Racism wank, Joystiq style
Over on Joystiq (yes, them again), Vladimir Cole posts a piece containing pics of the upcoming XBox 360 Blue Dragon bundle, which will only be available in Japan. A fairly normal type of post, but Vlad the Offender opens it with this:

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.

The commenters go off, some of them pointing out the racism implied by the phrase "round eyes", while others aren't nearly as offended.

"angry reader" calls for Vladimir's firing:

As a Japanese-Chinese American, I am highly offended by this post's lack of sensitivity. Not only do you use an offensive racial slur that is considered antiquated by the civilized, you alienate American history by ignoring the fact that "we round-eyes" also include a vibrant immigrant history that Asians have contributed heavily towards.

If Summa's accidental Wii overhype was ripe enough firing, this one is also without any second thought or question. I hope joystiq takes into account the readership. By keeping this bigot as a commenter, you tell us that IBM processors are worth more than our collective historical and contemporary contributions.

Monkeys replies:
Well, this post was by Vladimir Cole...you know the guy who pisses off 90% of Joystiq commentators.

angry reader's response:
Monkey,

That's no excuse for his insensitivity. He's a "professional" journalist that has a wide readership. His job standards bind him to professionalism that if violated, should justify canning. If someone on IGN or Engadget or CNN uses that term loosely, be it explicit or implicity, he would be fired immediately.

Once again, I cannot believe that some mainstream news source uses a term that brings up a two century history of explosive West vs East tensions.

Others chime in and promptly miss the point:

Yeah, describing a shape as spherical rather than non-spherical is so racist!

Grow up.

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Uh.."round eyes" refers to white people Mr.Angry Reader. And really, calm the fuck down. It was one comment, was kinda funny, and it's such a small thing. Let it go everybody.

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Angry Reader and Max Payne, calm the fuck down. It's ONE comment, Jesus Christ. It's barely anything. That's not even offensive. All asian people know their eyes are different than a caucasian person, so why the fuck are you getting so pissed?

Still more responses follow, and that's only the first page...

ETA: Don't know if I overlooked this the first time around, but it appears comments have now been locked "as the bulk of comments posted were off-topic." Heh.