On Jan. 18, for the second time in a week, Steve Rosenbloom joked in his Hit & Run column (Sports) about an aspect of Chinese culture while referencing the steroid scandal involving that country’s swim team.
Although I didn’t find either reference particularly offensive (one about MSG, the other about moo goo gai pan), it is more than a little irritating to me that in this age of absolutism regarding negative racial stereotyping, Asians for some reason are still fair game for snickering slurs. I doubt that Rosenbloom would make a crack about matzo balls being found in the bags of Israeli athletes, and I’m quite certain he wouldn’t write that chitterlings were found in the bags of black athletes or refried beans in the bags of Hispanic athletes.
And I’m absolutely positive that if he did so, he would ignite a firestorm that would probably destroy his career.
Regardless of the reasons that there’s little protest when such references are made about Asians, or whether such references are really that distasteful, a standard should be universally applied. Either the notion of free speech is actually respected and we are able to say what we want without fear of immense public and professional retribution, or the journalistic chill that has protected many groups from even the vaguest off-color reference is made categorical and no cultural/ethnic/racial group can be made light of–even if it doesn’t fight back.
