I’m sure many people will argue that ESPN is responsible for the horrible comments that were aired publicly. I disagree. ESPN trains its leaders about diversity within the network, and I’m sure the network has provided all their employees with diversity training and made them aware that offensive and racist speech will not and cannot be tolerated. I don’t feel the company can force every employee to be decent human beings. That’s an impossible task.
What a company can do is address individual cases of offensive speech. ESPN did that. What more could the network do?
While I agree that they did handle the matter appropriately, the company should donate money to groups that fight discrimination. It would be a nice gesture if ESPN donated $250,000 to those groups. Maybe they will still do that but they didn’t mention it in their press release.
The company should also improve its diversity program and retrain all their employees immediately. It’s obvious that some employees aren’t complying with company policies. A new round of diversity training would help to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future and would help the company to defend itself if a rogue employee acted like a racist again!
Please note: Sportmentary quotes an offensive headline issued by ESPN and it’s for journalistic integrity only!
Photo Credit - NY Daily News
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Victor Lana
Sport, thank you for handling this difficult topic so well. Thanks also for being a great new voice here in BC Sports!
2 - Sportmentary
Vic, I appreciate your comments. I love BC and it's provided me with a community where I can share my love and passion for sports.
3 - El Bicho
The differences seem obvious. The news anchor used a cliche during a live conversation that if spoken about any other player wouldn't have been noticed. In fact, his use of "chink," while admittedly insensitive, could be argued was because he wasn't thinking about Lin's race, which is what people claim they want. The headline writer, a job that frequently uses double entendre to shock and draw in readers, had the time to reconsider his use of the word.
I don't think your editorial note is needed because the context for using the word was apparent.
4 - Sportmentary
Thanks for your comment El Bicho. You made some good points!
5 - Zingzing
I, for one, think that while using the word "chink" in the context of Lin, especially in the headline (where puns have become something of a norm), was definitely stupid, it was probably not racist in intent. The writer was probably fired for the embarrassment he caused, not because he's a racist (like Imus is). It's the sad state of journalism today that that kid will probably have a tough time landing another gig because he will be perceived as a racist. But that's the reality. Espn did what it had to do.
But who among us hasn't said something innocent but stupid at 2:30 am?
6 - Sportmentary
Good point but there's been a lot of offensive comments recently against Lin and Asian Americans. Most of those comments have been tolerated and disgusting. Maybe now, sports writers and the media will be more careful about what they print!
7 - Dan
Several layers of insanity here, but one is that someone can innocently (depending on whatever hazy, evolving, definition of "racism" is), lose a career.
Will we now need to refer to the word "chink" as the "C word"? Naturally the phrase "chink in the armor" will need to go.
C'mon progressives! Let's fret over this. Scour the texts, ban movies and books that reference the offensive phrase. More sensitivity training.
Probably ought to rethink fining ESPN a quarter mill though. They would just hike their subscription price.
8 - Sportmentary
Clearly, comments regarding Lin were getting edgier and edgier and the ESPN employee should have known that the headline was offensive.
I never said they should be fined as the FTC doesn't have that ability in this case. I said it would be a nice gesture if ESPN donated that amount.
9 - Dr Dreadful
Dan, It's not a question of banishing the phrase entirely from the English language and you know that perfectly well.
In this context, it was offensive. Even if it was an innocent mistake or oversight, you can't just leave a headline like that up and expect no-one to take umbrage.
It's essentially no different than if you were to decide on a pirate costume for a Halloween party even though you were aware that your hostess's parents had been murdered by Somali pirates.
I realize that in Dan World, racism is always the correct response, but isn't there some room for tact?
10 - Sportmentary
Dr. Dreadful, I agree with you. There's no room for reference to any person's race when it comes to talents on the court. too bad that ESPN's former employee didn't do a double take before posting the headline. It's obvious that person wanted to garner attention and they did. Now they're looking for a job in a bad economy and they're in a competitive industry. Hopefully that person will learn a lesson from all of this.
11 - Angie Davis
yeah I think that comment was very racial one. But thats why no matter how you feel about someone or something you have to keep things like that to your self.
12 - Sportmentary
Angie, what you say is true, especially when you're working for the largest sports network and your comments are seen by the public. I think the best approach an employee can take is to think about how your comments will reflect on your employer. Had that approach been taken by the ESPN employees, I'm confident that the headline never would have been published!
13 - Dan
"Now they're looking for a job in a bad economy and they're in a competitive industry. Hopefully that person will learn a lesson from all of this."---Sportmentary
Since the guy said it wasn't intentional and apologized, and Jeremy Lin accepted and also said that he thought it "probably wasn't intentional" as well, I suspect that the "lesson learned" is roughly equal to the lesson a young child who is punished for accidentaly wetting the bed learns.
A constant low level anxiety. Not quite terror, but a realization that we live in an age of racial aggression, severe and Orwellian, that is disguised as "tolerance" and "equality".
The word "honky" is supposed to be a pejorative for whites. If there was a white basketball player who became very angry at a game and made a scene, and a ESPN scroll writer wrote that the player got "honked off"... would that be grounds for firing? Throwing 250g at race hustlers?
Of course it wouldn't.
The concept of racism is a social construct that demonizes a healthy racial instict in whites, but not others, for the purpose of dispossesing them of their heritage, culture, and geographical space.
Some argue that by United Nations definition it is genocide.
However, I'm somewhat in the grip of "Linsanity" myself. He's a great story in a somewhat dull sport. His being Asian will be a big part of the story whether you would like it or not. If basketball were dominated by white players instead of blacks, we might be hearing a lot about a "triumph over racism", and "breaking color barriers".
With this incident and the previous break from Rush Limbaugh for simply stating the opinion that some in sports media are "desirous" of seeing Donavan McNabb do well, ESPN has set a tone of coersive thought control among their employees.
14 - Sportmentary
Dan,
If ESPN ran "Honked Off" story I would be offended. To me a person's race should not figure into their accomplishments.
15 - El Bicho
if that story would offend, you are way too sensitive, although the guy should be fired for writing such an idiotic headline
16 - Dr Dreadful
Dan, I've never even heard the expression "honked off". Did you just make it up?
In any case, you're presenting a false equivalency here. The fact is that while white men make up a lesser percentage of the NBA playing cohort than they once did, there are still a lot of them. Therefore, if some immature sportswriter were seeking a pejorative term for, say, Dirk Nowitski, "honky" would probably not be the one that sprang immediately to mind. It would most likely draw instead on Nowitski's German nationality.
(And yes, as Sportmentary said, if a black journalist made a "honky" reference about Nowitski then it would be grounds for offense.)
In contrast, there are very few Asian players in the league and so "chink" is an obvious one. It's a subtle distinction but one which I suspect is far from lost on you.
17 - Dan
Yes, "honked off" is an expression for getting angry. And no, no one would be fired for using it in reference to a white player. (double standard)
relative percentages of different races in the league doesn't have a logical bearing on racial insults.
18 - Dr Dreadful
I never said they did, Dan. Again, I think you know perfectly well what I was getting at. You're not stupid.
19 - Sportmentary
hey Dr. I understand what you were getting at!
20 - Dan
Ok, so according to Dr. Dreadful the amount of offense to be taken is relative to the proportion of your race in the league. So then puns and indirect reference to racial pejoritives of black players should be the least offensive, since blacks comprise a majority of the players.
So then a scroll that described a black player who played selfishly as being "niggardly" with the ball would be less offensive than the "honked off" white guy, and much less offensive than the "chink in the armour" of the asian?
is that it?
21 - Zingzing
I've never heard the term "honked off" either, but apparently it does exist... Still, getting from "honked off" to "honky" is a little bit more difficult than "chink" to "chink". And "niggardly" has a rather unfortunate resemblance to another word that has little contextual meaning in conjunction with that other word, but it's just too close these days. The word's been ghettoized, for lack of a better term in these circumstances...
Still, Dan is just playing his "woe is the white race's lot in this life" bit, even if this was a rather stupid controversy to begin with. It was a stupid headline (although not as stupid as "honked off" would have been for other reasons), but the writer's life is seriously messed up right now, and he doesn't really deserve that. Everyone makes mistakes,
22 - Sportmentary
I still don't understand how the writer didn't see that the term "chink" would be considered racist. I think the writer was definitely using the slang term and trying to be funny. Most people know that terms is racist and wrong. I also don't think ignorance in this case can be tolerated by ESPN. They had to act and act quickly.
23 - Zingzing
If he thought it would be considered racist, I doubt he'd have used the term. He probably didn't think about the term in that way, as the other use of the entire phrase is rather obvious in the context. The only other possibility, unless you think he's a racist, is that he saw where the new York post and other tabloids were going with their puns, such as "amasian!" and took it one step too far. Trying to be funny is one thing, but I really doubt the guy thought about it that way. And if he would put that much thought into it, I doubt he'd not think about what a bit of casual racism would do for his job. The guy didn't think. That's all that happened.
24 - Sportmentary
What I'm saying is that he should have known better. I think he obviously new the word Chink in this case was a reference to Lin as an Asian. the fact that he didn't realize it's a derogatory term, is ignorant and he deserved to be fired. I agree that there are other uses for the term but he was trying to directly relate that to Lin as being Asian and at best, that's always crossing a fine line!
25 - Zingzing
He definitely should have known better. And he certainly does now. If it's his job to make up headlines, he certainly did not do his job well there, and it caused his employer public embarrassment and he was fired for cause.
But do you think he wrote that with malicious racist intent? I seriously doubt it. I think he made a stupid mistake at 2:30 am on a Friday night. He was probably on auto drive at that point. This story has nothing but victims, but one did it to himself. A fatal flaw, a tragedy in this man's life...