The stunning headline in ChicagoSuntimes.com read Fright 214.
It’s a headline that could have been used in almost any commercial plane crash.
But it wasn’t. It was used in a plane crash involving Asiana Airlines, a Korean airline that was filled with mostly Chinese and Korean passengers having originated from Shanghai and Seoul.
My assertion that the headline was culturally insensitive, even racist, sparked emotional comments on both sides of the issue.
This comment came in from Cindy.
“I worked for several years as a headline writer, and there’s no way it’s a typo. They’d never write a headline that just said Flight 214. Too blah and says nothing. Headlines are supposed to be clever or punny or eye catching in some way. This was absolutely intentional, and someone should be fired for lack of judgment.”
On the other extreme was Jay K who wrote:
“Really, an apology? Are we to the point now of being oversensitive, that the first thing one looks at at this type of tragedy is: Asians thinking just because this was an airline owned by an Asian company in which two Asian females died, the people @ Chicago Sun Times thought “oh hey wouldn’t it be funny if we switched the L to an R”
And finally, several took more of a middle of the road position. Yes, they said, the use of Fright instead of Flight was in bad taste. Yes, it was offensive. But no, it wasn’t racist.
Mike wrote:
“Racist implies intent, and this just looks like plain old stupid.”
OK, I’ll admit it. Perhaps the use of the word “racist” was a bit strong. I’ve always been one to use that word cautiously, and might have used a bit more self-restraint in this case. I might have been responding emotionally after seeing the headline.
But I stand by my assertion that the headline was inappropriate, insensitive and done with intent. It was not a typo, as some have suggested.
Most AsAmNews readers who commented seemed to agree.
I’d like to applaud AsAmNews readers for their rational level headed discussion on this issue.
AsAmNews is now just seven months old and was launched as a community of people interested in reading about and discussing issues of importance to the Asian American community. AsAmNews encourages a lively, but rational debate on the topics discussed with the forum.
Thank you for your comments. For those seeing AsAmNews for the first time, I encourage you to come back and share your thoughts with us.
RE: Chicago Sun-Times Headline: It was not a typo, nor was it racist. Nor was it done with intent as a play on words for a stereotypical asian pronunciation of the word flight. You seem to have missed that it was a pun – using the number of the flight, and the frightening situation that transpired on board. You’re articles also seem to suggest that it was one of two options, a typo, mistakenly using the letter R instead of L, or the culturally insensitive phonetic spelling of the word flight pronounced by a stereotypical asian. To overlook the pun is a serious error in judgement. A cynic could look at your articles and suggest you have not missed the pun, but were drumming up controversy for your newly established website. However, your point still stands that the newspaper was incredibly insensitive, though not for a racial reason. To disrespect the gravity of the situation with a pun as a headline was in extremely bad taste.