Handler apologizes again, calls his remark racist

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | November 22, 2014 | HILLEL ITALIE

[artichokegrower]

Daniel Handler apologized again for racial comments he made while hosting the National Book Awards and promised to back up his words with his wallet.

The best-selling author also known as "Lemony Snicket" tweeted Friday that his remarks Wednesday night, centering on a joke about black author Jacqueline Woodson being allergic to watermelon, were "monstrously inappropriate and yes, racist." Handler pledged $10,000 to a campaign for diversity in publishing and added that for 24 hours he would match donations up to $100,000. On Thursday, he tweeted that his humor "clearly failed."

[BatGuano]

Reminds me to not buy this pansy's books. If he really was sorry, he would slash his wrists and rid the world of another libtard. It must be pure hell to admit to yourself that you are a RACIST!

[Bronzewound]

Could everyone pitch in by posting which words we can’t say around which divided groups of people. I would like to make a chart.

[jocon307]

“Either he really didn’t know what it means, or he was sneaking it in.”

I’d think that would have been clear from the context. Even I know what that means, I doubt that he and his editor and the proofreader and all those levels of TOP MEN and TOP WOMEN would really have been ignorant.

[BatGuano]

“No, it don't make me any cooler but it sho keeps da flies offa da watermelon.”

[ifinnegan]

It's called xigua in Mandarin, pronounced she- gwah. And I always translated 瓜 as melon. But gourd is probably fine, maybe more literally accurate.

[ifinnegan]

He was sneaking it in.

[caww]

Apologizes and retractions mean nothing today.....what’s been said is said unless the media wants to make another story from it...eeee-gads! When will media get back on track with REAL NEWS!

[ifinnegan]

This excerpt doesn’t say what the offense was.

I read it, and interestingly, he actually poked fun at liberal black establishment PC policing in the banter subsequent to the racist comment.

[chajin]

And I always translated 瓜 as melon. But gourd is probably fine,

Make me check :-) according to Wiktionary, it probably comes closest to "melon," though in Japanese it is also the character in kabocha 南瓜, or "southern melon."

My guess, and it's only my guess, is that since watermelon came from Africa (no, troll, that's not racist, it's just the way it is), that it would have entered China from the west, perhaps via the Silk Road, and so would have been the "western" melon, while pumpkin would have been brought to Japan by the Europeans, whom they described as namban or "southern barbarians," since their ships came up to Japan from the south.

[chajin]

Sorry, I should have said that kabocha is Japanese for pumpkin.

[ifinnegan]

I like your analysis. I always wondered why it is called western melon.