Saturday, 09 April 2011

  • A Request for Accuracy When Using Racial Epithets Against My Child


    After having lived through continual harassment from one particular blogger, I can forgive him for posting this on my last post about my son: "CHINK CHINK CHINK CHINK CHINK CHINK CHINK CHINK CHINK CHINK CHINK CHINK CHINK CHINK CHINK CHINK CHINK CHINK CHINK CHINK CHINK"

    But I want to bring up the importance of maintaining accuracy when using racial epithets. 

    1. CHINK

    Charlie is half-Korean and a quarter-Japanese, plus a quarter German/Irish. The word chink is traditionally applied to people of Chinese origin.  So it's not really accurate to call Charlie a chink.

    You may have been using the word chink in a broader sense: the word is also sometimes applied to people with narrowly slanted eyes.  But in these pictures, you can see that Charlie's eyes are actually pretty round.

    2. GOOK

    Next you left this comment: GOOK GOOK GOOK GOOK GOOK GOOK GOOK GOOK.

    Here you may have a stronger claim to have used racial epithets properly.  The word gook was indeed used during the Korean War to refer to Koreans.  That said, the word gook is more commonly used in reference to people of Vietnamese origin.

    Charlie is half-Korean though, so I can see where you were going with this one.  I will give you half a point here.

    While we're on the subject of gook, here is some "miyuk gook" soup my mother in law made this weekend.  It is a seaweed soup that has magical restorative properties.

    3. ZIPPERHEAD

    A few minutes later, you showed some real creativity with this one: "ZIPPERHEAD ZIPPERHEAD ZIPPERHEAD ZIPPERHEAD ZIPPERHEAD ZIPPERHEAD ZIPPERHEAD."

    According to Wikipedia, the term zipperhead was "coined by American soldiers as a term for North Koreans during the Korean War".  Urban Dictionary clarifies that the term "is said to have been coined during the Korean war by frontline troops whom had run over enemy troops in jeeps. The soldiers claimed that the tire tracks from the jeeps left a pattern resembling that of a closed zipper along the corpse."

    Charlie is neither North Korean, nor has he been run over by a jeep.  Here he is riding in his toy car though.

    Zero points.

    4. PANCAKE FACE

    Finally, you left this comment twice: "PANCAKEFACE PANCAKEFACE PANCAKEFACE PANCAKEFACE PANCAKEFACE PANCAKEFACE PANCAKEFACE PANCAKEFACE PANCAKEFACE"

    According to Urban Dictionariy, this racial epithet is aimed at those that "have a flat face like a pancake."  While it is true that Asian faces tend to be flatter than those of many other races, Charlie has a pretty non flat face.

    So I'm going to have give you a citation for all around "inaccurate usage of racial epithets".

    It's one thing to be ignorant... but please try to maintain some standards of accuracy when you are breaking out your racial epithets. Also, who breaks out racial slurs at a 16 month old?

    Here's what Charlie and I think of your comments:

    Have you or your child ever been the subject of harassment or racial slurs on blogs or elsewhere? How did you handle it?

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