CHINK

'Chink' is a derogatory ethnic slur for someone of Chinese descent, now used as an epithet against East Asians. Chink may also mean a small crevice or opening, often referring to a weakness, such as a "chink in the armor." The latter term is uncontroversial, since it predates the ethnic slur, though the slur may have origins from the original meaning. However the usage of the ethnic slur has sparked contemporary controversies in public and popular media.

Contents

Etymology and history

Offensiveness and reclamation

Controversies

In the United States

In the United Kingdom

See also

Compare

References

Notes

Etymology and history

A number of dictionaries have provided different suggestions as to the origin of chink. Some of these suggestions are that it originated from the Chinese courtesy, ''ching-ching'',^[2] that it evolved from the word "China",^[3] or that it was an alteration of 'Qing',^[4] as in the Qing Dynasty. A final explanation posits that the word evolved from the other meaning of chink, which is a small crevice, being a simile for small or slanted eyes.^[5] The slur's first usage appears in 1878,^[6] originally as ''chinkie'', perhaps as a mispronunciation of ''Chung Kuo'', which means China. ''Chinky'' is still used in Britain as a nickname for Chinese food.^[7]
During the turn of the 20th century, Asian immigration was seen as a threat to whites in North America. Chinese were seen as invasive, culminating into Yellow Peril hysteria. The Chinese Exclusion Act was passed, banning Chinese immigration, within a few years after the first recorded use of chink. The dehumanizing use of the word Chink is argued to be a racist justifier for the passage of the Exclusion Act. Written Testimony to Local School Council at Senn High School Quon, Myron Dean
However, labor shortage on the west coast still required Chinese and other Asian laborers. Alaskan fish canneries were so short on workers, appeals to congress to amend the Exclusion Act progressed. The ''Iron Chink'', an early 1900s fish preparation machine, was racially marketed during the shortage as a mechanical means and replacement (hence the name) to keep Chinese population low, utilizing anti-Asian fears as selling point to the product. The name of the product is both shockingly bold and now symbolic of anti-Asian racism during the era. A History Bursting With Telling: Asian Americans in Washington State Klingle, Mathew W. Acts of Exclusion Wing, Avra Usage of the word continued liberally, such as with the story ''The Chink and the Child'' by Thomas Burke, later adapted by D.W. Griffith. Griffith cleaned up the story to be more racially sensitive and renamed it to Broken Blossoms.
Although chink originally referred only to those of Chinese descent, the meaning expanded sometime in the 1940s to include other people of East Asian descent.^[8] During the Vietnam War, the word was frequently used to refer to Vietnamese soldiers, with numerous examples of news reports attesting to this. In addition, literature and film about the Vietnam war, also contain examples of this usage of chink, including the 1986 film ''Platoon'' and the 1970s play (and later film) ''Sticks and Bones''.^[9][10]

Offensiveness and reclamation

The offensiveness of the slur is under debate. Chink has been compared in degree of offensiveness to terms such as nigger. Like other ethnic slurs, association with violence and discrimination are made, which may be considered hate crimes. Is SF Soft On Hate Crime? Guillermo, Emil Chinese people considered it offensive from an early time. In the 1920s, a Chinese merchant in Singapore said that he did "not like to be called a 'bloody chink,'" but that he accepted it "because that is the way of the white man" and that he would lose business if he protested against its use.^[11]
Racially motivated violence and harassment has disturbed Asian communities and families, often performed in conjunction with slurs such as chink and at the expense of Asian youth. Asian American community members believe chink and other slurs are not taken seriously enough by public officials. A federal government investigation found deliberate ignoring of severe and violent harassment upon Asian students at Lafayette High School, Brooklyn, New York, including an honor roll student who had been beaten to unconsciousness. In 2004, Bang Mai, a Vietnamese teenager residing in Boston, was stabbed and killed after a confrontation where he and other Asian youths were called "chinks". The incident was believed to have been built up over a series of incidents involving harassment between youths. Protect Your Children Tang, Irwin Kenneth Chu has been used as an example of the seriousness of the slur, when he was found murdered with the word "chink" scratched into his car. ABC's Politically Incorrect Tackles Comedian's 'Chink' Joke
Similar to the controversial reclamation of the word "nigger", the word "chink" has been used in a positive spin. When targets of the slur use it in positive light, they are allegedly making the word less offensive or turning it towards their favor.
Wang Lee Hom, a Taiwanese American musician, named his Asian hip-hop fusion genre "chinked-out" in order to put positive light on the word. Eventually Wang hopes the word will become "cool."^[12] Punk rock band The Chinkees, led by Mike Park, a Korean American, was named so to point out that current day racism against Asian Americans still exists.^[13]
''Chink-O-Rama'', a New York City play in the vein of ''In Living Color'', similarly uses chink and other epithets throughout the show to "disempower" the words through parody, humor, and satirical analysis. Kate Rigg, co-creator of the show, named the title using chink due to racists assuming "that all Asian people are/look the same," therefore having the single slur representing all Asians. Kate's Chink-O-Rama Co-creator and actor in Chink-O-Rama, David Jung, created his character MC Chink Daddy, shortened to C-Diddy, as a parody of Asian stereotypes. He competed in the 2003 Air Guitar Championships, appearing on talk shows and news stations after his world victory. Chink-O-Rama: Bio: David Jung aka MC Chink Daddy aka C. Diddy Rigg, Kate

Controversies

In modern usage, chink used in public media or speech has caused controversy and outrage from use of the word.

In the United States

New York City radio station, Hot 97, came under criticism for airing the ''Tsunami Song''. Following the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, in which over 200,000 estimated people died, the song sought to racially mock such victims, where the phrase "screaming chinks" was used along with other offensive lyrics. The radio station fired a co-host and producer, and indefinitely suspended radio personality Miss Jones, who was later reinstated. Members of the Asian American community believed that real change needed to be done at the station, calling Miss Jones' reinstatement a sign of condoning hate speech. "Tsunami Song" Host Miss Jones Returns Fang, Jennifer, James Fujikawa
Sarah Silverman appeared on ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' in 2001, stirring up controversy when the word chink was used without the usual bleep appearing over ethnic slurs on network television. The controversy led Asian activist and community leader Guy Aoki to appear on the talk show Politically Incorrect along with Sarah Silverman. Guy Aoki alleged that Silverman did not believe the term offensive.
A Philadelphia eatery, Chink's Steak, created controversy, appearing in Philadelphia Daily News and other newspapers. The restaurant was asked by Asian community groups^[14] to change the name or even spelling, which the current owner outright refused. The restaurant was named after the original white owner's nickname, "Chink", derived from the ethnic slur due to his "slanty eyes".^[15]
During early 2000, University of California, Davis experienced a string of racial incidents and crimes between Asian and white students, mostly among Greek fraternities. Several incidents included chink and other racial epithets being shouted among groups, including the slurs being used during a robbery and assault on an Asian fraternity by 15 white males. The incidents motivated a school wide review and protest to get professional conflict resolution and "culturally sensitive" mediators. Hate Crimes Galvanize U.C. Davis Students Banerjee, Neela

In the United Kingdom

The 1969 top 3 hit single for Blue Mink, Melting Pot, which talks of how the world would be happier if everybody was coffee-coloured, sings "Take a pinch of white man, Wrap him up in black skin. [...] Mixed with yellow Chinkees. You know you lump it all together And you got a recipe for a get along scene Oh what a beautiful dream If It could only come true". It would have been unthinkable to use 'nigger' in the same context. The lyric was also included on the 2003 reissue of 1983 multi-platinum Culture Club album Colour by Numbers, which included a cover of the song as a bonus track. The 1994 Boyzone album, A Different Beat, omitted the lyric however.
In 1999, an exam given to students in Scotland was criticized for containing a passage that students were told to interpret containing the words 'chinky' and 'who flung dung.' This exam was taken by students all over Scotland, and Chinese groups were deeply offended at the inclusion of the said passage. The examinations body was forced to apologize, calling the passage's inclusion "an error of judgement."^[16]
The term "chinky restaurant" or simply chinky is sometimes used in the UK to refer to a Chinese restaurant, and is likely a similarly offensive term to the use of paki shop for convenience store.
The musical CATS originally contained the lyric, "with a frightful burst of fireworks, the Chinks, they swarmed aboard!", but in recent times, all productions of the show revised the lyrics to, "with a frightful burst of fireworks, the Siamese swarmed aboard!".

See also

★ Chinaman

★ Ching Chong

★ Gook

★ Shinajin

Compare

★ Honky

★ Cracker

★ Nigger

★ Spic

References

★ Foster, Harry. ''A Beachcomber in the Orient''. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1930.

Notes

1. Automated salmon cleaning machine developed in Seattle in 1903
2. Cassell's Dictionary of Slang, , , , Orion Publishing Group, 2005,
3. The Oxford Dictionary of Slang, , , , Oxford University Press, 2003,
4. 21st Century Dictionary of Slang, , , , Random House, Inc., ,
5. Chink
6. New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, , , , Routledge, ,
7. Chink (chingk)
8. Random House Slang Dictionary
9. http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Platoon.html Accessed March 31, 2007.
10. New York Times, April 26th, 1971, pg. 10.
11. Foster(1930), p.222
12. Pop Stop
13. label it... chink
14. The OCA approves Chink's Steaks resolution
15. Only 21, she's leading steak-shop fight
16. Chinese 'slur' wins apology