The headline struck me as unusually crass for HN even before I saw the parent comment. I was a bit surprised it wasn’t rewritten. So, I guess I’m a second person.
Maybe it’s generational, but I was taught to avoid using names in puns. I definitely grew up with people who would make last name puns like this to put undue emphasis on race.
If folks doesn’t even see why that would be a problem these days, I’ll take it as a win for society - but I think the question was in good faith.
Yep. Making fun of "foreign" names is casual xenophobia. The fact that it's a pun doesn't excuse it. More generally, making fun of people's names is intellectual laziness and unprofessional at the very least.
I had the same reaction as you. Not that it's "crass" or "racist" or any other particular -ist or -ic, just that it adds nothing and seems like a childish pun attached to a serious story.
I don't think it's racist at all, that word gets overused so much that I can understand the reaction to the question.
That out of the way, I generally agree that it's poor taste. I was taught not to poke fun at things people didn't choose and can't change - their smile, laugh, handicaps, color, name, etc. Low hanging fruit, and potentially really devastating to people.
