Over the weekend during a press conference, Green Bay Packers receiver Devin Funchess used the word "chinky" to describe the smiling eyes of reporters. He clearly wasn't directing the slur at anyone; he wasn't even referring to any actual Asian person. It was, on the surface, a word uttered out of ignorance.
But this incident, and the similarly casually racist Juventus slant-eye photo debacle, point to a bigger issue, as sports commentator Pablo Torre points out in this excerpt from the ESPN Daily podcast.
Asians worldwide share examples of coronavirus-related xenophobia
From New York City to Los Angeles and various other cities around the world, people of Asian descent have been documenting xenophobic incidents on social media following the recent outbreak of the new coronavirus, now called COVID-19. NBC News has been tracking social media reports of harassment targeting Asian communities globally.
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NYPD Lieutenant Used "Chinky Eyes" and Other Racist Phrases
A NYPD lieutenant is accused of using racially charged terms like "high yellow" and "chinky eyes" in front of her subordinates. Lt. Rasheena Huffman, faces departmental charges for creating a hostile work environment and using racial and offensive language against underlings, admits that she said the phrases, but claims that she didn't know they were derogatory. And that makes it aaaallll better.
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Yul Kwon Returns to Survivor!
27 seasons later, Yul Kwon is back. The triumphant winner of Survivor: Cook Islands returns to the popular CBS reality competition for Survivor: Winners at War. Long considered one of the smartest players of the game, he's ready to win it all again, and he's already got an epic plan for the prize money.
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Awkwafina to Star in 'The Baccarat Machine'
Awakwafina, who is officially in everything, is set to star in the upcoming feature The Baccarat Machine, inspired by the true story of Cheung Yin "Kelly" Sun, the most successful female gambler in modern history. The project follows Sun as she painstakingly develops talent and obsession for payback into beating the system at their own game. With major casinos conspiring to bar her from their properties, Sun partners with legendary poker player Phil Ivey in order to take down the system through subterfuge, ingenuity, and pure daring, resulting in one of the most ingenious legal gambling runs ever documented.
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'To All the Boys I've Loved Before'... and to Fans Hungry for More
Now on Netflix: Lana Condor returns as Lara Jean Covey in P.S. I Still Love You, the highly-anticipated sequel to the runaway rom-com phenomenon To All The Boys I've Loved Before, based on the hit novel by Jenny Han.
So you sit down in the salon chair to get your hair done... and get smacked in the head with some every day racism. That's what happened to an Asian woman who recently saw herself described as "chinky eyes" on a receipt at a Manhattan hair salon. Yup, the racial receipt. We know it well.
Briana Tae was getting her hair blown out at the Drybar in Murray Hill in anticipation of her upcoming nursing school pinning ceremony. But when she saw the receipt slip describing her service, she saw that under the category "Description" one of the employees had scrawled the derogatory slur to describe her.
"I'm sorry, what?" Tae wrote in a Facebook post, sharing a photo of the receipt. "I was the ONLY customer waiting with my friend and rather than describe me by my hair that was in a bun or by my black jacket or as a girl with a friend, I was described as a girl with chinky eyes."
Papa John's employee nicknames Asian customer "Lady Chinky Eyes" on receipt.
Minhee, a recent customer at the Papa John's Pizza location on 3477 Broadway in New York City, was given this receipt for her transaction on Friday evening. As you can see, an employee took the liberty of giving her the nickname "lady chinky eyes." An employee who, no doubt, will soon be out of a job.
