the incident…
January 11th, 2003
More from that whole Shaq/Yao incident…
There?s no way around this. If you mock someone for their race, skin color, ethnicity or heritage it?s wrong. If you have to, just switch Yao and Shaq in this instance and see what the reaction would be. You can?t qualify or make allowances based upon the race of who said it. It?s the statement that?s unacceptable and shouldn?t have anything to do with whose mouth it came out of or to whom it was directed.
http://www.jimrome.com/home/article/shaq.html
“I really only found out about it in the last two days,” Yao said. “I think there are a lot of difficulties in two different cultures understanding each other, especially countries of very large populations (such as) China and the United States. The world is getting smaller and has a greater understanding of cultures. I believe Shaquille O’Neal was joking with what he said, but I think a lot of Asian people don’t understand this kind of joke.”
When asked if O’Neal owed him an apology, Yao said: “I think that’s something he’ll have to decide … for himself.”
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/sports/1732421
Shaquille O’Neal said he was joking, not being a racist, when he used a mock Chinese accent while talking about Houston center Yao Ming. A columnist for AsianWeek complained in his newspaper that O’Neal made several derogatory comments recently about Yao, with the Lakers’ center saying, “Tell Yao Ming, ‘ching-chong-yang-wah-ah-soh.’” “I said it jokingly, so this guy was just trying to stir something up that’s not there. He’s just somebody who doesn’t have a sense of humor, like I do. I don’t have to have a response to that (the charges of racism) because the people who know me know I’m not,’’ O’Neal said on Jan. 10. “I mean, if I was the first one to do it, and the only one to do it, I could see what they’re talking about. But if I offended anybody, I apologize.”
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/clubhouse?team=lal
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