NBA Commentator Calls Jianlian Yi "The Chinaman"

Lisa Lee
November 2, 2009

Possible arguments that this commentator might make:

1) I am
not a racist! I had no intention whatsoever of using a racial slur. I
called him a Chinaman because it's an accurate description of Yi
Jianlian. He is a man, from China, hence Chinaman. It is in no way,
shape, or form derogatory.

2) I am sorry if you feel offended by my comment, but it is simply not true that I was trying to offend anyone.

3)
I am simply uneducated and did not know that Chinaman is a racial slur.
I sincerely apologize for my usage of this word and promise that this
will never happen again.


Call me a cynic, but out of all the possible scenarios, I'd say that based on similar experiences in the past, 1 and 2 are probably more likely to take the cake.

Who is this commentator anyway? I'd like to send him a nasty email.

Categories: 
Media
Race
Sports
Contributor: 

Lisa Lee

Publisher

Lisa Lee works in User Operations at Facebook, and has more than five years of nonprofit experience in marketing and communications for multicultural arts and cultural organizations.

Suggested Reads

Is It Contagious
Playing with History
Screencap from the "Dat $tick" music video
Finding the Right Language in Asian (American) Rap

Comments

Comments

Mike wrote on Mon, 11/02/2009 - 3:23pm
Don't forget "I even have friends that are Chinese!"
Anonymous wrote on Mon, 11/02/2009 - 3:38pm
Yi Jianlian has worked his way up to become part of the NBA, only to be ridiculed by an official, racist commentator.Ridiculous.
Harry wrote on Mon, 11/02/2009 - 7:03pm
Yao Ming was called Chinaman a few years ago by announcer Steve Kerr who claimed he had no idea it was offensive.
Anonymous wrote on Mon, 11/02/2009 - 9:18pm
I suspect... that it will go by completely unnoticed.
Fu Manchu wrote on Mon, 11/02/2009 - 9:24pm
"Nice pass and a dunk by the Chinaman!"
Lxy wrote on Wed, 11/04/2009 - 4:20am
In honor of the NBA and White media shills everywhere, I have to say that the video clip was a rousing piece of commentary by a Cracker-Ass-Cracker man. ;)
Anonymous wrote on Wed, 11/04/2009 - 8:28am
Nice article. I thought to let you know that you website isn't getting displayed properly on blazer web browser on my pda.I wish that increasingly number of webmasters would deliberate upon the fact that there is an ever growing number of users browsing webpages on the mobile.Regards