racist jeremy lin espn headline poll

itk the curly bracket does look a lot like the regular one

lock thread

it's very reassuring/cool http://i.imgur.com/zi7hd.gif
that people are legit freaked out and angry over this instead of letting it slide like Shaq's anti-Asian rant

sorry, re spacing.

its cool that people are vocal and upset, not that it happened

I think someone was trying to sneak one through.

However, there are some early mornings at work where I'll hope through the RSS feeds of the national headlines and some of the headlines will say something like "Loser Coach Gets Booted". I'll click on it to see if that's really the headline and of course it's something like "Houston Nutt To Resign At End of Season".

So it may have been temporary copy, but it's still pretty damn stupid both on a racist level and on a technical level.

kind of 3 and 5. thought they could sneak in some racist trolling.

whiney

tempted to tie it into the acceptable level of racism that permeates a lot of internet humor

Do we really need a whole month to come to the conclusion that "Passive-aggressive action from actual racist working in ESPN"?

Just a heads-up Dave, your screen name is the former screen name of an ILXor who has indicated that she doesn't want it used on the site anymore, I believe because it's involved in some ongoing or past legal wrangling. If you're as cool as you seem to have been much of the last month, I can't imagine why you wouldn't change it if she complains. If you were really really cool, you'd change it without needing a complaint first. To anticipate a "but she uses it as a digital watermark on her artwork," I'd just say that one is googleable and one isn't.

changed

Thank you, Dave.

http://i.imgur.com/zi7hd.gif

cool

http://images.wikia.com/mssam/images/0/01/Hal_9000.gif

"Thank you Dave"

i guess the writer was probably clueless in general, about how offensive that comes across and how the correct usage of that sports journalism meme is working in the letters "lin" in the title. the sort of clueless that is also found in university meme pages.

I refuse to believe espn would hire a writer that would be clueless about a thing like that.

I mean it's espn, but still

I think Sturgeon's Law can be extended to say that 90% of people are clueless, and I can see one of them winding up on the overnight desk at ESPN. voted #3

i voted for some asshole trying to be "clever", though passive-agressive racist action is probably not off the mark either

don't know what i think. those poll options aren't mutually exclusive. it could be the product of any number of things, but there's no way the writer didn't know A) what the word means as relates to race and B) that it's terribly offensive.

They must have known it was offensive but it's just about possible they didn't realise quite how offensive. Either way, i'm not sure any comparable 'joke' would have been made about many other minority groups.

i honestly have no idea

i'd probably go with something like "knew it was racist, but thought it was funny anyway tee hee bad word"

someone should start a sock called dave tool, dave cool's evil twin

miss frogsbs valuable "but me and my friends use that word all the time, it's just funny" perspective

better done than said

xp

i think i should retract part of what i wrote; i don't follow sports but... lousy puns are common practice by these writers, right, so maybe he wasn't high on the lin meme orgy. maybe he just sucks, idk.

p obv (to me at least): "Headline writer thought they could sneak in a "funny" double entendre and no one would notice"

thing is, though, that ILX finds racial humor to be pretty funny sometimes

LONG DUK DONG

all ilxors look alike to dayo, smh

good joke, very good

I can think of plenty of ppl who'd make a "chink in the armour" joke knowing its double meaning, and defend it with "what? Dont you have a sense of humour cmon its FUNNY geddit? chink! ha ha"

...which is a depressing thing about living in aus tbh

someone should start a sock called dave tool, dave cool's evil twin

any dave cool related sock i try to register gets never gets approved

this was obv idiotic but who knows, it's possible the double meaning didn't occur to whoever wrote the headline. it's whoever okayed this that is probably most culpable

also, we have a basketball board

I don't think this needs to be cabined tbh

racist jeremy lin

'chink in the armor' means a small vulnerability in an overwhelming opponent, which the knicks aren't exactly, so it makes zero sense to use it in another racially neutral context imo. considering how sometimes it seems every espn headline is some stupid puns (saints win a game on the road? 'the saints come marching in and beat the home team!' urlacher plays through an injury suffered in week 2? 'grin and bear it!' etc) this one is def someone trying to slip one by.

no does make sense - in this context it just means "maybe he's not invincible after all". not that it couldn't also be a bad pun, it probably was

i mean it does make sense to use it in a way, but espn's tradition of being punny makes me figure it was used here for that purpose and may have not been used otherwise. i wonder how many people something like that has to go through, though.

it certainly did make sense, and even if it was used unintentionally (i'm actually willing to believe this) it's still a fireable offense bcuz one of your jobs as a headline writer is to not write dumb things that unintentionally cause a major controversy and make your employer look terrible

as someone who as worked as a writer and editor of "website news" for four different magazines, I'm guessing the amount of people who saw the headline besides the author is probably somewhere between zero and one.

omar otm, if you really subscribe to the unintentional theory then you have to show how this headline was punny in a way that wasn't racist

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CprsGABjLVk

http://frontrow.espn.go.com/2012/02/follow-up-statement-and-action/

the stupidest thing is that the pun doesn't even make sense! jeremy lin is... in the armor? that's a really terrible pun!

no, the racial slur is the pun

right, but it still doesn't make sense

is just outright calling jeremy lin a racial slur a pun? i'm pretty sure it's just straight up racist

even those in my circle that are the type that go out of their way to defend indefensible people kind of backed down on defending this guy...

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball-dont-lie/ben-jerry-replaces-fortune-cookies-lin-sanity-flavor-162728739.html

also, not racist but...kinda creates an image I don't think Yahoo! intended to:

http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/6177/lolsqb.jpg

I still think the headline writer made an innocent (read: not malicious/intentional) mistake, but he should still get fired for the crime of being too fucking stupid to do his job correctly

The most OTM part of this is that dude's firing was justified regardless of intent.

yeah, actually, if you think dude should have kept his job for any reason, it's a pretty good litmus test for "You might be a racist if..."

i'm sort of been mesmerized by the idea of having fortune cookie pieces in my ice cream since this ben & jerry's thing

i'd gladly enjoy that flavor combo even if it meant tacitly supporting casual racism tbh

It should have been cherry froyo to represent Harvard IMO

xxxxpost except that I think that "chink in the armor" wouldn't have made sense in any other context. The dude had only completed his 9th start at the time (and only 10th game in where he appeared for more than 30 minutes). "Chink in the armor" in a sports context is used to describe some kind of powerhouse (player, team), that has previously seemed indestructible that now exhibits a visible flaw, like if Michael Jordan had ever lost in the Finals.

It's not a phrase that makes sense to use for a player who most of the world hadn't heard of a month earlier, that had a series of hot games (with noticeable flaws), and then just had an off night. That's why I think the author was intentionally making a pun, because had it been any other player, I don't think he would have chosen those words. My money is more on the idea that he didn't think "Chink" was offensive, or that he was being cute.

or that he THOUGHT he was being cute, that should say

no, it made sense, we've been over this. it was a stupid and offensive headline, which is why he was fired

have you guys ever had lychee flavored anything? it's awesome

in martinis and yes it is awesome

Yes lychee is great

Lychees are delicious, canned or fresh. (/food derail)

xp

xxxxpost It made sense in that people ostensibly knew what the copy writer meant. But it wasn't used properly. "Chink in the armor" is a term that makes more sense when applied to, like, the Boston Celtics losing back to back games in the 2007 NBA Playoffs, than to describe a turnover prone PG that just moved into the starting lineup having an off night.

Regardless, he deserved to be fired, but since this thread is about the author's "intent"....

I don't believe I've had lychee

I usually buy canned lychees because fresh lychees are so hit-or-miss. either fresh and unbelievably sweet and tasty, or they're unripe and sour or too ripe and off...

i'm sort of been mesmerized by the idea of having fortune cookie pieces in my ice cream since this ben & jerry's thing

The article said part of the reason they took them out is the cookie bits got too soggy. It would probably work if you added them on your own.

look for these in the candy section of ye international grocery:

http://cn1.kaboodle.com/hi/img/2/0/0/f5/6/AAAAAr6W4O8AAAAAAPVmgQ.jpg?v=1208747337000

xpost racisttoppings.jpg

"Chink in the armor" in a sports context is used to describe some kind of powerhouse (player, team), that has previously seemed indestructible that now exhibits a visible flaw, like if Michael Jordan had ever lost in the Finals.

Wasn't Lin being discussed as a powerhouse player though?

I have no idea what happened in this game where the writer used this headline tho

similarly, I am addicted to these:

http://i.imgur.com/FzCVR.jpg

it made sense... he had never really had anything close to a bad game before the one the headline was referencing

xxpost Yes, at the time he had just come off of a series of about 9 straight "o wau" games, including several where he won the game in closing moments. I just think "chink in the armor" being used for a player that had less than ten starts under his belt would be a bit premature.

Kind of wonder what kind of shitty pun the writer might have used if he wasn't Asian.

"Lincapable of Knicktory"

http://gaygamer.net/images/dogarmor.jpg

pug in the armor

i only post on racism, rap, and meta threads. My transition to becoming Dom Passantino is complete.

well they lifted your permaban, so don't go celebrating just yet

http://www.anybooze.com/ekmps/shops/anyboozecom/images/kwai-feh-lychee-liqueur-223-p.jpg

lychee schnapps <3

(though I admit the fake-Chinese name and design are a bit questionable for a drink made in the Netherlands, but, uh)

racist fonts really upset me more than racist headlines for some reason.

I once had some fresh lychees soaked in vodka. Super tasty + oh shit I'm drunk.

Easy way for Ben & Jerry's to have headed off that racial stereotyping dust-up: ask Jeremy Lin what kind of ice cream flavors he likes to eat, then play off those flavors to design a "Lin-sanity" flavor. <--- That will be a $50,000 retro-consulting fee, plz, and worth every penny I might add.

"Chink in the armor" would make sense if there were suddenly a specific, major flaw in Lin's play that lost them the game, like he suddenly couldn't pass. That wasn't even the case in the headline game, they just lost, and most of Lin's flaws were already known. Turns the ball over, can't go left, etc..

B&J: so what's your favorite...
JL: stinky tofu!
B&J: ...

http://i.imgur.com/8a1nH.jpg

^^ would work well as part of the overall insanity theme.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

jeremy who?

racist jeremy lin

barkley will be pretty matty ice but that's still pretty good

the vague sadness of polls that went on too long

Yep, Linsanity came, then went for about 5 games, now hopefully is coming back.

http://i.imgur.com/l1jQQ.jpg

I was at the ACC for Linsanity last night. Not very insane--six points, I think. It reminded me of driving to Detroit with my dad in '94 to see Griffey, and he didn't get the ball out of the infield.

yeah, that was hugely disappointing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvaM0pMj-8o

oh thought this was in ILH