After a 89-85 loss to the New Orleans Hornets last Friday, some genius on ESPN Mobile decided to post an article titled "A Chink in the Armor." While I understand that Jeremy Lin's nine turnovers played a large factor in the NY Knick's loss that Friday, I don't understand how it went undetected for 35 minutes before finally being pulled. How can a news agency, especially one with such stature as ESPN, to allow such racism to get past the radar? Where were the proofreaders with the most basic common sense who could have caught the article and had it revised before it was ever published at all? Although the one who published it, Anthony Federico, has since been fired, this slipup, combined with a similar statement by reporter Max Bretos (who is married to an Asian and should especially know better) the Wednesday before demonstrates to me that everyone at ESPN needs serious diversity training. Just because nigger means black, that doesn't make it okay to use by everyone. A similar argument could be made with the word "spaz" in Europe.
If you see these two people out in the street, please be sure to hit them in the eye and say it is courtesy of all of the Asian-Americans who have ever been called out of name or viewed as unmasculine by the media's stereotypes.
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| Anthony Federico |
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| Max Bretos |