An Asian American metro editor at the Chicago Sun-Times says she is 100 percent sure that the person who wrote the Fright 214 headline to describe the Asiana crash wasn’t making fun of Asians, reports Richard Prince in Journalisms
As a metro editor, Rummana Hussain isn’t responsible for overseeing headlines and did not see it before it went to print. She says even if she did, she’s not sure she would have caught it.
“As a minority, I’m definitely in tune with the myriad of racial and ethnic stereotypes and slurs that are out there but in [hindsight], I think there would have been a 50-50 percent chance that I would pick up on why that headline would be offensive had I glimpsed it earlier. Nevertheless, I am 100 percent sure whoever came up with the headline was thinking of the horrific experience the passengers endured and not a way to malign or make fun of Asians.”
Despite the apology, the headline is still drawing emotional responses on both sides of this issue. I was one of the first who called the headline racist, and was heavily criticized for it by many. I’ve since backed off that assertion, saying the use of the word was perhaps too harsh. But I still strongly maintain that the headline was offensive, inappropriate and intentional as a play on words.
Others including Emil Guillermo in his blog for the Asian American Legal Defense and Educational Fund assert without a doubt that the headline was racist.
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About the headline he wrote: “Get it? Fright 214. Asians often confuse the L’s and the R’s. I first thought it was a hoax. Who would be this blatant? Or maybe someone was playing around on the internet. Didn’t matter really. It was still a racist thought.”
Share your thoughts on this issue below.
RE: Asian American at Sun-Times on headline: Of what particular Asian-American descent is Rummana Hussain? Based on her last name, it wouldn’t appear that she is East Asian. This is akin to asking a German person to comment on an issue that focused on Spanish people…
From David Kono via Facebook: RE: Asian American at Sun-Times on Headline: If true, they should have known better.
From Ed Jay via Facebook RE: Asian American at Sun-Times on Headline: An example of looking for racism when it's not there…
From M Emily Onglatco via Facebook RE: Asian American at Sun-Times on Headline: An unfortunate enough incident that does not need to be marred by controversial headlines like this. While it may be defended purely as semantics, the doublespeak carries a potential for linguistic misinterpretation as well as cultural misunderstanding.
Haven't the victims and their families suffered enough?
I am not familiar with this publication, but this journalistic attempt, if this may even quality as such, reeks of cheap publicity stunt at the expense of lost lives!
From Ed Jay via Facebook RE: Asian American at Sun-Times on Headline: Emily, this is Chicago's oldest daily newspaper, since the 1800's and best known recently for firing it's whole photography dept. This was also the publication Roger Ebert wrote for.
From @procrastinazn via Twitter RE: Asian American at Sun-Times on headline: Um. No. Not cool
RE: Asian American from Sun-Times on controversial headine: There are always going to be Asian Americans who deny that racism exists for various reasons including personality and character deficits. They need to be educated at the very least, and if necessary, denounced. Racist acts, whether intentional or not, are still racist.
From John Jung RE: Asian American from Sun-Times on controversial headline: Why is it newsworthy to tell us that one Asian American editor at the Sun-Times defends the distasteful Fright 214 pun? It does not absolve the paper of unprofessionalism.
From Karen Lynch via Facebook RE: Asian American from Sun-times on controversial headline: really offensive on many levels. Even removing the racist question, the sensationalistic aspect is gross as well.
From Leland Wong via Facebook RE: Asian American from Sun-Times on controversial headline: they're so full of gao-si…they're eyes are brown!
RE: Asian American at Sun-Times on Asiana crash headline: I totally feel in this case, it was not a play on the “RA” line in Japanese or the so-called “Engrish”.. The (English) language just happens to have two very close words that were very appropriate. Of course, the Sun Times incident was totally overshadowed by what happened at KTVU.
RE: Asian American at Sun-Times Defends Headline:Hi there, this is Rummana Hussain. I am of South Asian descent. I’m a Muslim, which is explains my Arabic name. I’m defending the intentions of the person who wrote the headline–not necessarily the headline itself. There is a difference
Thank you, Rummana, for clarifying and for your candor.