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Former San Francisco Police Officer Jason Lai racist messages emerge

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B

Black Republican

Member
no love for this guy

jasonlai01.jpg
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The San Francisco Police Department has been embroiled in an ongoing scandal involving more than a dozen officers who allegedly wrote and sent racist and homophobic text messages. This week, new disturbing messages emerged from a former officer at the center of the scandal.

New Racist, Homophobic Texts Emerge In Ongoing SFPD Scandal

CNN has obtained a list of dozens of offensive texts sent to and from Officer Jason Lai, who used slurs that included a derogatory term for Hispanics, a shortened version of the n-word, and a message calling Indian people "disgusting," as well as homophobic language to refer to gay officers.

Lai's texts also made several references to "hak gwai," a derogatory Cantonese phrase for African Americans:

Lai, who was identified as Chinese by his attorney, makes several references to "hock gwai," apparently a misspelled reference to the Cantonese "hak gwai," a derogatory phrase for African Americans.

In a series of texts sent last June he describes an incident involving a "bunch of hock gwais shooting each other."

"Sprained my ankle over these barbarians," he says.

One of the suspects "went to the hospital after he got shot lol," the officer texted.

"Too bad none of them died," he added. "One less to worry about."

That's just one exchange. There's a lot more awful shit where that came from. All from Officer Lai's phone.

Don Nobles, Lai's attorney said the texts were between Lai and some of his closest friends in the department and people he met while on patrol. I struggle to understand how this is remotely relevant or excusable.

"It's hard to say any of those things in context," Noble told CNN, "but there is context to it."

Context? I'm sorry, but no. There is absolutely no context in which these exchanges are appropriate for anyone, let alone an officer of the San Francisco Fucking Police Department.

The message on Lai's phone were discovered after he was accused of raping a woman while off-duty. Investigators said they couldn't find enough evidence to charge him with sexual assault, but he was charged with illegally accessing DMV records -- the alleged victim's -- for a non-official purpose.

Lai has since resigned from the department. He is scheduled to be arraigned on May 3.
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http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2016/04/26/sfpd-racist-homophobic-texts-officer-jason-lai/
 
NeOak

NeOak

Member
A racist Asian?

lol ok

To be honest, he seems to be more racist than the usual Caucasian racist stereotype.
 
D

dskillzhtown

keep your strippers out of my American football
Dammit web site, hire an editor!

Don Nobles, Lai's attorney said the texts were between Lai and some of his closest friends in the department and people he met while on patrol. I struggle to understand how this is remotely relevant or excusable.

"It's hard to say any of those things in context," Noble told CNN, "but there is context to it."
Click to expand...
 
T

tearsintherain

Member
fun fact: the literal translation for hak gwai is black ghost. I think its derived from gwailo, which is what chinese call (white) foreigners, and literally means white ghost.

There is some history there of how they viewed foreigners for centuries, but I don't really know enough of my chinese history to make heads or tails out of the etymology. Did they think white people were ghosts?

also weird, in mandarin the pause word - "like" or "uhhh" in English, when you are thinking about what to say next - is "nega". Makes for some funny eavesdropping in mainland China. Russell Peters has some bits on this that are great.

and damn that is some fucked up police work, dude is stalking women with DMV records then raping them then celebrating shooting people over texts? Damn.
 
H

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
tearsintherain said:
also weird, in mandarin the pause word - "like" or "uhhh" in English, when you are thinking about what to say next - is "nega". Makes for some funny eavesdropping in mainland China. Russell Peters has some bits on this that are great.
Click to expand...

I used to work with a group that had both a ton of black performers as well as performers from mainland China and it was always funny watching some of the black guys hearing that word drop from the Chinese who were totally oblivious to what it sounded like in English. Made for some awkward moments that were actually kind of hilarious in hind sight.
 
F

firehawk12

Subete no aware
Onemic said:
Wow, even Chinese people have their own slur for black people......
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I don't know about Mandarin, but yeah, there are many racially insensitive (to put it kindly) shorthands in Cantonese.

That said, the one used here literally means "black ghost", so context sort of matters. But I mean, this guy is obviously a racist. lol



HStallion said:
I used to work with a group that had both a ton of black performers as well as performers from mainland China and it was always funny watching some of the black guys hearing that word drop from the Chinese who were totally oblivious to what it sounded like in English. Made for some awkward moments that were actually kind of hilarious in hind sight.
Click to expand...
Russell Peters had a bit about that way back when. Good times.
 
E

Enzom21

Member
I wonder if some Chinese people will stan for this guy like they did for Peter Liang?

Valhelm said:
pretty fly for a hak gwai
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If using a Jewish name in a picture makes Gordon and me anti-semitic, you using a Chinese slur for black people as a joke must make you a fucking racist. Right Valhelm?
 
G

Guevara

Member
This thread took a weird turn.

I guess some people really do believe only white people can be racist, or something.
 
D

Drahcir

Member
So what's the proper term for an African American in Cantonese? I never liked using the term hak gwai when I speak but I honestly do not know another term for them. :( Would it be hak gweilo?
 
S

Slayven

Member
So he might have stalked and raped a women, but some racist texts is what finally gets him out of the job?
Not even fired...but resigned

So many layers on this shit I am going to need a moment
 
D

dramatis

Member
Onemic said:
Wow, even Chinese people have their own slur for black people......
Click to expand...
It's actually not a slur as I know it. Maybe it started as a slur, but I've heard more as a colloquial term to refer to black people in general. I live in NYC, so I can't account for how language may differ in application in other regions.

For instance, I've heard my mom use
黑鬼 = hak gwai = literal translation is [black] [ghost]
白鬼 = bak gwai = [white] [ghost] = white people
犹太鬼 = yao tai gwai = [jewish] [ghost] = Jewish people
西班牙鬼 = sai ban ah gwai = [spanish] [ghost] = Latinos

It's not isolated to black people. Basically just take an identity and add "ghost" to the end lol. I do think my mom is pretty racist though so maybe she's been using slurs all along and I just thought it was normal because she did it. (Cantonese dialect by the way)

For some reason people with brown skin (Middle East?) she refers to as "ah cha" but I have no idea how that is written or what it means. Probably racist?
 
H

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
Familienoberhauptvogel said:
Yeah it's Bimbo or Mohr in german.
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Really, that's what Bimbo means in German? Seems that word has some very different meanings around the world, even between the US and Mexico its got whole different meanings. Hell their is a major company that makes bread and snacks called Bimbo in Mexico.
 
H

Haxan

Banned
dramatis said:
It's actually not a slur as I know it. Maybe it started as a slur, but I've heard more as a colloquial term to refer to black people in general. I live in NYC, so I can't account for how language may differ in application in other regions.

For instance, I've heard my mom use
黑鬼 = hak gwai = literal translation is [black] [ghost]
白鬼 = bak gwai = [white] [ghost] = white people
犹太鬼 = yao tai gwai = [jewish] [ghost] = Jewish people
西班牙鬼 = sai ban ah gwai = [spanish] [ghost] = Latinos

It's not isolated to black people. Basically just take an identity and add "ghost" to the end lol. I do think my mom is pretty racist though so maybe she's been using slurs all along and I just thought it was normal because she did it. (Cantonese dialect by the way)

For some reason people with brown skin (Middle East?) she refers to as "ah cha" but I have no idea how that is written or what it means. Probably racist?
Click to expand...

Is there an easy answer as to why "ghost" is used to refer to non-Chinese people?
 
F

Familienoberhauptvogel

Banned
HStallion said:
Really, that's what Bimbo means in German? Seems that word has some very different meanings around the world, even between the US and Mexico its got whole different meanings. Hell their is a major company that makes bread and snacks called Bimbo in Mexico.
Click to expand...

Yeah, pretty old though. New racists would just say nigger.
 
D

Drahcir

Member
dramatis said:
It's actually not a slur as I know it. Maybe it started as a slur, but I've heard more as a colloquial term to refer to black people in general.
Click to expand...

That's how I figured the term was used as well, in colloquial speak. I never thought of it as racist or even in the same league as the n-word. Perhaps it's not proper, but racist? I don't know about that.
 
G

Gordon Shumway

Banned
Enzom21 said:
He goes from calling us anti-semites, defending the Klan's speech, telling black people the sort of things they should being angry about, to this bullshit.
To quote Eddie King Jr. "I see through your jive ass like glass nigga!"
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Sho nuff is looking mighty saspishas..😕
 
D

dramatis

Member
Haxan said:
Is there an easy answer as to why "ghost" is used to refer to non-Chinese people?
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I have no idea. I thought about it myself when I was wondering why everything was attached to 'ghost', but in the end I guessed it might have to do with how my mom or whoever uses these terms sees 'race' in the sense that the looks are very different from themselves.

One thing that I definitely consider actually racist (?) was the term I hear used a lot for Japanese people, which translates directly to [Japan] [boy], the "boy" part being derogatory in the sense that they were looking down on Japanese as inferior. But it's been used so often I wonder if it's become more of a general reference to Japanese people rather than as a derogatory term.

With 'ghost' I can't tell if it's inferior or not, just that it is a distinction of 'other'.
 
P

Parallax

best seen in the classic "Shadow of the Beast"
Enzom21 said:
He goes from calling us anti-semites, defending the Klan's speech, telling black people the sort of things they should being angry about, to this bullshit.
To quote Eddie King Jr. "I see through your jive ass like glass nigga!"



It might happen if the woman he raped is black.
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Well i guess im watching the 5 heartbeats again
 
C

Cagey

Banned
The message on Lai's phone were discovered after he was accused of raping a woman while off-duty. Investigators said they couldn't find enough evidence to charge him with sexual assault, but he was charged with illegally accessing DMV records -- the alleged victim's -- for a non-official purpose.
Click to expand...

Wait what.
 
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