Below is a part of comment from the Comments section of Calpundit, arising from Kevin’s link to my posting of the email by the woman who lost her job over the eenie, meenie, minie, moe, caption:
First is the reaction to Steve Kerr’s recent comment on national television. During a broadcast on TNT, commenting on Yao Ming during a NBA game, Kerr referred to Ming as a “Chinaman.” But it was clear from the context that the comment that he meant it in the same way as “Englishman” and “Frenchman” and seemed unaware of its racist implications. So what happened? 80-20, an Asian American PAC, was contacted by some Asian viewers of the remark. They sent word to Kerr privately to ask him to explain himself. Upon learning the connotations behind his remark, Kerr immediately apologized. Kerr has now committed to 80-20 that he will use whatever opportunities to speak out and educate people on racist speech, against Asians and otherwise. Indeed, immediately after the incident, Kerr wrote his weekly column on Yao Ming, giving a critical assessment and praise on his play and future.Now, I’ve been in the very politically correct world of academia for sixteen of the last nineteen years, and I’ve written a book called “You Can’t Say That!” which required me to read dozens of articles about speech and political correctness, yet I had no idea that the term Chinaman was considered offensive. Not that I ever use it, or have ever heard anyone use it (except, maybe once, hearing someone say “a Chinaman’s chance”). To me, until now, I would have simply thought it archaic, like calling a Jew a “Hebrew” or an “Israelite” as was fashionable in the 19th century. (I’ve done some research on the Chinese in 19th century America, and “Chinaman” was simply what an individual Chinese was called, like “Englishman;”) But there it is, in the American Heritage Dictionary, “Chinaman: Offensive: A Chinese Man.” On the one hand, this shows that we should be sensitive to the language we use. On the other hand, it shows we shouldn’t be oversensitive to the language we hear, as we can often misconstrue an innocent remark as a slur. As for Kerr, it was nice, and appropriate, of him to apologize, and even nicer to volunteer to become a spokesperson against “racist speech”, but he certainly wasn’t obligated to do the latter (beyond the normal moral duties one has on such things), and I hope “80-20” and its supporters don’t think his innocent mistake argues otherwise.
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