5 Feet of Fury

David Cole: ‘Sum Ting Wong’ is right

David Cole writes:

I met a young lady who was working at KTVU at the time of the crash. She told me that the general consensus among her coworkers was that those who approved the names did become suspicious, but no one wanted to take the risk of being the first to speak up. KTVU has many Asian employees, and most of the people involved in approving the names were white. No one wanted to look “racist” for suggesting that the names were fake…just in case they were wrong. (…)

Three producers were fired because of the prank names, and a fourth one “left for health reasons.” But they were fired for ineptitude, not racism. Given the choice, back when the staff members were deciding whether or not to voice their concerns about the names, they each apparently decided, individually, that they’d rather take the chance of being fired for incompetence instead of racism. In today’s America, you can survive the former, but the latter means the end, period, no appeals, no future prospects.