Is calling something casually racist equals to racism? An explosive debate over the name "Sumting Wong" results in a dev banning a user in r/SpaceHaven

Alright I'm a little confused on this one. On one hand it's mocking the language and speaking style of Asian (chinese?) people akin to saying "ching chong", but on the other hand it's pretty lighthearted teasing of accent differences of a group that isn't particularly disadvantaged on the world stage. It's not like Asian countries are 3rd world colonies, and the jokes about Asian accents mainly target rich tourists that Euro/US people interact with.

As a white american on easy mode only personal experience with this is a running joke in some Anime series where foreigners have horrible Japanese pronunciation. I didn't find it offensive but obviously thats a result of privilege, but I'm also not sure why rich Asian tourists wouldn't expect the same privilege.

I'm just struggling to see the ethical difference between Sumting Wong and something like the humor in Borat's accent, or people who put on comical redneck/cajun accents. Is the history of yellowface comedy that makes it worse, or is there something more?

/r/SubredditDrama Thread