ESPN with big racial fail.

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schatz247

Well-Known Member
http://jimromenesko.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Al660EhCIAEjXv4.jpg

Hopefully the link works. The headline read: "A chink in the armor."
The same company that attacked Floyd Mayweather for his comments will likely sweep this under the rug without much of an apology. ESPN disgusts me with their standards.
 
wow, they're going to take a LOT of heat over this...and rightfully so....unreal, why would they even contemplate running this headline?
 
WTF? I guess there's a lesson for management - take away access privileges then fire not the other way around.
 
I guess unless you think people are malicious then this was probably an honest mistake. It's not like chink in the armor is not a commonly used phrase.
 
Yunno, it could be a result of political correctness doing it's job. We send interns to ESPN from rural communities where there isn't even religious or economic diversity. Could totally believe one of these kids could have been oblivious of the slur. If that was the case the hammer should fall on the supervisor.

However, if it was somebody just trying to be irreverently funny, bye-bye.
 
There has been an uncomfortable racial subtext to the Jeremy Lin story (both positive and negative) the whole time. With all of the incessant punning with his last name, writing corny headline after corny headline, it's not a surprise this would eventually happen.
 
Anyone that thinks this was am honest mistake is delusional or I have vastly over estimated the IQ of the average human being.
 
Other said:
I have vastly over estimated the IQ of the average human being.
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This, unfortunately, is not hard to do. I work with sports broadcast students. It's not rocket science and ESPN loves free intern labor, particularly at 2:30 on Friday night.

But, if it was intentional, doesn't that also indicate an intellectually challenged individual?
 
Other said:
Anyone that thinks this was am honest mistake is delusional or I have vastly over estimated the IQ of the average human being.
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Right, because multi-billion dollar companies like ESPN publish racial slurs in their headlines all the time? You'd be surprised at what slips your mind when writing a headline. I've had a couple this year that I wish I could have changed. I highly doubt this was done with the intent of insulting Lin.
 
Hawksel said:
There has been an uncomfortable racial subtext to the Jeremy Lin story (both positive and negative) the whole time. With all of the incessant punning with his last name, writing corny headline after corny headline, it's not a surprise this would eventually happen.
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You realize people do the same thing with white, black, and Hispanic players, right? The puns are nothing new.
 
tm3308 said:
You realize people do the same thing with white, black, and Hispanic players, right? The puns are nothing new.
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The puns are not new, but you'd be crazy not to see the racial aspect of this ongoing story. His teammates bow to him after he makes good plays (sort of racist, but I'm guessing he's in on the joke); people are amazed at how good he is, partially due to his race; Asian people show up to games and cheer just for him, like he's validating an entire population of people, Asian Americans more than Asians in general. The story is as big as a story as it is because Asian players (except when they are gigantic) aren't supposed to be awesome basketball players, and his triumph is seen partially seen as a triumph against that stigma. To a lesser degree it's like how great white European players used to be a novelty, and now every team it seems like has a few foreign born players.

So there's a huge racial element to his fame, whether you like it or not. And that means that if even if that headline was unintentional, which I agree it could have been, the racial sensitivity that people have toward Lin, and when headline writers are constantly making jokes with his rather Asian specific name, it makes a controversy like this somewhat inevitable. Sooner or later someone was going to slip up and people were going to be offended. That's what I was saying.
 
What's so Linteresting here is that you would think that a potential headline would be Linspected by an editor or two before it is published on the Linternet. It is kind of Lincriminating that a player whose name has inspired a countless stream of Linane puns would suddenly have a racially Linsensitive pun attached to him.

Lin.
 
VAHawkFan said:
Oh, good. Another non-story to overreact to. I didn't know what I was going to do with my time today.
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I will be the first to say in far too many cases race gets brought up in an issue where it had no business being brought up due to lack of intent or a lame connect the dot read between the lines type of deal.

That said in this case the person who put up the title knew what they were doing and they deserve to get what they have coming to them.
 
GhostofBTT said:
What's so Linteresting here is that you would think that a potential headline would be Linspected by an editor or two before it is published on the Linternet. It is kind of Lincriminating that a player whose name has inspired a countless stream of Linane puns would suddenly have a racially Linsensitive pun attached to him.Lin.
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You even missed one... *Linspired

Although you don't work for a multi billion dollar conglomerate.
 
There's no way that this was intentional, but at the same time, how does no one read that and immediately say, WTF?
 
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