“Round-eye” comment angers Joystiq readers
Joystiq.com is one of the most popular gaming sites on the internet, and probably the most popular gaming blog out there. With over 220,000 daily readers, it seems that the following quote from a post by blogger Vladmir Cole was bound to offend some people:
If you’re wondering why us round-eyes ain’t gonna see a price break on the Xbox 360 this holiday, Japan might have something to do with it.
Many readers, especially those of Asian racial background, were offended by Vladimir’s use of the term “round-eyes”. Not only does it imply that the Asian people have slit-eyes, but it also assumes that all Americans are of the round-eyed caucasian race group. There were also readers who thought other commenters were over-reacting to the use of “round-eyes” and their anger was a sign of political correctness gone too far.
Personally, I find the Vladimir’s usage of the term to be somewhat childish and unprofessional. It’s also out of place when compared with this post he wrote in which he condemns Chinese gold-farming jokes as racist. Perhaps he wasn’t thinking when he wrote the “slant-eyes” post, or maybe he was intentionally trying to drive traffic to his post by writing something potentially offensive? What do you think, enlightened readers?
