(H/T Talking Points Memo)
I just wrote about how “Chinaman” is, in fact, an archaic slur for Asian Americans with damning historic origins. The day that post published, I was asked by Twitter user Malcolm Shields whether anyone even uses that word anymore.
@reappropriate Does anybody still use that term, because if they do, They're really stuck in the past.
— ?? (@macdiesel1215) July 9, 2014
The answer is yes. Yes, they do still use that term.
Yesterday on Fox News‘ The Five, a political talk show hosted by five different co-hosts in roundtable style, co-host Bob Beckel ranted against Chinese hackers in a segment where he called the Chinese people “Chinamen”, before correcting himself. He then makes an obscene gesture intended to tell Chinese people (or “Chinamen”?) to fuck off. To their credit, his co-hosts appear mortified (video after the jump).
Beckel has previously gotten in hot water for using this anti-Asian slur as well as another. Three years ago, he argued that “redneck” could refer to Whites, Blacks or “Chinamen”. In another segment, he last year said that his eyes looked “Oriental”.
What should scare you isn’t just that Bob Beckel is openly, and pretty unabashedly, racist against Asian Americans; what should scare you is that anyone gave this man a microphone. Currently, he appears on a regular basis on The Five, and has contributed to other Fox News specials. But, before that, he worked in the US State Department from 1977-1980 as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State and later as special assistant to the president, where he helped build foreign policy for the Carter administration.
That’s right, this man who can’t seem to keep his anti-Asian slurs straight, was at one point brokering international treaties for the US government. And, by the way, he’s a Democrat (albeit one who has no qualms working for Fox News, while stirring up sinophobic hatred).
Now let all that percolate in your head for a bit.
