Post by RS Davis on Feb 10, 2004 16:15:37 GMT -5
[glow=red,2,300]David E. Bernstein Wrote:[/glow]What do Philly cheesesteak maker Joseph Groh and Southwest flight attendant Jennifer Cundiff have in common? Both have made the news over blindsiding accusations of racism that seem to have come out of, well, let's just say nowhere sensible.
The crimes? Groh landed in hot water when an astute West Philadelphian suddenly noticed the name of Groh's 55-year-old cheesesteak establishment, "Chink's Steaks," and decided the appellation was an Asian-American slur. Never mind that Groh inherited the name from the restaurant's now-deceased founder, Samuel Sherman, a Jewish man whose childhood nickname of "Chink" was so much part of his identity that it even appears on his gravestone. And never mind that there is no connection between Chink's Steaks and anything or anyone Asian-American. Nonetheless, the classic cheeseteak joint's coincidental commonality with an old ethnic slur has been enough to raise the ire of the Anti-Defamation League and elicit demands for a name change lest local Asian Americans be offended.
Jennifer Cundiff's transgression, meanwhile, stemmed from the flight attendant's playful attempts to get the attention of her passengers. On a crowded Southwest flight waiting to take off from Las Vegas, Cundiff urged her passengers to sit down. "Eeenie, meenie, minie, moe; pick a seat we gotta go," she said over the plane's intercom. Two black passengers interpreted the clumsy rhyme as racist discrimination, saying they immediately thought of the racist version of the old verse in which the first line is followed by the phrase "catch a n-----r by the toe."
In a model of profound overreaction, the passengers sued Southwest over Cundiff's remarks. But a federal jury found the airline not guilty of discrimination. The 22-year-old Cundiff, for her part, said she had never even heard the racist version of the counting rhyme, which indeed has many innocent variations that include chickens, tinkers, and tigers, among other things. The passengers, however, insist justice was not done because the jury was all white.
Together, the Groh and Cundiff controversies say something about the state of racism in the U.S. today. For one thing, both situations highlight the encouraging fact that racism has declined to such a degree that those who are intent on routing out modern instances of the scourge have to resort to some fairly extensive searching and some awfully creative reasoning to find their culprits.
The crimes? Groh landed in hot water when an astute West Philadelphian suddenly noticed the name of Groh's 55-year-old cheesesteak establishment, "Chink's Steaks," and decided the appellation was an Asian-American slur. Never mind that Groh inherited the name from the restaurant's now-deceased founder, Samuel Sherman, a Jewish man whose childhood nickname of "Chink" was so much part of his identity that it even appears on his gravestone. And never mind that there is no connection between Chink's Steaks and anything or anyone Asian-American. Nonetheless, the classic cheeseteak joint's coincidental commonality with an old ethnic slur has been enough to raise the ire of the Anti-Defamation League and elicit demands for a name change lest local Asian Americans be offended.
Jennifer Cundiff's transgression, meanwhile, stemmed from the flight attendant's playful attempts to get the attention of her passengers. On a crowded Southwest flight waiting to take off from Las Vegas, Cundiff urged her passengers to sit down. "Eeenie, meenie, minie, moe; pick a seat we gotta go," she said over the plane's intercom. Two black passengers interpreted the clumsy rhyme as racist discrimination, saying they immediately thought of the racist version of the old verse in which the first line is followed by the phrase "catch a n-----r by the toe."
In a model of profound overreaction, the passengers sued Southwest over Cundiff's remarks. But a federal jury found the airline not guilty of discrimination. The 22-year-old Cundiff, for her part, said she had never even heard the racist version of the counting rhyme, which indeed has many innocent variations that include chickens, tinkers, and tigers, among other things. The passengers, however, insist justice was not done because the jury was all white.
Together, the Groh and Cundiff controversies say something about the state of racism in the U.S. today. For one thing, both situations highlight the encouraging fact that racism has declined to such a degree that those who are intent on routing out modern instances of the scourge have to resort to some fairly extensive searching and some awfully creative reasoning to find their culprits.
- Rick
