February 5-11, 2004

city beat

Fighting Words?

The heat's still on a Northeast Philly steak shop with a slur in its name.

by Helen i-lin Hwang

The scent of fried onions and beef wafts through the air. The line for the famous cheesesteaks winds behind the counter stools and deep into a packed Torresdale Avenue food joint. If not for the fact the staff wears T-shirts with the words "Chink's Steaks" emblazoned over their hearts, this might be just another popular Philadelphia mainstay that's been around for 50-plus years.

Instead, this business has been at the center of controversy for the racial slur incorporated into its name. And it's an issue that doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon as activist groups continue gathering in opposition.

When Susannah Park, who helped found People for the Elimination of Racially Insensitive Language (PERIL), first called the restaurant's owner Joseph Groh to complain about the name early last month, she learned that he bought the business from Samuel Sherman. But just how did the word become affiliated with a white Jewish man?

The nickname "Chink" was given to Sherman -- who died in 1997 -- because he had "slanty eyes," according to his widow, Mildred Sherman.

Though the shop, which opened in 1949, is named in honor of the original owner, activists have been suggesting the owners change the name to something like Sherman's Steaks. They say they don't want to attack his business, just the name.

Park initially contacted the Anti-Defamation League and the Organization of Chinese Americans. Now, Asian-American organizations, the ADL, the Barristers’ Association of Philadelphia, Hispanic Bar Association of Pennsylvania and thousands of supporters are stepping up efforts to support PERIL with letters and phone calls to the cheesesteak shop. They’ve also taken issue with a Jan. 13 Daily News editorial that called the protest a "silly waste of people’s time and energy."

Park was "a little disappointed" by the editorial because she thinks "they avoided the real issues. "They concentrated on the quality of the food or the owner’s characteristics or the founder." She thinks the restaurant should change its name because it alludes to a history very painful to Asian Americans.

The Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations, a city agency that enforces civil rights laws, is hoping to broker an amicable resolution.

In virtually every English-language dictionary, the definition of the word "chink" is deemed an offensive and derogatory term for a Chinese person. Still, its origin is unclear.

The Asian American Journalists Association stylebook, a reference handbook used by journalists, states the word is derived from the Ch’ing dynasty, which ruled when Chinese immigrants started coming to the U.S.

On the Jan. 20 WHYY talk show Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane about the controversy, professor Grace Kao -- director of the Asian American studies program at the University of Pennsylvania -- theorized the word might’ve come from the sound made from the rubbing of coins.

Though the n-word is a racial epithet the Inquirer and Daily News won’t even publish unless it’s in quoted matter, the c-word does not qualify as taboo. Still, it’s just as threatening to most Asian Americans, a precursor to racial violence. According to Helen Zia, a leading Asian-American activist who grew up outside Philadelphia, "racial slurs lead to hate crimes. ...[There’s a] huge body of research and legal framework that talk about the harm done through words, how those words create a certain climate and how that, unfortunately, encourages harmful deeds."

There’s been a long history of racial violence against Asian Americans. Many Chinese immigrants recruited to build the transcontinental railroad in the 1800s were subject to discriminatory work practices like being the ones forced to light the short-fused dynamite to create the tunnels and often not surviving the blast. In 1853, the murder of a Chinese person went unpunished because testimony by a Chinese person was inadmissible since he was considered to be part of an "inferior caste of people who were non-citizens"; and the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 banned Chinese people from becoming naturalized U.S. citizens. Not until 1943 were the Chinese able to become citizens.

Because of history and the fact that the epithet is used by non-Asians against all Asians, Glenn Hing and Stella Tsai, Asian American Bar Association members, say slurs are painful for the fastest-growing minority population in the country. With the Wissinoming neighborhood becoming more diverse, as more Asian residents move in, they don’t want the c-word to roll off the tongue so easily, says Hing.

There is precedent for name changes elsewhere. In Idaho, the name of a mountain was changed from "Chink’s Peak" to "Chinese Peak" and in Yellowstone National Park, "Chinaman’s Spring" was changed to "Chinese Spring."

Though the cheesesteak establishment has been in business for decades, many Asian Americans, even those born and raised here, had never heard of the joint. This explains why it’s only now that Philadelphians are galvanizing to change the name. (The restaurant owner declined comment on the controversy.)

Still, supporters of a name change would like to reach an agreeable solution and try the famed cheesesteaks themselves.

As Michael Lui of PERIL says, "We’re not trying to put the store out of business. We’re trying to say, 'We’re here'.... [Groh] needs to adapt to the market. The market is changing with the times... He needs to address the needs of every person in the market."