US Army twitter faces racism backlash for using phrase "chink in the armor"

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nynt9

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...-to-chinks-in-armor-after-racism-accusations/

special-operations.jpg


The Army, whose main Twitter account has 589,000 followers, used the definition of the word that means a weakness or vulnerability — a common expression when discussing security issues. The Washington Post, New York Times and other major publications all use it on occasion, including recently.

But the word “chink” also can be used as a racist term referring to individuals of Chinese descent, as numerous people pointed out to the Army on Thursday night.

.@USArmy uses racist term for Asians in headline! #inexcusable I’m waiting for an apology. @bjones @ArmyTimesTony pic.twitter.com/ArqsHUbrwJ

— Chanin Nuntavong (@authoriTHAI) January 29, 2015

Lt. Col. Alayne Conway, an Army public affairs officer, said Friday that the service was surprised by the reaction “since there is nothing even remotely racial” in the expression.
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The service’s deletion of the message without an apology posted on Twitter led to more anger. An example:

The @USArmy has decided to take down its racially insensitive tweet from earlier today making reference to “chinks”. But, no apology? — Danny S. Chung (@JarheadPAO) January 30, 2015
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Put me in flawed armor if old.

I've heard the phrase "chink in the armor" many times and never made the racial connection. I posted this story on my Facebook and some people freaked out about it being very racist, turns out that they had never heard the phrase.

For reference, the phrase has been used since the 1400s.

While googling to make sure I got all the facts, I even encountered a Yahoo News article talking about the Japanese ISIS hostage situation using the phrase. It's very common.

http://news.yahoo.com/hostage-drama-shows-change-propaganda-technique-204212406.html

At first glance the video appeared to be filmed in the same location as those showing American hostages James Foley, Steven Sotloff and Peter Kassig, and British captives David Haines and Alan Henning.

Experts who examined the video, however, said it was more likely filmed in an indoor studio with a false backdrop.

"There's a chink in the armor," said Veryan Khan, editorial director for the Terrorism Research and Analysis Consortium.

"The Islamic State's media arm is a full-fledged wing of their government... the United States doesn't even put as much effort into their media wing as the Islamic State does. There's been something messing up in their video production machine," she said.
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For reference, here's the linked article in the US Army tweet: http://www.army.mil/article/141816

The title has been changed to "Unprecedented technology poses challenges for special ops"
 
Since when is that phrase racist?
 
People like to get offended about everything. Obviously there is no Asian connection here, so I really don't see how you could connect the two.
 
Since when has that phrase racist? That fucking phrase has been used since the middle ages exactly for what they are referring to.

Holy fuck.
 
It was racist when they used it to describe jeremy lins sub par performance post-linsanity because of the double entendre, but here? A chink in terms of a coat of arms is a vulnerability, it derives from the physical sound it would make when present in chain mail. It doesn't have a racist connotation.
 
Chink in the Armor as used here? Not racist at all.

Chink in the Armor headline to an ESPN article about Jeremy Lin? Yup, kinda racist.
 
People on my facebook got really upset saying stuff like

"Wait. Chink isn't racist?"

"white guys: the last word on what is and is not racist"

" It's super common, unfortunately. So, I can actually see why this was assumed as a racist thing."

It led into a large discussion about white privilege.
 
BkzUzi said:
Are you being serious lol?
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Chink in an armor is not remotely a racist phrase. It's akin to having a term wet and people began using the word wet as a racist term , If I then say the ground is wet it does not mean I made a racist phrase. It means some humans are disgusting individuals and destroyed a perfectly normal phrase.
 
This is fucking ridiculous. I really dislike the way people go about trying to be offended these days. There is absolutely nothing racist about that tweet.
 
Speevy said:
What is the historical significance of that term?
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Definition of CHINK
1
: a small cleft, slit, or fissure <a chink in the fence>
2
: a weak spot that may leave one vulnerable <his lawyers found a chink in the law>

So usual word use gets hyper sensitive people offended and outrage happens, websites feast on the clickbait.
 
Man God said:
That's...not racist.
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One and done.

TatteredHat said:
If you don't even understand your own language, please stop talking.
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Sadly, social media has no minimum requirement. Idiots gonna be idiots.

Cels said:
i suppose using the word "niggardly" is racist too now?
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Cyan said:
Was just thinking that. Except this is even dumber since "chink in the armor" is far more commonly used.
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Welcome to 1999.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/longterm/williams/williams020499.htm

Stupid people who have limited vocabulary skills complain about things they don't understand.
 
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