This is the sort of linguistic prudery that makes "PC" such an effective propaganda charge amongst working-class Americans.
If we wish to speak of political substance rather than ethnic symbols, we might recall that it was this same Cockburn who objected -- scandalously, to right-thinking liberals -- to the element of racism ("yellow peril") involved in the opposition to China's inclusion in the WTO.
--CGE
On Tue, 10 Apr 2001, Dennis wrote:
> This from Cockburn's NYPress column:
>
> "A friend saw three Chinamen tumble out of a nightclub at 353
> Broadway, each with bandages around one ear. One white man was
> similarly styled. She asked what was up. "We are celebrating Vincent
> van Gogh's birthday," they chorused. True, it was March 30. All three
> Chinamen were artists, one of them recently graduating to that state
> from a previous career in investment banking. It turns out the party
> commemorating Vincent's birthday was put on by those wonderful Russian
> artists, Vitaly Komar and Alex Melamid."
>
> Ah, hell Alex, why not go the full nine and say three Chinks? If
> you're gonna do it, do it right.
>
> Then, at the end of the item, Cockburn, perhaps unconsciously feeling
> the PC pressure build within, writes:
>
> "The birthday party for Vincent was a big success, with a band playing
> a blend of Polish and Irish music, plus mushroom soup with slabs of
> good bread and absinthe dispensed in huge cups."
>
> What? Not Polack and Mick music? Man, I hate these mixed racial
> descriptions.
>
> DP
>
>