As a teacher of advocacy, I wonder what is the most effective means of persuading people they should not engage in offensive speech and objectionable expression. I mean that sincerely, not rhetorically: what will prompt people to choose not to use racial slurs or sexist images, not because they felt coerced but from a change of heart? For me, the issue is not whether they possess the right to utter the word or display the picture — for I would not hesitate to support them against censorship. The issue is whether it is right to do so.
Here are a couple of examples.
There was for years a popular Philadelphia cheesesteak vendor called “Chink’s.” The name was not a typographical error, not a reference to a weakness in armor. It was, instead, an inside joke, since the proprietor, who was not Asian, grew up being told he his eyes were “slanty”. On a recent trip to my hometown of Detroit, I was taking photographs of a cityscape that defies expectations, and I noticed an automobile repair shop specializing in hydraulics with an oversize version of that silhouette of a buxom high-heeled woman decorating the side of the building for no apparent reason. The figure, the iconic “mud flap girl” adorning trucks, has nothing to do with the work of the establishment. It is presumably a means to attract attention from passers-by.
People must like these phenomena. They are not boycotting the businesses after all.
Thus the marketplace might not remedy the problems. Some consumers react positively to prejudice, as when housing segregation accelerates the appreciation in value of their property, and, in fact, there can be enough who share these troubling sentiments to cater to. Others are indifferent about bias and intolerance, which may be better for lack of intent but not different in consequences.
You — or I — also may wish to avoid seeming to be a scold, humorless about the trivial. Yet I am unwilling to be blasé, because genuine harm ranges along a spectrum starting at the micro aggression.
There are cases with Asian American perpetrators too. In 2002, controversy broke out over a “Ghettopoly,” a parody of the popular Monopoly boardgames, featuring African-American cultural references, or, more accurately, the crass denigration of African-American cultural references. The creator was an Asian immigrant. While his joke led critics to suggest he put together a “Chinkopoly” to sell as well, showing how vicious cycles of ill will can be started, he had no remorse and went on to roll out a “redneck” edition, all of which brought litigation from the owners of the original Monopoly intellectual property.
