Racist Rhetoric ‘Round Wrigley

An assumed homage to Chicago Cubs’ rookie slugger Kosuke Fukudome (batting .328 and slugging .463 through the first 18 games of the season), a street vendor began selling t-shirts outside of Wrigley Field that are raising eyebrows. The shirts feature Japanese-style lettering, a modification of the “cubby bear” mascot (with slanted eyes), and the phrase “Horry Kow,” which mocks the way a speaker with an Asian-language accent might say the late Cubs announcer Harry Caray’s famous “Holy Cow!”


Though the story broke over a week ago, Rahula Strohl began an online conversation about the appropriateness of such a slogan (as well as the tendency of Cubs fans to wear martial-arts style headbands to the games this year) on the ChicagoSports.com blog “What’s Goin’ On” Sunday. Some responses predictably expressed outrage, but more were outraged by the outrage. Here is just a small sampling of the intellectual musings of some northsiders:

“Shane”: This article and anyone who has issues with this T-Shirt needs to relaaaaax. This Political Correctness is OUT OF CONTROL. I've been saying for years that Political Correctness means always having to say you're sorry. This issue is proof positive that I've been right all along. You people won't be happy until everyone has a hyphenated name and can't EVER say what they mean. Get a life and laugh a little. This shirt pokes at the hilarity of accents and if Fukudome doesn't find the humor in that then he should be out on some Democrat's campaign committee. Good day Liberals!

“Rae”: I'm not a fan of the shirts, but if I were Kosuke Fukudome I'd be flattered that some people learned to write some characters in my native language and made those headbands.

“Hairball51”: There is nothing rascist about any of this silly crap. The word rascist has been thrown around so damn often in this society and used as am excuse that no one knows what it means anymore. Look up rascist and see if it it fits this crime. How about insensitive as a better word, but rascist, come on please. You silly liberals are so self righteous and perfect aren't you? Do you feel better when you lay down at night knowing you are so much more in tune with your fellow man? The fact that this would upset anyone shows a shallow, hollow life, completely void of anything meaningfull. Go suck your thumbs!

“Casey Humpherys”: this is about the silliest article i've read. you need to get some thick skin son. every little thing that relates to racial stereotypes should not be offensive. can't we laugh at life?

And, finally, the über-articulate “Cubs Fan”:

You all need to GET OVER IT!!! It's not racist, it's funny!!!! quit being so politically correct!!!! You're acting pathetic!!!! I don't get all offended when people make red neck jokes! What about blond jokes??? No more of those either??? It's simple and funny!!! LIGHTEN UP!!!! I'm Polish and people make polish jokes ALL THE TIME!!!! Do I cry racist??? No, I LAUGH because it's funny!!!! If you're sooo worried about hurting someone, then start volunteering at a right for life organization. Because a lot of you crying about these hurt feelings over something SO RIDICULOUS, will be the same people who turn around and say, it's ok to kill a baby, but we better save the whales!!!! YOU PEOPLE ARE SICK!!! SOCIETY IS GETTING PATHETIC!!!! GROW UP!!!

These and other comments fall victim to the “false reciprocity” fallacy: what is acceptable of one race is acceptable of another. These critics fail to recognize or appreciate the power differential between whites and other races in American culture, and therefore are outraged by any attempts to prevent perpetuation of that inequality. This fallacy surfaces often with respect to humor. We can’t count the number of times a white student expressed outrage that black comedians could use the “n-word” or make fun of whites without criticism when the reverse would be condemned. Here’s a particularly interesting exchange between commenter “Will” and Strohl that illustrates this point:

“Will”: Rahula, you asked, "If anyone out there can explain to me why this shirt is funny, I'd love to hear it." Do you really not know? Come on PC boy, you may not find making fun of foreign accents funny but that is the idea behind the joke. How do you not know that? You know, like when black comedians talk like "white people" or SNL Super Fans make fun of the Chicago accent. Making fun of how people talk has been around as long as language itself. How do you not know that?

RAHULA'S RESPONSE: Every newscaster on every television and radio station in this country "talks white." Anyone entering a job interview in corporate America with a heavy accent of any kind, whether it be African American Vernacular or an accent of their home country (white or otherwise), would be at a disadvantage versus someone who "talked white." Theoretically, it isn't true, but practically, it is. Items like this shirt just contribute to confirming that practical truth.

We give Strohl credit for trying to educate folks who seemingly would rather turn their heads and ignore racism; it is a difficult thing to do, and even more difficult in a forum where people are expecting to talk about sports and not think about anything too “heavy.” But the situation raises an interesting set of questions for students of race, language and power. We’ll focus on just two of those questions this week.

First, is there a higher tolerance for mocking of “model minorities?” Since Asians, despite bouts of persecution and consistent humiliation, have “made it” in America in terms of levels of education and economics. This presents whites, in particular, with a convenient excuse for anti-black, anti-Latino and anti-American Indian bigotry (“If Asians can do it, why can’t they?”). Similar arguments have been made about Jewish Americans (by whites, as well as by African Americans). Whether the economic success of “model minorities” should be used as an argument against attempts to equalize opportunities for other minorities is beyond the scope of this entry; what we really wish to ask our readers to consider this week is whether economic success makes caricatures and mockeries “fair game” for members of racial or ethnic groups.

After all, part of our consistent argument against racist language is that it perpetuates power differences and keeps whites in the privileged position. If we perceive Asian Americans and Jewish Americans as also being in “privileged” positions in American culture, then it is inappropriate to labeled race- or ethnic-based criticism as “racist,” but rather bigoted (a term that does not involve power differences, but rather resentment of persons of a race by persons of another race).

The problem is that with respect to dignity and humanness, “privilege” is more than access to education and economic prosperity. To be sure, these are important, but there are other considerations that relate to respect and full inclusion in a pluralist culture. Our persistent focus on capitalism transcends economics, becoming a litmus test for behavior and status: we are urged to compete (with falsely-assumed equality of opportunity), and our “success” is measured by how much wealth we can accumulate. But no amount of property or money can soothe the wounds of hateful and stereotypical beliefs (as expressed through language and mockery such as we see with some Cubs fans).

The second issue, though, is the extent to which stereotypes contain truth. It is true, of course, that folks who have an Asian language as a first language have difficulty forming the “L” sound, and instead substitute with an “R” sound. Any native English speaker who has tried to learn a foreign language knows how difficult it can be to make sounds that do not exist in English (rolled “R”s, for instance). The result, of course, can be quite comical.

So what makes “Horry Kow” racist? It’s racist because it mocks a culture that has historically been oppressed in America. Such mockery has been used to privilege whites (in this case, native English speakers) over other groups, which violates our shared and expressed core value of equality. Arguments of “political correctness” and “hypersensitivity” serve to preserve the right to enjoy a laugh at another’s expense for members of a privileged group. It may be a bummer that we can’t get a good laugh at mispronounced words, but the costs (perpetuation of difference and marginalization) are far greater than the benefits of a laugh.

Note: Not that offending fans care what Fukudome thinks about this, but for the record, he doesn’t like it. The Sun-Times reports that the Cubs have stopped sale of the shirt.

*************************************************

If you missed the segment on black secret language (“blanguage”) on Monday night’s The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, you can catch it here.

*************************************************

Thanks to an invitation by Dr. Michele Ramsey, we will be reprising our (almost) famous debate about who should use the “n-word” at Penn State University-Berks this Friday (April 26) at 1:00 p.m. If you can’t make it, you can watch our debate at North Central College on YouTube.