ESC

Philly Newspaper Caption Creator May Have Been a Teeny Bit Racist

An editor from the Philadelphia Public Record newspaper has been fired after running a racist caption. In a photo of City Councilman Mark Squilla sitting with a group of Asians in Chinatown, the editor made up a bunch of Asian-ish names and eventually gave up on making them sound plausible and went straight into racist. He came up with names like “Hao Hello,” “Du Wei,” “Me Too,” “Chinky Winky” and “Dinky Doo.”

Philadelphia Public Record publisher Jimmy Tayoun said it was a “proofreading error” and that “nobody was offended so stop trying to start trouble.” Of course, that’s the totally wrong thing to say when you offend a group of people with blatant racism. They did, however, issue an apology for the offensive slur on their website writing, “So solly, Cholly.” No, just kidding. They definitely did not do that.

In our Aug. 21, 2014 issue an offensive slur was accidentally published in the Philadelphia Public Record. This shocking lapse of professional conduct occurred contrary to our editorial directives and in no way reflects the views of our staff or our organization.

An internal investigation is underway to uncover the source of this intolerable abuse and to prevent it from ever happening again. We apologize whole-heartedly to the Asian American community and to all Philadelphians of this vibrant, diverse city who work together to make it the best place in America to live and to grow.

While Tayoun probably still didn’t think it was a big deal, he fired the editor responsible for the caption.

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