宽恕与原谅 - 林书豪与被解雇的编辑午餐

今天天气像婴孩的脸，刚才乌云滚滚，雨水如注，与先生午餐时却是雨过天晴，而午后桌边，屋外阴晴多变，白云和乌云在捉迷藏。明天学院的两班学生们考试，不用备课，倒有时间静下心来写文。

刚阅读了这篇报道，很感动，遂记录下来与大家分享：

今年二月，美国最大的网页体育频道 ESPN 的编辑 Federico用了 "chink in the armor" （穿盔甲的中国佬）带有种族歧视的文字来形容纽约尼克斯篮球队的亚裔主打控球后卫林书豪，编辑立刻被解雇。chink是双关语，既有缝隙的意思，又与 china（中国）只有一个字母之差，而一百多年以前华人初到北美，常被形容为“眯缝眼”的“中国佬”，100多年以来，chink这个词从来就带有歧视亚裔的色彩。

遭到解雇之后，编辑向林书豪道歉，并解释他不是有意的。林书豪家庭主动与编辑联系。

昨日，林书豪邀请这位编辑与他共进午餐，告诉编辑，他完全不怀恨。编辑Federico对媒体谈到：“繁忙的林书豪专门抽出时间来与我相聚，可见他是多么好，多么谦卑的人！他其实根本没有必要与我见面，尤其是这些事情早已尘埃落定的情况下。我们交谈了大约一个钟头，谈论的话题有信仰和和解，我们共同的基督信仰、价值观等。”

。。。。

虽然编辑是无意的，但不管怎样，编辑确实做错了，而林书豪能够大度地原谅编辑，活出了主耶稣的样式，很classy, 正如《圣经》里的那句：“倘若这人与那人有嫌隙，总要彼此包容，彼此饶恕；主怎样饶恕了你们，你们也要怎样饶恕人。"(Colossians 歌罗西书 3:13）

这位编辑呢，感动之余，也很开心，能够与大名鼎鼎的纽约尼克斯主打控球后卫林书豪共进午餐，很引以为荣呢！


英文原文来源：
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball-dont-lie/jeremy-lin-had-lunch-since-fired-editor-inadvertently-142104342.html

In February, a few eagle-eyed NBA fans spotted what turned out to be an inadvertently racially insensitive headline penned by an editor on ESPN's mobile site. The cliché "chink in the armor" was used to describe Asian-American New York Knicks guard Jeremy Lin's turnover-prone growing pains, but because the first word in the headline can also be used as a racial epithet to describe Asians, the editor was eventually fired. Anthony Federico, the editor, claimed that his use of the phrase, while distressing, was unintentional. And we believed him.

On Tuesday, Lin had lunch with the editor, in an attempt to show that there were no hard feelings. Outside of ESPN re-hiring Federico, this is as good as these stories usually end. From Newsday:

"The fact that he reached out to me," Federico said. "The fact that he took the time to meet with me in his insanely busy schedule ... He's just a wonderful, humble person. He didn't have to do that, especially after everything had kind of died down for the most part.

"We talked more about matters of faith [and] reconciliation. We talked about our shared Christian values and what we're both trying do with this situation .. . We didn't talk about the headline for more than three minutes."

Newsday's Anthony Riebar reports that it was Lin's family that got in touch with the editor via email, after Federico's apology following his dismissal. The only reason it took this long for the two to meet is because, as you may have read, Jeremy Lin is the starting point guard on an NBA team that is playing a slapdash 66-game schedule.

A Knicks spokesman and Jeremy Lin's representatives both told Newsday that Lin would like to decline comment on the lunch. Bummer. The least he could have done was take some Instagram pictures of his club sandwich to post on Twitter.

From the outset, we were dubious that Federico's headline was some lame attempt at frat boy humor. It's always possible to use a phrase with racial implications — as Steve Kerr, Rick Kamla and I have found out in our time in media — and be unaware that the phrase was that bad, on a level with other words we won't even reprint. But because the phrase that Federico used is such a go-to move for those of us in the business of churning out endless amounts of copy, it makes sense that he was the victim of two significant factors (the fact that Lin's turnover issues were a mitigating influence on his game, and his Asian-American heritage) aligning in an unfortunate way.

ESPN's defense, and it is a fair one, is that Federico should have given the headline the once-over, known that some would construe it as a reference to the racial epithet, and gotten rid of it. And yes, you are supposed to spend your time working at a computer coming up with headlines for ESPN's mobile phone application in the first few hours of a Saturday morning as if you're dreaming up front-page ledes for the Washington Post at the height of the Watergate scandal, so pointing out that relatively few people actually saw the headline isn't much of a defense. The relative obscurity of Federico's output is no excuse for the misstep.

It was a mistake, regardless of the intent, and Federico claims that it was unintentional. We take his word on that, and whatever the intent, Lin has forgiven his slip-up. And though Federico would probably like his job back, his class and tact in this whole affair is to be commended.

He also got to have lunch with the starting point guard of the New York Knicks. Not a bad capper, if you ask me.