Shaq's racial comments toward Yao

Hello. My name is Irwin Tang, and I have worked for much of my life to improve the lives of Asian Americans. One of our greatest obstacles to living lives of dignity in our beloved United States are the racist statements made by politicians and celebrities. That's why it has been particularly disturbing to me as a proud American (and a Rockets fan) to hear Shaquille O'Neill demean Asians and Asian Americans in his trash-talking at Yao Ming.

I wish to know more about some things Shaq has said, in order to try to stop this sort of racist taunting, which the media seems perfectly happy to tolerate and even fan the flames of.

Please post any information you have about the following two incidents:

1) Before Yao arrives, Shaq, on The Best Damn Sports Show Ever, when addressing the Yao issue, speaks in a mock Chinese accent and does some mock kung fu moves.

2) Shaq is recorded saying, "Tell Yao Ming, 'chingchongwangyow' (etc.)" This tape was played on the Tony Bruno show.

Below, I have made a timeline of some of the things I have found interesting in Shaq's, the NBA's, and the media's handling of Yao Ming. Please excuse this long post.

Before Yao’s arrival, Shaquille O’Neill makes an appearance on The Best Damn Sports Show Ever (ESPN?) and when Yao is brought up, he speaks in a mock Chinese accent and makes some mock kung fu moves. (According to a Rockets Fan, who saw it, and also read it mentioned on the clutchcity.net bulletin board).

June 20, 2002. Before Yao arrives to the United States, Shaquille O’Neill announces that he will test Yao’s toughness by taking an elbow to Yao’s face. "Don't give me the MVP like you gave it to Tim Duncan," he said during this interview. "Don't give me nothing. Just give me my fair share in American, because I'm American." (Houston Chronicle 6/21/02). After Yao’s arrival, Shaq states, “I look forward to breaking down that mother-****er’s body.” Shaq says, “He (Yao) said my name three times, two in Chinese and one in American. You don’t ever call me out. I’m from LSU.” (Sports Illustrated) All this trash talk is atypical even from Shaquille O’Neill, who does not usually sound so violent and brutish.


Shaquille O’Neill, probably sometime in early December is recorded saying, “Tell Yao Ming, ‘yangwongchangchow’” The exact transliteration of the mock-Chinese gibberish may not be correct here, but you get the idea. It is the racist taunt that East Asian Americans have endured through the decades, often as a preamble to racist assault. Assault or not, it should not be dismissed, as it is the same as using the most offensive epithet on any minority group member.

Monday, December 16, morning. Tony Bruno plays Shaq’s latest comment on his show. From his comments, Bruno implies that he has played the comment in the past, perhaps on December 13. Bruno frames Shaq’s comment with his own comments. He makes some remark about Yao saying something about Michael Jordan (probably just used this as a lead-in), and then said that "no one can understand him (Yao) anyway." He also said in a tone that only discounts the importance of Asian Americans, that Shaq’s remark had elicited calls to his show from "a bunch of angry Asians."

Monday, December 16, evening. According to the Houston Chronicle (12/17/02), “In honor of Yao Ming’s first game in Miami, the Heat gave away 8000 fortune cookies. Yao found the promotion amusing, though he never saw fortune cookies having anything to do with his life.” (The next day, Jim Rome on The Jim Rome radio show slammed the Miami Heat organization for their promotion, which was based on Yao’s ethnicity. Rome said that teams should not use a player’s race as part of a commercial promotion.)

Tuesday, December 17, morning. Tony Bruno plays the Shaq comment another time. He and his partner then say that Shaq’s comment was “insensitive” but “not racist.” They point out that Shaq’s comment only targeted the Chinese language, not the Chinese people. Of course, they did not point out that Shaq was not trying to speak the language, but, rather, mangled it in order to demean Yao Ming by smearing his ethnicity. Bruno and his partner say something about their Asian acquaintances, who made some comments, which, interpreted by Bruno, make Shaq’s comment less offensive.

[Disgusted, I turn off the radio]

I tune in a couple of hours later, while driving to my workplace, and they are still talking about Yao Ming. Apparently both listeners and radio commentators are calling in with racist jokes about Yao Ming. In honor of Yao Ming coming to one city, a caller said that his laundromat would wash at half-price.

To this, Tony Bruno joked, “No tickee, no washee.”

Tony Bruno’s partner begins to crack a joke, but is cut off by the commercial. When they come back after the break the partner says that he was going to joke about how Chinese can’t pronounce the “r” sound, but he was not going to crack the joke after all, presumably out of respect for the Chinese.

One radio commentator called in to say that the Rockets and Knicks game would be moved away from Madison Square Garden (MSG) in order to avoid MSG poisoning.

Bruno commented about the use of MSG at Chinese American restaurants, “They put it on happy.”

Another promotional idea they had in order to draw Chinese to basketball games was to offer “free bike parking.”

Bruno called his show the show “of the people.”

They commented that they would never know what is racist because they would have to be that race to know if something were racist. That is, they’d have to be Chinese to know if something was offensive to Chinese. They don’t know what it feels like, they said. They also stated that there is nothing wrong with cracking racial jokes or doing racial acts “unless it’s an obvious act of racism.” They gave as examples burning a cross in someone’s yard or attacking someone physically because of their race. Their implication was that everything else should be fair game.

They then said that “if not for stereotypes, there’d be no humor,” and they said that the reason why stereotypes are funny is because they are true.

[These comments occurred in the space of fifteen minutes, and I probably missed numerous other racist jokes against the Chinese, in the other three and three-quarter hours of their show. Again, I turn off my radio in disgust.]

December 25, 2002, evening. During probably one of the most-watched NBA games of the year (Boston versus New Jersey, on the night of Christmas), Brent Mussberger laments that “the hordes of China” might “stuff the ballot box” and vote Yao Ming in as the Western Conference starter for the All-Star game. Mussberger asked “How many computers are there in China?” A few minutes later, Mussberger asked NBA Commissioner David Stern if there were any way of preventing the Chinese from stuffing the ballot box.


Who’s what:

Yao Ming is the starting center for the Houston Rockets professional basketball team. He is a rookie who has just moved from Shanghai, China to the United States in October. He was the first number-one draft pick born in another country ever in NBA history.

Shaquille O’Neill is the starting center for the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team, and perhaps the best known basketball player in the world besides Michael Jordan.

Tony Bruno is the host of the Tony Bruno Morning Extravaganza radio show, which is broadcast nationally on weekday mornings, on the Fox Sports Radio Network. The LA Times called him one of the best sports commentators in the nation.

I listen to the Fox Sports Radio Network on 1300 AM The Zone, KVET, in Austin, Texas.