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

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That one is simple.

If you're using Oriental to describe a rug, you're golden.

If you're using Oriental to describe a person, you're racist.

(*)The UK gets a pass on this for the same reason they get a pass on fag. US slurs are not always UK slurs.

You can't say fag in the UK when publicly speaking. We were actually told this as children in schools to be careful if we ever go to the US, although for a different reason than offending gay people.

Unbelievable. Are people going to get angry every time a company advertises crackers too?

Avatarquote!
 
as a resident asian guy, when reading that statement, it is well understood what the word means in this context, people are dumb.
 
I know what you are getting at, but you're talking to someone who has decided to stop using the word "thug" to describe people (after a GAF thread, actually).

(Also, that example is not the same since a lot of words for monkey have been used by racists against black people-- ape, chimpanzee, etc. If it was mostly 'monkey' and never ape, chimpanzee, etc... then that would make more sense as an analogy.)

That's great. I don't use 'gypped' any more because of the derivation. I don't think it is reasonable to stop using a word that at worst was used as a derivation for a slur and may have no connection at all.

So no, i don't think self censorship is a reasonable expectation in this instance.
 
You can't say fag in the UK when publicly speaking. We were actually told this as children in schools to be careful if we ever go to the US, although for a different reason than offending gay people.

It seems to be common enough when out at the pub. Struck me as odd the first time I visited and someone asked if they could borrow a fag. Someone had to explain they were asking for a smoke.
 
It seems like people try too hard to be offended. In this particular case, the offended party apparently doesn't have enough of a grasp of English to even understand that it's a common phrase and not a slur. They don't really have any basis to complain.

I remember an anecdote about a Japanese player in the MLB who had tasted something bitter and blurted out the Japanese word for it, "Nigai!" When said with emphasis, the last letter may be dropped. Apparently the translator had to quickly explain that word before his teammates got mistakenly offended by a foreign word.
 
I'm actually more upset about the first post on page 9 of this thread, but it seems like only two people have noticed it-- myself being one.

I just noticed it going back and reading it I think it cause of the human brain thing.

Where poelpe udner stnad tihngs msitpyed by ednings.
 
It seems to be common enough when out at the pub. Struck me as odd the first time I visited and someone asked if they could borrow a fag. Had to explain they were asking for a smoke.

Probably winding you up if they knew you were American.

A guy was asking for a lighter on New Years day as I took my SO and her friend to see fireworks (both Japanese) and he did this by starting the convo with "Ni Hao". They got offended, and I had to explain to them that, while he was wrong, this is no different to seeing a foreigner in Japan and attempting to talk by saying "hello".

----

Sometimes I think people let themselves get offended without considering the intentions of what someone says. Though sometimes, like when people call things "gay" we take extra time to tell people not to say it for the benefit of society. That is something that is said only for habit and without any good intention.

When "Chink" becomes a serious slur because it will be discouraged to be used as its previous meaning, then this trend of words being offensive retroactively will quicken. That's what I think anyway. Why not just penalise those who use chink offensively, as it is a word that is more commonly established to mean something else entirely.

as a resident asian guy, when reading that statement, it is well understood what the word means in this context, people are dumb.

I also want to point out that in this case, your ethnicity has nothing to do with how you perceive that tweet.
 
Calm down.

I said that just because I knew it could have a bad meaning, doesn't mean that it retroactively made it "unseeable" when this phrase popped up.

But what YOU are saying is that any group can take any word, make it offensive, and thus we should remove it from the language. That is "PC gone mad" really.

When we end up banning "cheese and crackers" being a thing anyone can say I hope you will see how ridiculous this really is.

Asians who have heard Chink first as an offensive slur, do not recognise the phrase, or simply heard it as a slur far more often will notice the intentions of the US Army and know that they aren't trying to offend them. If the word is too much and emotionally/physically hurts them if they read it, then while bad, it's indicative of a separate issue. The retweets that made this story popular are not all from people who are offended by the word.


First, stop comparing chinks, am actual racial slur, to cracker. Cracker is one of those faux-offensive things by the same white people that say "but you guys can say it!/why is there no white entertainment channel"

But anyways, just like how niggardly was phased out by most Americans, I think this should be, too. It's a word that may have been necessary back when it was invented but is not necessary now and is offensive to lots of people. That's all I'm saying. I see a lot of other weird examples like nip in the bud, but I don't think nip had enough usage for one to automatically equate that with the racial slur whereas chink has definitely had that.
 
In context this is clearly an acceptable use of the term for anyone with a basic grasp of English. Next people will be arguing that "spick and span" is racist, smh.
 
First, stop comparing chinks, am actual racial slur, to cracker. Cracker is one of those faux-offensive things by the same white people that say "but you guys can say it!/why is there no white entertainment channel"

But anyways, just like how niggardly was phased out by most Americans, I think this should be, too. It's a word that may have been necessary back when it was invented but is not necessary now and is offensive to lots of people. That's all I'm saying. I see a lot of other weird examples like nip in the bud, but I don't think nip had enough usage for one to automatically equate that with the racial slur whereas chink has definitely had that.

I think you are here to argue.

I say HAHAHAHAH at you downplaying "cracker" as if it isn't a racist slur. How the fuck isn't it? Because it is impossible to be racist to whites?

Faux-offensive isn't a thing. The reason why cracker is used and not some other word is because it specifically looks at white features and jokes about them. Which is EXACTLY what people are doing when they call asians "chink".

I am pretty certain that niggardly became more common the same way kids will say "shoot" instead of "shit" when told not to swear. It sounded like nigger but it wasn't.

That is not what's the case here. The person tweeting that message, presumably, didn't go out of his way to use chink as a term for no other reason than to put out a double meaning and have this excuse that it means something else. Like uh, "this game is gay" -- "I mean it is colourful!".

I kinda hope some people here will walk away learning that "chink" is a racial slur in America... and a couple people here did actually do so, so it's a net positive, but it's also a bit dismaying to see so many people ardently defending a word and purposely trying to say that it's rarely a racial slur (with the implication of, so you shouldn't feel that way).

And if they are about to say "chink in the armour" again, but stop and try to come up with another way to express their thoughts because of this twitter backlash, that is PC gone mad. If you expect people to do so, whatever new creative offensive word, that will continue to pop up every so many years, we will lose more parts of the English language in a forever cycle of PCness.

US Army removes the tweet, obviously disagreeing it should be a problem, and people have a problem with them removing it without apologising. Further more, whatever apology they say won't be enough because this campaign is fuelled by people wanting to be offended so desperately they see racism everywhere.
 
Yeah no, this is not racist, and I've actually been called a chink before, by stranger who wasn't Asian to boot. Doubt many of those complaining can actually say the same.
 
I think you are here to argue.

I say HAHAHAHAH at you downplaying "cracker" as if it isn't a racist slur. How the fuck isn't it? Because it is impossible to be racist to whites?

Faux-offensive isn't a thing. The reason why cracker is used and not some other word is because it specifically looks at white features and jokes about them. Which is EXACTLY what people are doing when they call asians "chink".

I am pretty certain that niggardly became more common the same way kids will say "shoot" instead of "shit" when told not to swear. It sounded like nigger but it wasn't.

That is not what's the case here. The person tweeting that message, presumably, didn't go out of his way to use chink as a term for no other reason than to put out a double meaning and have this excuse that it means something else. Like uh, "this game is gay" -- "I mean it is colourful!".



And if they are about to say "chink in the armour" again, but stop and try to come up with another way to express their thoughts because of this twitter backlash, that is PC gone mad.

Edit: I don't even give a fuck anymore. I'm going to bed instead.
 
So I take it the idiots in the social media are the ones who overreacted as usual?

It's not overreaction anymore. I think it's just standard behaviour these days.

Tell me more about how cracker became an actual racist slur. Me and my black friends have been curious for a long time. Spread this knowledge. Unless it's "crackers are white and white people are white!" Then tell me why it's offensive because it's really not. People can pretend it is, but unlike numerous other racial slurs, it doesn't have the same history behind them but share anyways.

See what you are doing is comparing cracker to nigger. We aren't doing that, we are comparing cracker to chink. They both became slurs for exactly the same reason. Whether it is generally considered offensive or not does not mean it isn't racist. That is for the peers of the word to decide.

All of these slurs are descriptive of something according to the race. You don't have to look far for maaaaany interpretations (bad) of how cracker came about being used.

But really, you are basically affirming a "how racist is this word" status to these slurs based on your own understanding. Like we all must. I don't see people saying in this thread saying "I am asian and I was offended by this tweet". Which is my expectation.

You mention you use nigger so non-racistly, why can't it be used as cracker is used? Isn't that hypocrisy? Or is it empowering for white people to call themselves crackers?

--

EDIT: Also if someone said "Hey, you Asian-American!" it would be far more racist than what the word chink could do. Should we ban that term too? Intentions are important especially when this word is more commonly used and was correctly used for another reason.
 
I agree with you, but I would say that chink IS a serious slur already for those people that it's used against. It's just the rest of the people that don't believe it to be so, dismissing the feelings of people that have had it used against them.

I doubt Mr. Chiu's parents would not have serious anguish if you used that word around them, especially as a slur.

No reason to freak out about people using it, but there is merit, imo, to point out when it's used that it's pretty commonly used against Asians in America. It's the difference between OMIGOD HOW CAN YOU SAY THE WORD ORIENTAL LIKE THAT YOU MUST BE A HORRIBLE HOMOPHOBIC RACIST EVIL HITLER, and "oriental is outdated and some people find it offensive." It's just something to be aware of.

From this thread, for example, I learned that using the word bitch to describe a dog is still apparently okay, but I would still probably ask someone to not use it too loudly or much when referring to his/her dog in casual conservation, simply because the slur is very common around here.

I kinda hope some people here will walk away learning that "chink" is a racial slur in America... and a couple people here did actually do so, so it's a net positive, but it's also a bit dismaying to see so many people ardently defending a word and purposely trying to say that it's rarely a racial slur (with the implication of, so you shouldn't feel that way).

It is PC gone mad if you think that people shouldn't use words such as bitch and chink in the right context (and not as racial slurs obv). They are real words with real meanings.
 
I feel like every day it's another one of these situations where people are getting offended over legitimately nothing. Chink in the armor now? Really? This is a bad sign for the future.

Also to those of you in this thread saying we should stop using these words so no one gets offended, you're just adding to the problem. If you make a regular word like chink taboo because it's been used before as a racial slur, then you're only empowering the negative history of said word.

The less people get offended at a word being used on a non-negative context, the better off we'll be.
 
It's not overreaction anymore. I think it's just standard behaviour these days.



See what you are doing is comparing cracker to nigger. We aren't doing that, we are comparing cracker to chink. What both became slurs for exactly the same reason. Whether it is generally considered offensive or not does not mean it isn't racist. That is for the peers of the word to decide.

All of these slurs are descriptive of something according to the race. You don't have to look far for maaaaany interpretations of how cracker came about being used.

But really, you are basically affirming a "how racist is this word" status to these slurs based on your own understanding. Like we all must, except as you mention you use nigger so non-racistly, why can't it be the same as cracker too? Isn't that hypocrisy? Or is it empowering for white people to call themselves crackers. You decide on that.

Chink is more offensive than cracker. I think it's unfair to compare the two like its unfair to compare cracker and nigger. I wanted you to tell me since you acted like you knew.

I don't give a fuck if white people call themselves cracker and why would I? If it empowers them, cool. That doesn't equate it to nigger, though. And i wouldn't equate that to us using nigga and that line of thinking is offensive and annoying. I'm judging these words on the history of the word and the people behind them, but I'm definitely done having this conversation.


Also, what the fuck? Hey Asian American would be more offensive than hey chink? Lmao, get the fuck out of here. Idk if you're playing devils advocate or just gonna say stupid shit until I get banned, but I'm definitely bowing out. Have fun with your shit.
 
In Scotland Chink's only definition is a racial slur towards chinese. I doubt many people here actually know theres a proper definition to the word.

Example: "Wannae hae a chinky?"

Want some chinese food?

Kinda like "japs" still being used today in certain areas non-offensively I guess.

Chink is more offensive than cracker. I think it's unfair to compare the two like its unfair to compare cracker and nigger. I wanted you to tell me since you acted like you knew.

I don't give a fuck if white people call themselves cracker and why would I? If it empowers them, cool. That doesn't equate it to nigger, though. And i wouldn't equate that to us using nigga and that line of thinking is offensive and annoying. I'm judging these words on the history of the word and the people behind them, but I'm definitely done having this conversation.


Also, what the fuck? Hey Asian American would be more offensive than hey chink? Lmao, get the fuck out of here. Idk if you're playing devils advocate or just gonna say stupid shit until I get banned, but I'm definitely bowing out. Have fun with your shit.

Disclaimer: You are finding something wrong with all of my reasoning because you want to, so you are casually misinterpreting my posts on purpose.

1. Look it up.

2. look it up

"Hey, you Asian-American!" in context of someone shouting after a minor car crash.

A concerned bystander, helping as a witness to a police officer "excuse me officer, I saw the blue car rear-end, uh, the chink's car".

It's a poor example but you get what I am saying. Both are racist things to say but the intention of the first person makes a non-slur more offensive to the receiver than someone using the slur. Both are offensive either way, so I am not saying it is ever okay to use chink as a descriptive (ever), but context and intentions so matter in real life. Races of the people saying it aside, someone saying "Mah nigga!" and "You black!" illustrates this futher.

It is context and intentions that makes you somehow think cracker isn't a racist slur. You think it isn't because you have probably never seen people get offended by it, so you consider it to be harmless.

When cracker gets used by a racist group against whites, that is when the word will become taboo. People shouldn't then say it, and we will get to where we are with the word chink. But just as how we won't give a new name to the food "crackers" (or at least shouldn't), we shouldn't band this phrase in question.

--

Also I am not stating my opinion to piss you off, if it seems that way calm down a bit. If I was doing so I would get banned, not you.

EDIT: Slippery slope is a better example, heh.
 
Kinda like "japs" still being used today in certain areas non-offensively I guess.



Disclaimer: You are finding something wrong with all of my reasoning because you want to, so you are casually misinterpreting my posts on purpose.

1. Look it up.

2. look it up

"Hey, you Asian-American!" in context of someone shouting after a minor car crash.

A concerned bystander, helping as a witness to a police officer "excuse me officer, I saw the blue car rear-end, uh, the chink's car".

It's a poor example but you get what I am saying. Both are racist things to say but the intention of the first person makes a non-slur more offensive to the receiver than someone using the slur. Both are offensive either way, so I am not saying it is ever okay to use chink as a descriptive (ever), but context and intentions so matter in real life. Races of the people saying it aside, someone saying "Mah nigga!" and "You black!" illustrates this futher.

It is context and intentions that makes you somehow think cracker isn't a racist slur. You think it isn't because you have probably never seen people get offended by it, so you consider it to be harmless.

When cracker gets used by a racist group against whites, that is when the word will become taboo. People shouldn't then say it, and we will get to where we are with the word chink. But just as how we won't give a new name to the food "crackers" (or at least shouldn't), we shouldn't band this phrase in question.

Dude, I shouldn't even have to tell you what's wrong if you're gonna type ignorant bullshit like "mah nigga." Are you trying to equate chink to nigga? Chink is a negative slur. Nigga is something black people derived from nigger. Tell me when that happens with chink. Why the fuck would you Asian-American be any worse or better than saying you chink after an accident? That's like them saying you black and you nigga (not nigger) after a crash, regardless of the phrase, it's still negative and neither one coming out like that is better or worse. I'm not debating this with you because you seem out of touch. Cracker will never become taboo. Never.
 
Dude, I shouldn't even have to tell you what's wrong if you're gonna type ignorant bullshit like "mah nigga." Are you trying to equate chink to nigga? Chink is a negative slur. Nigga is something black people derived from nigger. Tell me when that happens with chink. Why the fuck would you Asian-American be any worse or better than saying you chink after an accident? That's like them saying you black and you nigga (not nigger) after a crash, regardless of the phrase, it's still negative and neither one coming out like that is better or worse. I'm not debating this with you because you seem out of touch. Cracker will never become taboo. Never.

Saying "cracker will never become taboo" is something I could bet on if this is about popular opinion. But it can, the same way any of these words became taboo. Cracker isn't PC by any means. Show me where it is socially acceptable for say, an Asian person on the news call white people crackers. I say this as I am getting a "can't be racist to your own race" vibe from this. A slur is a slur no matter what race says it.

You're right, I don't really want to have a conversation where appanrently "nigga" and "nigger" are two very different words, in the context of me explitictly saying when it is said (also regardless of the race of who says it).

It is out of touch to assume anyone was hurt or will be hurt by someone using the phrase "chink in the armour".

I have Uni now so I can't reply. I guess we've kinda said all there is to be said.
 
hopefully this means the internet will back my petition to get this vile, racist product removed from store shelves immediately:

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I can only imagine how much glee the makers of this despicable object get knowing how many mexicans will use it to clean hotel rooms.

Oh god... I just snorted due to the inappropriate comedy.
 
I can't tell if you're talking about "chink in armor" or "chink" as in the adjective.

I suspect that it may not matter to you, but it's still baffling if it's the latter.

By the way, thug and gypped are not the same.

Thug == originally a harmless word to describe a professional criminal, now often used as a codeword for the n-word.
Chink == originally a harmless word to describe flaws/cracks/slits, now often used as a racial slur against Asians.
Gypped == always a harmful word, given that it's a derivative of a slur.
Thug is closer to gypped then chink because although it wasn't used as a racial slur, the word thug was originally supposed to be a harmful word. I don't know how you equate being called a professional criminal to being harmless. It was used to describe criminals and outlaws. Even if it didn't carry the racial connotation it was always supposed to be a negative term. The only reason it changed to a positive one is because people co-opted it and used it as a term of endearment. Then people co-opted it again to focus it solely on black people. But just because certain people used it positively at one point doesn't mean the word itself was originally harmless.

The entire problem with the word thug being a racial term now is that thug was originally supposed to be a bad thing to call people, now people almost use it exclusively towards black people. If thug was originally a harmless word people wouldn't be nearly as mad at people using it to generalize black people.
 
In Scotland Chink's only definition is a racial slur towards chinese. I doubt many people here actually know theres a proper definition to the word.

Example: "Wannae hae a chinky?"

Want some chinese food?

I'm Scottish and both definitions are used. Admittedly chink has only ever been used in its non-racial form when it's "Chink in the armour".
 

Regardless of whether or not people think it's racist, it's really awful sentence structure.

"Digital and physical chinks in the armor of special ops pose challenges, experts say."

Less confusing? Check. Idiom now intact? Check. Less likely to incite accusations of racism? Check.
 
I'm Scottish and both definitions are used. Admittedly chink has only ever been used in its non-racial form when it's "Chink in the armour".

What about light coming through a chink in the curtains? I'm surprised the word is seen as some obscure relic of English.
 
Regardless of whether or not people think it's racist, it's really awful sentence structure.

"Digital and physical chinks in the armor of special ops pose challenges, experts say."

Less confusing? Check. Idiom now intact? Check. Less likely to incite accusations of racism? Check.

You've changed "digital and physical" from modifying armor to modifying chinks.
 
Cracker isn't offensive even when it's hilariously used as slur, so...

Everything about this sentence is incredible. It only took about 6 words for the poster to fully disprove his point and make himself look foolish.

(sadly necessary disclaimer to allow myself to point out the above absurdity without being subjected to "lol you think cracker is offensive smh white people": being offended by cracker in 99% of instances where it's uttered is stupid, but one can be offended while being stupid for being offended; 30 page threads happen all the time on GAF because of it happening somwheres on the internet).
 
Regardless of whether or not people think it's racist, it's really awful sentence structure.

"Digital and physical chinks in the armor of special ops pose challenges, experts say."

Less confusing? Check. Idiom now intact? Check. Less likely to incite accusations of racism? Check.

Your version doesn't have the same meaning.

To clarify, I am sure it is talking about multiple types of armour having chinks in them. Not different types of chinks (lol) in one type of armour.
 
Your version doesn't have the same meaning.

Again, the meaning they've shoehorned in is not necessary. I wouldn't have written it the same way as them in the first place.

Let me be clearer: they're dead set on using an idiom where they don't need one. It can be replaced by "Special ops' inadequate defenses--both physical and digital--" very easily, but if they insist on using an idiom, they need to keep the idiom together or they'll invite misunderstanding.

The story isn't the armour. The story is the chinks in the armour. Hence, describing the chinks as digital and physical implies both varieties of armour.
 
Again, the meaning they've shoehorned in is not necessary. I wouldn't have written it the same way as them in the first place.

Let me be clearer: they're dead set on using an idiom where they don't need one. It can be replaced by "Special ops' inadequate defenses--both physical and digital--" very easily, but if they insist on using an idiom, they need to keep the idiom together or they'll invite misunderstanding.

The story isn't the armour. The story is the chinks in the armour. Hence, describing the chinks as digital and physical implies both varieties of armour.

They are on twitter, so your new version is longer. If they actively avoided using the word chink, then they would have seen this coming.

Wait, you do know that chink actually has a meaning on its own right? Look it up.

I think you will only find the racist meaning in urban dictionary. They don't need to use it in an idium so to speak for it to have that meaning.[
 
I wasn't aware thug was racist. It is sad that this very fact is racist. =( It shouldn't really be.
It's used as a dogwhistle code word re: young black guys now. If you use it in a normal context "The mob boss sent his thugs to beat up a guy who wouldn't pay protection", it's fine.
 
It's used as a dogwhistle code word re: young black guys now. If you use it in a normal context "The mob boss sent his thugs to beat up a guy who wouldn't pay protection", it's fine.

A scene from Orange is the New Black just made a heck of a lot more sense.
 
This is using the phrase in a racist manner, not a racist phrase.
There is a perceptible difference!

For example: Say I have just come back from swimming, and my back has not dried. I would say that "I have a wet back."

Now in another situation, say that I am describing my employees to a friend, and when I reach the one of Mexican nationality, I say "I have a wetback."

Do you see the difference?

Who thought that headline was a well thought out idea though...

what exactly is wrong with your body that most of your body would be dry except your back?

that doesn't make any sense and I never in my life once heard "I have a wet back" in any situation. so I doubt that's a common phrase.

just pointing out that I think that example is terrible
 
Hmm I thought it was a possible misspelling or pronunciation. Thought they where trying to say "kink" in the armor but spelled along the lines of "c-hink".
 
Again, the meaning they've shoehorned in is not necessary. I wouldn't have written it the same way as them in the first place.

Let me be clearer: they're dead set on using an idiom where they don't need one. It can be replaced by "Special ops' inadequate defenses--both physical and digital--" very easily, but if they insist on using an idiom, they need to keep the idiom together or they'll invite misunderstanding.

The story isn't the armour. The story is the chinks in the armour. Hence, describing the chinks as digital and physical implies both varieties of armour.

Also, this is the one best responses in the thread.
 
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