Whelan in new Chinese race row

Last updated : 05 December 2014 By AFP

Whelan is already in trouble with the Football Association following his misconduct charge over remarks he made about Jewish and Chinese people in a newspaper interview where he was trying to defend the appointment of Malky Mackay as the Championship club's new manager.

Mackay is also the subject of an FA investigation into allegedly racist text messages he sent during his time at Cardiff.

The Guardian had reported that Whelan said "Jewish people do chase money more than everybody else" and, when asked about Mackay's past indiscretions, replied by saying it was "nothing" to call a Chinese person a "chink".

Now Whelan has angered the Asian community again with more controversial comments in an interview with the Jewish Telegraph which had been arranged so he could apologise for his previous comments about Jewish culture.

Asked in the interview whether he himself had ever used the term "chink", Whelan replied: "When I was growing up we used to call the Chinese 'chingalings'.

"We weren't being disrespected (sic)

We used to say, 'we're going to eat in chingalings'.

"The Chinese weren't offended by that

That was the name everyone in Wigan called it (the first Chinese cafe in Wigan)."

Michael Wilkes, speaking on behalf of the British Chinese Project, an organisation giving the Chinese community a voice in the UK, told the Guardian that Whelan deserved to be punished for his comments.

"His comments are extremely unhelpful in our fight to end discrimination and racism against Chinese people in the UK

Once more, he is using a public platform to tell a wide audience what Chinese people find offensive," Wilkes said.

"Contrary to what Mr Whelan may believe, the vast majority of our community deem the terms 'chink' and 'chingaling' highly offensive.

"For many in the Chinese community these words hold deep emotional resonance, as they are often used in conjunction with racial violence, harassment and hate crimes.

"We have noticed that Mr Whelan has truly gone out of his way to apologise to the Jewish community, it is a shame that the same level of apology hasn't been extended to the Chinese community.

"We can assure him that we are just as angry and just as offended as the Jewish community, and call upon him to think of the implications of broadcasting his ill-conceived and ignorant views to a wide audience.

"We are pleased that the FA charged Mr Whelan last week and will be keeping a close eye on his response to the charge."

Source : AFP

Source: AFP