around for hours watching NBA games on TV, any idle time I have is usually reserved for other pursuits.

But, I tell you, watching Oklahoma City and Denver on Sunday night – Durant with 51, Westbrook with 40, Ibaka going all Mutombo all over the place – was as much fun as I’ve had watching a game this season.

It was, of course, an aberration. Most nights the play is so ragged, the players so tired, so many injured and not even around that the league and union – which is complicit in this stinky season -- should be ashamed of themselves for foisting 66 games in 124 days (actually 120 because four are dead for the unnecessary all-star weekend coming up) on a ticket-buying and TV-watching fan base.

But that one was truly fun to watch, great players doing great things in a game not decided until overtime.

Kind of restores some faith in the season; right until there’s some turnover-filled, 40-point rout that bores the crap out of people forced to watch it.

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Milos Raonic wins the big tennis tournament in California?

Good on him.

Wonder if they played O Canada at the end?

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Hey!

Hang on a sec.

It’s amazing what ideas can pop into a fellow’s mind at 6:45 a.m. while sipping coffee (and it’s Costa Rican and thanks to the Irregulars who suggested that) and figuring out what to put in here.

Since we have no true Family Day traditions – no trees, no cards, no carols, no flowers or chocolates or anything – why don’t we petition the Tall Pucks Foreheads to move Trade Deadline Day to the third Monday of February?

That way Moms and Dads and sons and daughters can sit around as a family glued to the TV at 8 a.m. watching people make stuff up and talk into their phones while checking their e-mails and BBMs and tablets. And by 11 a.m. the family’s collective eyes will be so glazed over and their level of boredom off the charts that they’ll run screaming from the TV room like their hair’s on fire and really go and spend some quality time together.

Man, we need to make that happen, don’t we?

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The Question of the Day queue is somewhat bare over at Inbox Central and my friend Jenni who does the Faceoff thingy will be getting antsy if I don’t have stuff for her later this morning to fill out the week.

Help a fella out, would you?

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Comments

[Striker 77]

Hey Doug,

I caught the last quarter and the OT of last night's game. What Westbrook and Durant did was obviously awesome.. but what Ibaka did was outright incredible... Who gets 11 blocks in a game? I believe that last night was the third time in the last few weeks that Ibaka has gotten 10 or more blocks. Plus, the last play was the most sick. Ibaka blocks the drive through the lane (cant remember who was driving), off the block he rebounds it himself.. What a defender. I would say, he is the best defender in the NBA, or at least up there... OKC has it going on man... back court of Westbrook.. MVP candidate Durant, and the Perkins and Ibaka waiting to swat anything away in the paint... Man, that is a fun team to watch. Not too mention that Ibaka won me my stats in blocks and rebounds in my fantasy league!

Why do you think that there is SO much talent in the west? Not to say that there is nothing in the east, but, those west games are pretty awesome, no?

Blogger's note: It's kind of cyclical and I wouldn't understate the talent in the East; but the depth is better in the west, I'd suggest

[Ezio]

Your Irregular(s) in Germany - I am not the only one am I? - are off work because of carnival today - dressing up is a lot more fun than deadline day!

Blogger's note: I love a good carnival; have fun!

[Wayne]

Hi Doug,

Add to the fact that the ESPN Apology has the public comments turned off - it shows that they can dish it out but that they can not take it. If you can comment on arrests, athletes social lives and other non-sports related personal issues than why the public comment with the provider messes up. Seems what is good for the goose, is not good for the gander.

P.S. Even worse, their two main competitors Yahoo! Sports and SI both also turned off the ability to publicly comment.

[John Millett]

I believe Manitoba has a holiday today as well... Louis Riel Day.

[jimt]

toronto poker pro daniel negreanu is playing in RIO lapt final table 2day for those interested in streaming the event.

[Dave]

Ontario Family day or is it. all national regulated businesses are working as usual. This includes all the telephone companies and our Air Navigation Provider (NAVCANADA). Also, for those working in Ontario in health care, this is not considered one of their Holidays. So basically, it is a school holiday and for some of the people working for the Ontario government (Public Servants) excluding health care.

[Matt M]

If it is the case the headline appeared as an attempt at humor then it shows that some people are not sensitive enough. Rightly or wrongly, because it is a somewhat cliched headline, it never dawned on me it was racist because I have come to expect it in a neutral context. It is the case that if this headline turned up in the Star after the Raptors lost a winning streak no one would have said a thing. But it is also the case that, with Lin on the Knicks roster and the derogatory history of the word in question, that this particular cliched headline should have been retired. It is now I'd hope.

[Dave]

I think the Jeremy Lin headline fiasco is being blown out of proportion. I can't speak for the people behind the headline but at the end of the day, chink is a word first, not a racial epithet.

Funny how I've read so many articles written by middle-aged white men who are so upset by this little, unintentional mistake yet Jeremy Lin hasn't made a peep....

Blogger's note: You need to read more

[Matt G]

Doug,
Was hoping you might have a take this morning on Kobe's rant and shot at the Lakers brass...or is that more of a yawn moment? I thought it was a candid and rare instance where only a superstar would dare call out their management without fear of suspension or fine. Not saying he won't get one but saying if he does, it'll just embolden him further to speak his mind. Anyways, just found it a bit fascinating that Kobe clearly doesn't want to squander the waning days of his prime any further.

[Jeff]

@Dave, if you think that ch-nk isn't a racial epithet, you need to read up on your history a bit more...

[doug]

OKC game was a doozy, the Magic game was a snorefest, that team needs major changes...ch*nk is a terribly racist slur it's no different then the N word, ( words change meaning over time or significance gay is one and chink is another) and the person responsible needed to be shown the door, racism is so prevalent still in our society, just last week on our annual golf holiday I saw something at a golf club that disgusted me concerning a employee of a certain race and his supervisor, I spoke my mind to the person involved and left the club without playing..it's no coincidence that the "Tea Party" came into existence after a black president was elected and anyone that argues otherwise is blind...unfortunately it is what it is and needs to be tackled a issue at a time, a person at a time....as for the Lakers I am still confounded by the Mike Brown hire, how was he even on their radar and then hired?, that team is a mess and is a example why owners when they step aside should sell the the teams instead of handing it down to their children...cheers and happy family day..

[OU]

I like the fact that this holiday has " no trees, no cards, no carols, no flowers or chocolates or anything" attached to it (yet).

It seems like on most other holidays we are required or pressured to partake in something, plan something because everyone else is doing it or go out and buy something.

Everyone is free to make their own tradition out of it, or lounge around. It truly feels like a day off.

I'm going to do some things around the house that I've been putting off, slow cook some ribs and work on my car.

[Jane]

Doug,

I am scared by how few people consider accuracy and integrity to be necessary components of journalism these days. Maybe it has something to do with our collectively shorter attention span; maybe it's to do with humanity's love of spectacle (this Lin incident has provided fodder for more stories, so journalism is feeding upon itself) - either way, it does not bode well for what's to come. I left journalism a few years ago to work in the private sector, but part of me wishes I had stayed in news, if only to catch faux pas like that one.

[Gloria]

Chink is indeed a racial slur ... but it's also a word. Chink is not taboo absolutely. "Chink in the armour" is still a very common and completely harmless phrase (except, of course, in particular contexts), and it in no way relates to Asian people in any way, or people at all. It's quite different from the n-word in that way. As others have pointed out, if it appeared in a headline about a player or team of a different race, nobody would have raised an eyebrow.

And yes, I am Chinese. I honestly believe this was just a failure to recognize a shift of context. It's a very thoughtless, human error.

There are many, many more egregious examples of racism I've seen in sports, and many go unremarked, or do not stir up the same amount of outrage... but just because they don't use "buzzwords", people aren't as up in arms about them. One word -- that is more a word than a racial epithet, though it can be both -- is much less meaningful than a deeply felt sentiment.

I'm generally very vocal about racism, but in this rare instance, I really do believe people are overreacting. An apology from the editor (perhaps a suspension) and a vow by ESPN to re-examine their editing process would have been appropriate.

[LeeZ]

@Gloria: I think you're right, and I think Doug is right about the draconian cuts in today's media resulting in mistakes like this slipping through. I turn 55 in April (yay, I get the Senior's discount at Shoppers, woohoo!), and back when I was in my mid-20s (the age of the headline editor who ran the offending headline), chink was very much (and widely recognized as) a derogatory term. Perhaps those of you in your mid-20s can answer this: is a widely recognized slur today? Ironically, maybe we've made so much progress in battling racism (not that there isn't a ton more progress waiting to be made) that it didn't even occur to the fired employee that it was a racist word in the first place. He swears (pardon the pun) that it never occurred to him, and maybe he's telling the truth. I mean, he'd have to be enormously stupid to knowingly run that headline. Thoughts anyone?

[Clayton]

Agree with Gloria's measured and thoughtful response. Perhaps because of the furore surrounding anything and everything Lin-related, this has been blown out of proportion. It is likely that Lin has heard/will hear much worse on the courts from his opponents. That said, it was insensitive, wrong, and poor judgement. Doug, all your points about the lack of oversight are valid, and ultimately, I think, are what are responsible than anything else. I feel an apology and a suspension would have been valid - that someone has lost his/her job over this, to me, seems a little too much.

We should be far more up-in-arms about the examples of obvious racism, homophobia and sexism in sport/society that people get away with. For example, Kobe Bryant's tirade at a ref last year escaped with a meaningless fine and a most insincere apology (I don't think he was even suspended). What about the Spanish national team (including our dear Jose) and their infamous photograph prior to the Olympics, which to me, seems far more obviously racist, than an ill-judged, headline?

[J]

Agree with Gloria that if "chink in the armor" had been used for anyone else, there'd be no problem, but here, I can't help but think someone thought it'd be a brilliant play on words.

@Dave: Faggot is also a word first, but that doesn't mean it isn't offensive in certain contexts.

@Wayne: It's probably a good thing they have the comments turned off. If the comments on Yahoo! Sports are any indication, the amount of ignorance gathered in one spot would be appalling, and worse than the original headline. I don't mind people discussing whether it was the biggest racial slight, but there were simply too many voices from the majority pretending like they have any idea what it's like to have someone random come up to them and make them feel uncomfortable in their own home.

[D-Mac Ottawa]

Interesting discussion today, revolving around the etymology of English slang terms. How is it that a slang terms like Tommy, Ozzy, Kiwi, Yank and Canuck remain simply short-form 'familiar', but others become, finally, onerous and verboten? This may be too simplistic, but my observation is that those once 'innocent' slang terms evolve into slurs because they tend to be directly tied to atrocities perpetrated by English-speaking Christian Caucasians...
Which also tends to point to the notion that words are not just empty expressions that float off into the ether to be forgotten – words can have the same impact as a hug or a hammer. And you drive the bus – you have free will in picking and choosing your words and how you use them – especially when you're putting them in writing!
Slang can be loose and cool; it can also ride along that slippery slope toward devaluing and eventually dehumanizing entire groups of people, or ideas, or actions... and then the door is open again for another round of atrocities...
Cheers. Go Roget!
P.S. Why isn't Canuck a slur? (I kind of thought it might be, before the hockey team took that name.) And Yank could very much be taken as a slur if you're from, say, Alabama... would you be offended to be called a Yank if you're touring New Zealand, whether you are one, or not? It's also apparently one thing to be called a Yankee in Europe or down under, and quite another to be called the same thing in Mexico...

[J]

@LeeZ:

"Perhaps those of you in your mid-20s can answer this: is a widely recognized slur today?"

I'm just a little past my mid-20s, but I don't think I'm entirely out of touch yet. If some stranger starts saying "chink" as a reference to me, I'd consider it a slur, no different from any of the ones for other ethnic groups. If a friend calls me a "chink", well, I don't make friends with those kinds of people (annoyingly though, my high school aged brother and his friends call each other "chink", but then they also use "mexican", "jew", "faggot" and "nigger" offensively, so...). If someone says, "OMG, there's a chink in my chain mail," I'd think they're in the middle of an AD&D game. I definitely don't think it's been used to the point where it has lost its offensiveness, but when compared to "nigger" or "faggot", it's just not nearly as common.

In the end, this incident was very, very minor compared to incidents I've personally experienced. When I was maybe 9, growing up in Toronto, two high school aged boys were walking along the side of a school in my neighborhood. I was riding my bike through the parking lot, when they yelled "chink!" and whipped an aluminum baseball bat through the air at my bike. It barely missed my back wheel, but I hadn't encountered any racism before, so I just thought to myself they were stupid bullies. It was only after I moved to the U.S., or perhaps because I was encountering more people in their mid-teens or older,
that it started happening on an almost weekly basis.

I don't think it's something that will ever go away entirely. It starts at home, and if my parents are any indication (I told my dad about my brother's friends and he simply scoffed, saying, "I can't control what my kids say... it's good enough that I raised one non-racist"), I can't imagine what it's like growing up in a household with real hate.

[james]

These are deep waters indeed. I appreciate Gloria's post and personally feel this was more about cluelessness than malevolence. Given what passes for public discourse in this US election year (and, increasingly, north of the border as well), not to mention cringe-inducing attempts at "humour" in the mass media, I'm surprised there aren't more incidents of this kind. However, the most offensive part of this to me was the immediate firing of this low-level headline person, which lets ESPN off the hook for ultimate editorial responsibility. The teachable moment, in the parlance of the times, is lost.
The Suns vs. Lakers home and home this weekend (late hours for central Canadians) was very compelling stuff. Kobe Bryant looked like one unhappy camper on Sunday. Could a trade demand be far away?

[Peter]

I'm younger, and I would have caught that using the word "Chink" in context of a chinese person would be bad. But I have to admit, I had to look up, why it was bad, and how bad it was. It's one of those words that I've heard people of my grandparents age use, but growing up in a multicultural setting, I hadn't heard the word used. I have no basis for the context simply because it's not a word that I had ever heard used other than, (I'm sad to say) a war veteran using it, and it was clear to me that he was using it in a derogatory manner.

Perhaps I should be more culturally aware, but I do tend to believe the 28 year old editor when he says that he didn't realize how bad it was. Maybe I'm naive.

[Gloria]

@J: "@Dave: Faggot is also a word first, but that doesn't mean it isn't offensive in certain contexts."

Granted, but I think you are being too broad. There are very few or no instances where we could argue that a person being associated with the word "faggot" is being called a stick or a cigarette. I think it's very legitimate to consider that somebody thought Jeremy Lin had finally showed weakness and carelessly used a common phrase to describe that.

I can think of other similar situations ... describing as an Native American as red in the face or an obsequious South Asian as a brownnose. Silly, but it's the same kind of awkward situation where a word goes from harmless to offensive because of whom it's applied to.

I'm 26. I'm aware of "chink" as an racial epithet (and I use it in its regular sense too) but I also feel that it's an antiquated term. It sounds funny, but today's racists don't really go the route of that word anymore. I can understand if somebody my age would not know it. (That goes for many phrases ... I've met people my age who don't know phrases like "lion's share.")

[Lorie]

Hello Doug,
Many considered, thoughtful - and thought-provoking - comments today that initiated a lively, lengthy - and at times passionate - discussion around our family dinner table tonight. And perhaps other families were doing the same thing. And getting people thinking, talking - and more importantly - listening to each other about this topic might be the most valuable thing we share together on Family Day. And may the discussions continue. (Solid musical choice by the way.) Cheers.

[FredCarlisle]

Let`s be honest with ourselves,if Lin had been white no one would have been fired for making whitey jokes,Anti-racist is just a code word for anti-white.

Blogger's note: Um. Wow.

[m]

Now we have Tea Party members here.