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<p>Like calling out ching chang chong in passing a chinese?</p>
<p>No, not like that at all. That seems taunting and is personally directed to an actual person. Putting “Asian-sounding” words together to make English-language expressions is just silly. In what way do these names ridicule or demean any particular person? There is no real person named Ho Lee F*** who could take offense. To use my earlier example, when someone makes fun of the English and their bad teeth I just smile with my perfectly fine and professionally straightened teeth. No one is saying anything about ME when they make stupid, generalized jokes like that. </p>
<p>And quite honestly, considering that pilot error is the reason three girls are dead and countless other people are injured, being offended should be the least of this flight crew’s worries.</p>
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<p>The problem is that use of such “humor” has long been used by dominant groups here in the US to target all those of Asian/Asian-American descent. </p>
<p>If you want to criticize the pilots, just limit the criticism to them. Don’t use language/humor which has had a history of being used to demean a minority group. </p>
<p>It not only takes the focus away from this specific case, but also hurts those who aren’t involved/or worse…are victims themselves.</p>
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<p>Indeed.</p>
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<p>I also don’t see any humor in this. It is like a non-Asian person making fun of the Asian accent (pretending to be speaking Chinese) and then piping out with their “but I’m not racist” – nope, you just like to make fun of Asians. The same thing is going on with the names. As a second generation Asian-American, this is getting really old.</p>
<p>I see a big difference between making up names that mean nothing (and are not laden with derogatory meaning) and calling someone the “N” word, for example. Do you? </p>
<p>I just don’t see how Asians as a group are demeaned by this. And I don’t think most Asians want to be considered part of some monolithic “group,” either.</p>
<p>“Humor” of this type with the deaths, injuries, and harm from this crash is in extremely poor taste. </p>
<p>“Humor” that pokes fun at the names, habits, beliefs, food, etc. of an ethnic group can be quite offensive to the targeted group, despite the protestations of the “humorist” that its just in “fun” and that people who find it offensive are “thinned skinned,” or otherwise at fault for failing to find “humor.”</p>
<p>News flash, inappropriate racist humor does not make the targeted group “overly sensitive.” If you can’t see the racism, that’s even more troubling. The dozens of people of all ages Who mentioned the incident last night had no trouble detecting and deploring the racism.</p>
<p>You know what, MTnest? Give me a break from the thought police who think they can declare what we are allowed to think is funny and what is not. Oh no, can’t dare to think something silly is hilarious because it might offend someone. Okay. Well feel free to snidely look down upon the “ignorant people”, but those of us who find something funny might just dare to laugh. Yes, it still is a free country.</p>
<p>If you don’t get that this is purely a play upon words as opposed to a racist slight, then you are looking to find offense. I personally could find a reason to be offended all the time. It’s a choice. I purposefully choose never to be offended, and it’s a much happier way to go through life.</p>
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<p>Of course, not. I hear this line all the time from folks who make similar types of racist jokes against not only Asian/Asian-American groups…but other groups. Heck, I wouldn’t be surprised if that ex-Goldman Sachs fool who was punched for threatening someone makes similar/same arguments once he is able to give a statement.</p>
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<p>It IS a free country. </p>
<p>Just as it is your right to make/enjoy such jokes, others are also free to criticize and to make negative judgments about you for doing so.</p>
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<p>They are making fun of the Asian language. Does it need to demean/ridicule a particular person to make it racist and unacceptable?</p>
<p>Unfortunately, unless you are Asian, you have not experienced what I have experienced. For me, I find it offensive and demeaning. It is similar to the pretending to string together syllables and pretend they are speaking an Asian language or using their fingers to simulate the Asian eyes. Yes, I have experienced it all.</p>
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<p>You know what Busdriver11, I agree with your totally – it is a free country! My family served in the military for 20+ years. I am just telling you I find it personally offensive. You can think what you like.</p>
<p>^^Like I said, cobrat, “feel free to snidely look down upon the ignorant people.” Freedom of expression is a beautiful thing, even when it seems offensive to some. Disagreement is wonderful.</p>
<p>I personally have spent decades listening to blonde jokes. That certainly seems to be just fine with most people. On that note, I’m outta here before the blonde jokes start up.</p>
<p>Did that really get broadcast? In Oakland, of all places? Unbelievable. How embarrassing.</p>
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<p>I’ve experienced the same thing with beatings myself as a first-generation Asian-American in a Catholic elementary school till second grade in the early '80s when I confronted a larger White bully 2-3 grades ahead of me and started stoning him in the playground. </p>
<p>Oh, his parents ignored many previous notifications by the principal about his behavior towards me and the other Asian-American kid in the school until their poor little baby found such behavior came with consequences. They also made similar remarks that their son was “just trying to be funny”. </p>
<p>Upon their complaining to try getting me expelled, it was funny to be in the principal’s office to hear her tell them off about ignoring their son’s previous bullying behavior which provoked that incident and that if he doesn’t get an attitude adjustment, she’ll see to it that he’s the one who is expelled. </p>
<p>Never suffered another bullying incident at that school from him or anyone else from that point till I left for junior high in the late '80s.</p>
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<p>Let me guess. You’re one of those who are good at dishing it out/cheering on those who dish out such jokes and yet, can’t take it when it’s directed towards you. </p>
<p>Interesting…</p>
<p>I fail to understand the logic of why because people are unenlightened enough to tell “dumb blonde” jokes it’s ok to make “jokes” about the names of another ethnicity. Two wrongs make a right? Not in my world.</p>
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<p>I don’t see how you can equate blonde jokes to racial jokes. As a blonde you can dye your hair and you are no longer blonde (end of blonde jokes). Can we change how we look that easily? No.</p>
<p>Did you tell people you found the “blonde” jokes offensive? I hope they stopped when you told them it was offensive.</p>
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<p>Not only that, but blondes have not had a history of being discriminated against in this country. Heck, in many areas of US/Western history, they’ve tended to be quite a privileged group. </p>
<p>Just look at how the blonde blue eyed “Nordics” are considered the ideal by many White racist groups ranging from the Nazis in Germany to the KKK/Neo-Nazi hate groups here in the US. George L. Mosse’s “Towards The Final Solution” discusses this ideal in his book on the history of European racism/anti-semitism and how it led to Nazism and its horrors.</p>
<p>cobrat, are you currently being discriminated against because of your ethnicity? Are most of the posters here? Isn’t one of the more common topics on this site the statistical “overrepresentation” of Asians in our top universities? I guess I don’t know how this silly prank could contribute to some ongoing grievance Asian-Americans might have with non-Asians. It’s also pretty disingenuous to imply that no one else ever faces judgment or discrimination. Try being a woman in a male-dominated field. Try being obese. Try being a 6’5" woman or a 5’ man. Try being gay in a conservative part of the country.</p>
<p>To me the prank–stupid, insensitive and tasteless as it was–was more like a riff on the silliness of Chinese restaurant menus being translated into words using OUR alphabet. Lots of things are funny in translation.</p>
<p>I also don’t know what your point is about blonde people and neo-Nazi groups. In what way is that relevant to this discussion? As a blonde, blue-eyed person, why would I consider it flattering to be deemed as racially “ideal” by sick, evil, uneducated people?</p>
<p>Just because a group may or may not be over-represented or idealized does not in any way make making jokes at its expense or reinforcing ignorant stereotypes by tasteless “jokes” better or more acceptable. It is still hurtful and yes, Asians still often are discriminated against in the cinema industry, higher education, and many other places and ways. Yes, many of us have been subject to discrimination and don’t like to see it clothed as a “joke.”</p>
<p>There are a lot of people on here that really just need to lighten up (no, I don’t mean go blonder). The people that think the joke was funny obviously don’t think it was a racist joke, but purely a play on words. Can’t you guys try to explain that without getting overly angry? I get it now, but it never would have occurred to me that some would find it racist instead of ludicrous. When you are sensitized to be offended, you surely will be, and others who intended no harm will not get it.</p>
<p>I am always laughing, and never offended, no not at blonde jokes. It is a much happier way to go through life. I find it completely weird that you would accuse me of being a bully, cobrat. You really need to lighten up.</p>
<p>Let’s not make jokes at all then. Let’s not put people in fictional movie or TV roles, because “casting” is stereotyping too. Also, we’d probably better not allow “ethnic” restaurants that tone down the spiciness and authenticity of their food for patrons of other backgrounds–that stereotypes both sides.</p>
<p>I’m out.</p>