Is racism becoming trendy among organizations?

Racism has been the center of scandals and controversies among the organizations in this new year. This week ESPN was presented as racist after two of its representatives referred to Jeremy Lin as the “chinky armor”. Jeremy Lin is the first Asian American to be in the NBA, who was ignored by the press until he started winning 7 games in a row for the Knicks of New York. When the Knicks faced the Hornets from New Orleans the Knicks lost that night after Lin was placed in the game. The anchor for ESPN, Max Betros made an inappropriate comment by asking what did the “chink armor” needed to improve in his game. Later that night, the editor for ESPN, Anthony Federico wrote a headline describing Jeremy Lin as the “Chink Armor”. The headline was removed 35 minutes later and another statement was issued apologizing. ESPN took action and fired the editor meanwhile the anchor man was suspended for 30 days, as discipline. Lin said he did not think they said it on purpose and even if they did ESPN presented their apologies and now it is all in the past.

The scandal was a bomb in media. “Chink Armor” was the theme for SNL and other television shows like “The Talk”. Youtube has many videos of upset fans and just people who commented on what happened. Screen shots of the article taken by several people who read the article are all over the internet.  ESPN has been making sure of posting their apology in every article that reports the incident. The news not only run here in the United States but also in Asia for Lin’s heritage. Asian Americans in the country also were offended because they are from the same race and being stereotyped as Asians not being good at basketball is disrespectful. It is everywhere and everyone is talking about it because it was done to a rising star in basketball.

With the recent situations that different organizations have been dealing with is racism. Apparently racial characteristics have been used to create stereotypes that are offensive. Although this might be a new trend among the public it is a problem that cannot reach an organization, because the image and credibility of the organization will be on risk. Public Relations practitioners should act promptly in loyalty for the organization they are working for. Training employees and creating awareness of ethics and sensibility in the public. It is a responsibility for the PR practitioner to care and protect the image of a company but also to help maintain opinions and thoughts that do not go with the organization away from it by communicating with the staff, for they are ambassadors of the company as well.

Racist scandals taking over Papa Johns and Chick-fil-A

Chick-fil-A has been accused of racism after a cashier labeled two college students with Asian ethnicity: “Ching and Chong”. The employee, who was dismissed after the two clients complained about the situation, without asking their names for the order in their receipt  he decided to labeled them according to their ethnicity. At the same time Papa John’s has been accused for the same reason and in the same scenario as Chick-fil-A, when a cashier named a client: :”Lady chinky eyes“. The Asian American lady, left the restaurant and uploaded the picture as she twitted : ” just FYI my name isn’t chinky eyes”. Minhee Cho, which is the name of the lady, did not make any comments about the incident.

Both PR heads for Chick-fil-A and Papa John’s presented their apologies to the clients, rectify their acts by terminating the employees that violated the organization standards and reassure to the public that they do not discriminate people because of their race. Papa John’s has been handling the situation very personal and efficiently by answering to every tweet that is in relation to this incident. After looking at both reactions, it is evident that Papa John’s has been on top of everything which not only shows to the customers that they care about them but they are also keeping  things under control.

The recommendation to bad media is:

“tell everyone about it. Tell them what’s going on and what you are doing about it.”

Chick-fil-A and Papa Johns did  a good job in first recognizing the problem, apologize for it and third take action which was to dismissed the employees. The actions that were taken helped to keep the image of an organization and also it builds a stronger relationship with the customer. Transparency and trust will always be the key to a good relationship. Take note that always in a business relationship it is important to show the customer that the organization cares about them.

Controversy: Support abortion or Cure for Cancer?

The strangest combination happened this week fighting cancer and abortion helping each other. The hot topic of week:Susan G. Komen Foundation announced they will stop funding for Planned Parenthood and then reverse their decision to support them. The public was divided in two: The prochoice and the pro life . Conflict arouse when the two different decision were made. When the final decision of supporting Planned Parenthood came out the VP for Susan G. Komen, Karen Hadley resign from her position explaining how she was part of the first decision of not supporting Planned Parenthood because of being America’s largest organization for abortion but not for reversal of the decision. Komen accepted Hadley’s resignation and now Komen will be facing the lost of many pro life donors for this decision.

The image of Susan G. Komen Foundation it is now affected by the political decision of funding for Planned Parenthood, for one side it still has the approval but at the same time they lost followers and important donors. The PR situation here was not handled in the most professional way. The PR did not communicate the message in a way that will calm the mass. Melissa Waggener said that Komen’s Foundation should of made the discussion to the public in a way that they will engage the public instead of separating them; they should have gone with making them see that it was not about religious or political issues but a concern for providing health services. Showing a public the positive side and the most important thing of a decision is always something to keep in mind.

Personally, I believe that as a Christian there I would see things as going against to what I believe and being faithful to them is important. I do not believe in abortion and as there is a quote: “If you don’t stand for something you will fall for everything.” Solomon has advised to be faithful to our God and to His commandments in Proverbs 3:3. As a Christian, we have the obligation to defend the weak and to help the oppressed and that is something I have to be faithful and stand for what my God has told me to do.

” I will not say I failed 1000 times, I will say that I discovered there are 1000 ways that can cause failure.” – Thomas Edison

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