Well good. Maybe you've walked a mile in an Asian person's shoe than. I hope you appreciate my point of view. I don't want any handouts, and my family has never asked for any; just give us a chance. The preceding words were my family's slogan for ten years. They've proved their worth. Currently, they pay over 5 figures in income tax alone. Good investment by the government.
He's not making any effort in knowing the culture he's "joking" about. (Yao isn't cantonese, and whatever he was trying to mangle was not "I'm sorry"....) Shaq might not be a bigot, but the way he acts make an impression with little kids and people who look up to him. He's setting an example that he can be some ass-clown and get away with it. It's unacceptable because that message is saying, if you don't know better you can walk away an ass. This isn't about a handout. It's about respecting cultures different from your own, and knowing enough about one thing to stop you from saying something idiotic.
You know what, that is what scares me. I don't want some kid to see Shaq's action and think it's ok to say "ching chong" to every person that looks Asian to them. I'm gonna go off on a tangent, but as most on this board knows, I'm a die hard liberal, only I'm opposed to affirmative action. I also grew up in south Texas, so needless to say, I know how harsh racism and closed-mindedness are. I was pretty much always the only Asian in my class, and sometimes that was a detriment. In other parts of the country, that may be considered unique or whatever, but not in south Texas. I appreciate how Yao has handled the situation, although, he realizes the position he's in (a Chinese guy in a black man's game), so he also recognizes it would not be wise to give a harsh (although justified) rebuttal at Shaq. Like it or not, he's in Shaq's world, and I think Yao recognizes this way before anyone.
it was a JOKE. and taken within the context of when the quote was made, it was OBVIOUSLY a joke. the interviewer (iirc) specifically asked shaq to say something to yao in chinese. like i said, the only reason why it is even an issue is because some idiot radio jockey played the quote only without it's original context. if shaq just walked up to ming and started saying "ching chong chow mein", then MAYBE you would have a point. but he didn't. the context in which the quote was made made it obviously an attempt at humor.
let me emphasize, iirc the interview said (paraphrased) "So Shaq, would you like to say anything to Yao Ming in Chinese? " shaq responded with his attempt at humor.
What's chow mein? And why did you lump that in the same sentence as "ching chong?" Did you just make up "chow mein?"
Some Asians don't benefit from every form of Affirmative Action, so AA isn't always about equality. But I understand that forgetting history is a hard thing to swallow. Some races are still living in it because they have no choice. I grew up in Houston and its greater area. I can't say I was the only Asian kid, but my sisters were. But I do know it was hard trying to fit in with everyone and getting past those who didn't want you to fit in just by the way you look. This isn't the board to say this stuff so I'll leave it at that. I put a lot of hope on Yao because of the discussion he brings to the American people. So much can be brought out of this that is outside sports.... His apology was bad and insincere. Look at it again. You might want this talk to stop because you might not care or because it bothers you in some unspeakable level. Deal with it. Wonder why his "joke" and actions from the apology are wrong. Oh well, if Shaq don't care, you don't have to either....
This will sound horrible, but most Asians I know/ have met have scored too high on the SAT and their families have way too much money then to rely on affirmative action and/or the top ten percent rule. And honestly, they have way too much pride to use that as a crutch. Listen, my only point on Shaq is that I suspect he has a good heart. But, I also believe he knows very little about Asian culture and he's not very cultured in general. I would think he wouldn't be white collar type of person if he were not a basketball player. He would probably be laboring in San Antonio for what I know.
shaq wasn't calling yao a "ching chong" whatever the hell that is, he was making up sounds he thought sounded like the chinese language. that makes my selection of my own variation of sounds pretty arbitrary, really. shaq did not call yao a racial slur, he made an apparently bad attempt at humor by imitating the mandarin language. again, no different than mike myers or chris tucker or a slew of other comedians and actors who have done the same thing. yao took the right path here; he acknowledged it, chuckled, made his own joke about it and then moved on. people should learn from him and just let it go. there are more important issues to focus on than shaq's often misguided jokes.
actually, i want it to stop because i really hate how pc our culture is becoming, and this is a great example. shaq's quote was harmless, yet the media has jumped all over it when there are undoubtably better and more relevant examples of racism out there. i don't want to live in a society where i have to watch every ******* thing i say, because it might "offend" someone. god, we might as well agree to say nothing, since there will always be at least one person offended by whatever we say. heck, politics should be out then too, because there definitely will always be people offended when you talk about politics; just check the political message boards.
Hey I agree. I'll take free speech over PC anyday. But I don't need an immature role model saying things that encourages more ignorant speech. Shaq is not a little boy (surprise). If you tell him to say, "My pants are itching because I screw a lot," he doesn't have to do it on command. He has a brain, so stop trying to play him off as some victim. Shaq doesn't know anything about the Chinese language. And it's safe to say he doesn't know anything about its culture. So why did he say it? For a laugh. Okay that's fine. He didn't know better. I hoped he didn't know better, so he can learn from his mistake. But what kind of apology is that? Why didn't he say, "I didn't know it was offensive, and I'm sorry" instead of "it's funny to some, but not everyone." There's a reason why it isn't.... And I hate to break it to you, but that isn't what Chinese sounds like. It's an Americanized pronounciation turned into misconception. Debating in semantics on that point will make you look as ignorant as Shaq. Freedom comes with responsibility in our actions and in our speech. Shifting blame as some "joke" or on some "oversensitive reporter" doesn't really address anything. It's what makes the PC movement you loathe look like such a great idea....
i KNOW what mandarin sounds like. i speak the damn language. and yes, he was parodying the chinese language. he didn't do it very well, but then nobody does when they make up random sounds. of course, he sounded more cantonese than mandarin, so for all i know, it could have been legit.
I can see Shaq's first attempt as a bad joke. Not the second one, where he tried to provide reasoning and did the kungfu move the second time. Some people may construe it as a humor, but I doubt others can. As somebody (I forgot who) posted in a previous similar thread, what Shaq does is similar to the following: Imagine a white guy / an asian guy says some African sound-like gibberish in front of the TV/radio show: "Tell Shaq mfutu mbutu mgutu" and then did an African-American limp-style walking. Then this guy said "I apologize if I offend anyone. I am just joking." Then the guy turned back to the reporters and repeated the limp style walking again.
when did he do it again? if he did, then you guys definitely have a point. but i was under the impression that some radio guy just dug up shaq's quote from months ago and played it on his show. is this in error?
Well great. I'm sure Asian parents will tell their kids that when other people make random Chinese sounding noises and "kung fu sounds" that it's only a joke that they can laugh together at the expense of the way the kid looks.
mhan, I posted the article already. I post it again here. Read the whole and pay attention to the bold part and the last paragraph. Shaq misses the point about his ignorant remarks Commentary: Steve Dilbec January 13, 2003 He just doesn't get it. You hope one day he will, but there is certainly reason to wonder. Reason to fear it is only a matter of time before Shaquille O'Neal once again unloads another verbal plunder, that at best should embarrass him, and at worst, bring him shame. We've all seen O'Neal make outrageous comments before, but Friday was something even for someone with his unique history. His adolescent attempt at humor backfired. Shaquille O'Neal is not a racist. Anyone who knows him can safely say this, despite Friday's disturbing news that he made comments mocking the Chinese nationality of Houston Rockets center Yao Ming and has become friends with Louis Farrakhan, the anti-Semitic leader of the Nation of Islam. In addition to being a dominating superstar, O'Neal is so good-hearted, so playful, so generally likeable, that he is constantly allowed to get off easy when he makes what for most anyone else would be damning transgressions of common sense and basic maturity. More than six months ago O'Neal went on a Fox cable show, whose main demographic is someone mentally frozen in a frat party. When asked about Yao, O'Neal turned to the camera and said: "Tell Yao Ming, 'Ching-chong-yang-wah-ah-soh,' " and then launched into some pseudo-kung fu. It tells you something about who watches this show that this went under the radar until being picked up on a national radio show last month. That led to a column by Irwin Tang in AsianWeek, calling O'Neal a racist. "I have friends from every walk of life," O'Neal said. "I said it as a joke. It was a 70-30 joke. Seventy percent funny, 30 percent not funny." No, it was 100 percent not funny. "If I hurt anyone's feelings, I'm sorry," O'Neal said. If he hurt anyone's feelings? And if he didn't, then no big deal? "I'm not the first comedian to do that," O'Neal said. "You guys know I'm funny every now and then. The whole world knows I'm funny, every now and then. If I was the first one to ever do it, or the only one to do it, I could see what they're talking about. It's an old joke that's been done before." He just doesn't get it. Hey, O'Neal, you're not a comedian, you're an NBA superstar. Kids watch you, worship you, are influenced by you. "People who know me, know I'm not (racist)," O'Neal said. "It's this guy's (Tang's) opinion. It's not going to make me upset. It's not going to make me call him. It's not going to make me punch him in his face when I see him. He's just somebody who doesn't have a sense of humor like I do." That's all this is, just a difference of humor on an old joke. There's probably some people who still make watermelon jokes, too, but I don't think O'Neal would appreciate it. After he finished his apology before Friday's game, O'Neal walked away to the team lounge, turned back to reporters, and then made a couple of kung-fu moves. He just doesn't get it.
okay, now THAT was uncalled for. the original comments were not offensive, but doing it again was in, at the very least, poor taste.
Borrowing a little from Clutch's sig, for the sake of the NBA I hope they suspend Shaq for the remainder of the season. That'll teach him. Too bad Shaq means more to the NBA than Trent Lott to the Repubicans. Geez, talk about sensitive. I guess comedians like Another Brother (wassup homie) will eventually be forced out of business. I knew it was getting bad when fat people were complaining about the Nutty Professor movie... Now if you want to see something really horrible, check this out.
