Has this been touched upon here? I grew up in the Northeast. This is a great cheese steak place with a long history in the community. People today are much more worried about style than substance. political correctness is out of hand. It hurts real causes for real people. Safety for Asian store owners should be a bigger issue than this "sensitivity" craze.

http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/...al/7667851.htm

Steak shop's name stirs controversy
Woman wants Chink's changed, saying it's a slur to Asians; owner says no way
By MYUNG OAK KIM
kimm@phillynews.com

TO SUSANNAH Park and most any Asian-American, the word "chink" is as hurtful as the n-word is to African-Americans.

So when Park, of West Philadelphia, found out about Chink's Steaks, in Wissinoming, she was horrified. Park called the restaurant owner and has since begun a campaign to change the shop's name.

She has gotten the support of the Anti-Defamation League and other community groups, who will meet tonight.

"Having a restaurant with that name...is telling the world that 'chink' is an appropriate term and that its not a racial slur," Park said. "It's also disregarding the pain that is associated with that word for people in the Asian community, how it dehumanizes us."

But Joseph Groh, owner of Chink's Steaks, on Torresdale Avenue near Benner Street, doesn't understand the hoopla and says changing the name would destroy the business.

Opened in 1949 by the late Samuel "Chink" Sherman, the steak shop has become a neighborhood legend. Voted Best of Philly for cheesesteaks by Philly Magazine in 2002, Chink's is known to locals as one of the best cheesesteak shops in the city.

"It's been here 55 years and no one has ever questioned it," said Groh, 41. "Everybody's welcome here. I know there's a lot of racist people in the world but I'm not one of them."

Sherman got the nickname when he was 6, said widow Mildred Sherman.

"He had slanty eyes...and the kids started calling him 'chink,' " Mildred Sherman said. Many people didn't learn of his real name until they attended his funeral in 1997. Sherman said the nickname is etched on her husband's gravestone.

Sherman called the controversy "ridiculous. We are Jewish. We're far from racist. We have Chinese customers," Sherman said. "My husband was well-loved by everybody."

Residents and patrons in the predominantly white neighborhood support Groh and have trouble recognizing the harm of the shop name. Chink is a derogatory term used for Chinese people.

"I have never looked at that word as slanderous before. That was his name," said Dave Sharkey, who has been eating at Chink's for 20 years. "If your name is connected with your reputation as being a quality sandwich shop and not implying any defamation to anyone, it would be hard for me to understand how you could change the name after all these years."

"It's like telling George Perrier to change the name of Le Bec Fin," Sharkey said, referring to the famed Center City restaurant.

City Councilwoman Joan Krajewski praised the shop and decried Park for being too "touchy."

"I don't see anything wrong with it," she said. "It's not meant to insult. We have a lot of Asian people up here. I'm just really sorry that this whole thing is happening."

Even the most innocent intentions doesn't make the word "chink" any less of a slur, said Andrew Rice, spokesman for the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium, an Asian civil rights group in Washington D.C.

"People think that they can use terminology such as this and their intent makes all the difference, when in fact their intent really doesn't matter," Rice said. "Somebody walking down the street will not know about their intent."

"If you replace "chink" with any other racial epithet, people understand it very clearly. For some reason, when it's an Asian derogatory term, people don't get it," Rice said.

Groh has been working at Chink's Steaks for 25 years, doing every job from onion peeling to mopping the floor. He bought the business in 1999 and works 12-hour days at the tiny old-style shop.

Groh is visibly upset about the controversy and fears that Park's campaign will put him out of business.

"She has nothing to lose. I have everything to lose," Groh said.

Park, 21, heard about the restaurant during a conversation with an Asian friend two months ago. A former West Virginia resident, she called Groh in December to set up a meeting, but ended up discussing the matter over the phone. She suggested changing the spelling of the name, but Groh refused.

Barry Morrison, head of the local chapter of the Anti-Defamation League, said his agency sent a letter to Groh and is setting up a meeting with him.

Park said she thinks the restaurant name hasn't become a controversy because it is in a neighborhood that is largely white and because the Asian community is not very outspoken.

She hopes bringing attention to this will help educate people.

The restaurant name "is just another reminder of how much cultural insensitivity there still is," she said.

They need to start serving beer at Chink's Steaks, so people can get over this!

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Count me in as a vote for them keeping the name...if they had a picture of an asian guy on the menu or something that would be just wrong, man people have so much free time on their hands these days, and as forthe anti-defamation league...get a clue, this shop has been around forever, cut the guy a break.

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the lady "offended" is from west philly and only heard about the name. It seems that in this case, Chink's name is vital to its well being as a business. I know that was key to Hooter's allowance to hire only women..that the essence of their business was not food but male entertainment. anyone who has eaten knows this is true. if I say Chink's, I'd eat there b/c I'd heard about their "legendary" steaks.

From the Inquirer (at least the controversy is helping business):

On the Side | At Chink's, the retro runs into a new reality
By Rick Nichols
Inquirer Columnist

Unlike Frankford Avenue, which has a longer run in the city - from a close-up view of the Ben Franklin Bridge north to, basically, Bensalem - shorter Torresdale Avenue has never gone very far.

It is sandwiched between Frankford Avenue and I-95, truncated, overlooked and, to most of the world, anonymous, connecting the fading, blue-collar neighborhoods of Wissinoming, Tacony, Holmesburg and, to the north, Torresdale.

They are unaccustomed to attention, quietly going gray, isolated beyond the bright lights.

So it caused more than a little stir last Friday when a Channel 29/Fox News van pulled up to 6030 on the avenue in front of a steak shop called Chink's.

It has been there since 1949, a shop in amber, its grill strategically set next to the window, the hand-jerked soda fountains, wooden booths, and yellowing "malted shake" signs all original and stubbornly unaltered.

What had caused the commotion wasn't the discovery of the decor or the unadorned cheesesteaks, which have a cult following. It was the name - Chink's.

An Asian American woman from West Philadelphia had recently heard the name, found it offensive, and asked the owner to change it.

News of her complaint and fledgling protest had been reported in the Daily News, which triggered the TV truck, which uncorked the radio talk-show jocks.

By the time I got to Chink's, Joe Groh, the owner, was looking at a Friday record - a nearly 500-cheesesteak day, roughly 100 more than usual.

Maybe 30 people can sit in the place at once. But it was jammed with take-out business. Guys in green carpenter's union jackets were in line, and behind them guys wearing Philadelphia prison department patches.

Groh, who is of Irish-German-Scottish descent, has been there 25 years, ever since he was 16 and had a paper route and passed Chink's steamed-up window each week on his way to collect.

The Jewish founder, Samuel "Chink" Sherman (so nicknamed, his widow has been quoted as saying, because "he had slanty eyes as a kid"), was still living then and manning the grill.

"One day I went in and asked for a job," Groh says. "And he said, 'You're the paper guy. You're hired.' "

Groh didn't change a thing when he took over in 1999. He uses good, warmed rolls from South Philadelphia. He slices the rib-eye himself.

Sherman, he says, didn't put pizza sauce on his cheesesteaks. So he doesn't. Sherman didn't put on mustard. So he doesn't. No Cheez Whiz. No mushrooms.

Nothing but fried onions and sliced cheese. To the malted milk shake, his staff will add, on request, a banana.

At Delia's Gun Shop a few doors down, the regulars were hearing the news a little late.

Some were curious. Had the complaint come from the "nail people" down the block? No, it hadn't.

Some were defiant. "I'm gonna sue Burger King," co-owner Joe Delia growled. "I'm Italian. I'm tired of them selling the Whopper."

Petitions in support of Chink's were on their way to 500 names. Calls were coming from California. Stories were being shared about Sherman, so universally known as Chink that the nickname is chiseled for eternity on his tombstone.

On an overlooked stretch of Torresdale Avenue, attention, finally, was being paid.

And while it was, you could not help but notice, on corner after corner, the brave new ventures in the shuttered meat shops and beauty parlors.

They are the new lights on the weary avenue - places selling Chinese takeout.

This all is an interesting development that raises a good question- should a business name that has been in existence for years have to change all of a sudden because a few people believe it is offensive?

Certainly the C word, when used in a derogatory fashion about a person of Asian descent is highly offensive and should not be tolerated. However, when it is a nickname that a person had, and in no way is meant as a slur to others, I believe that is fine. The word chink, in proper usage means "a small cleft, slit, or fissure." which according to the man's wife, that fits the description of the man's appearance, so the nickname stuck.

Consider these past overreactions:

-a schoolteacher was fired several years ago for properly using the word "niggardly" to describe an example of being miserly, or stingy. If you look in the dictionary, the word has nothing to do with the other N word that is such an anathema and racial epithet; yet because people were "offended" by this proper use of grammar and unaware of its true meaning, a good teacher lost his job.

-a group of Native Americans lobbied to have the names of the "Cleveland Indians" and Atlanta Braves" changed. Can you imagine someone saying- "Hey Joe, I have tickets to see the Cleveland Native Americans play today, want to go?" I am being facetious, but when you follow the logic on some of these suggestions it can get a bit rediculous.

-another big one in recent years- all the states that display the Confederate flag, either in their state flag or at their government offices. I personally despise the Confederate flag as a symbol of slavery and intolerance, but that is not how a lot of southerners see it- it is a symbol of southern identity to many of them. Should it stay or go, I don't know. What are the limits on expression of free speech in names and symbols?

-someone mentioned "Hooters"- now if that is not a misoginist name, I don't know what is! I don't hear all you ladies calling the local news channels and holding rallies outside of Hooters restaraunt though. Why not? Or how about all of those seedy "adult" or so-called "gentlemans'" clubs?? 99% of them would have to go also... (which would be okay with me, but the point is, the whole quest seems to be misguided)...

Anyway, I want to be very sensitive to people of diverse ethnic cultures who feel offended or intimidated in any way. We all deserve to live freely with equal rights and free from ethnic intimidation or slurs.

This whole brouhaha seems overblown and off base, though. My suggestion- that the people trying to change the name of this steak shop, re-focus their efforts toward advocating for Asian Americans, instead of focusing media attention on that business, which as the article said has only increased cheesesteak sales there and given them a lot of free advertising.

Peace,

John

Peacemover,
I'm always impressed by your eloquence and common sense.

How would the jewish owner feel if a place named "Kike's" was opened up next door and it was named after someone with a large nose? I am jewish and in a way I'm kinda ashamed of his insensativity.

I bet he wouldn't mind since he's dead.

eberger, this place didn;t just open up. and when in business, a lot rides on your name...at least when it is positively correlated.