So here's this thread

[conuly]

In which this teacher earnestly wants a word to substitute for "chink" in Midsummer Night's Dream, and one person suggests kink which doesn't mean the same thing.

And on the one hand, I'm sure they all have their hearts in the right place, but on the other hand, maybe they should collectively teach a different play instead. Shakespeare wrote plenty of comedies, just pick a different one off the shelf.

Comments

[swingandswirl]

Okay, so I am Asian, but not the kind of Asian that 'chink' applies to as a slur, so take this with a sackful of salt.

That... is one of the most asinine takes I have seen in a while. Treat your students like the brain-having individuals they are, explain that 'chink' is another term for hole/defect/chip, what have you.

This is giving the same energy as the time Scholastic changed the vocabulary on the US editions of the HP books because they thought American kids would be put off by such esoteric terms as 'jumper'.

[moon_custafer]

Yeah. It's pretty clearly *not* being used as a racial slur in that scene (the wall's intro literally specifies that he's talking about a small hole).

And if the concern is the kids interpreting the line in bad faith so they can snicker (I say this as someone whose high-school production substituted the word 'spirit' for every instance in the script of the word 'fairy)? 'Kink' is really not going to help.

[smokingboot]

Well said. The dumbing down is painful.

[conuly]

This is giving the same energy as the time Scholastic changed the vocabulary on the US editions of the HP books because they thought American kids would be put off by such esoteric terms as 'jumper'.

Well... given that "jumper" in the USA is a pinafore dress and in the UK is a sweater, I think that particular change was well-warranted.

[ethelmay]

I don't think it's asinine to ASK whether hearing repeated "chinks" has the same "wait, that sounds like..." horrible feeling as hearing "niggardly" (which, as I said above, I do avoid, because it makes me jump). Lowercase "chink" isn't filed that way in my brain, but it might be for someone who was, say, getting taunted during the height of Covid, when a lot of racists were spouting anti-Chinese crap.