Asian Groups Fight to Change Eatery’s Name
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Could a restaurant by any other name make a cheesesteak so good?
Joseph Groh’s popular eatery in a blue-collar neighborhood of northeast Philadelphia has been serving them up pretty much the same way since it opened in 1949. Authenticity is everything here—the original soda fountain, the same ceiling fans, the same sparse menu and the 1950s-vintage wooden booths, now way too snug for today’s expanded waistlines.
Even the sign outside bears the nickname of the restaurant’s original owner, and therein lies a problem.
It’s called Chink’s Steaks.
The restaurant was opened by Samuel Sherman, who was nicknamed “Chink” as a child because of his supposedly slanted, Asian-looking eyes. “Nobody ever called him Sam,” said Groh, who started working at the eatery at age 15 and later bought it after Sherman died. “That was his name from the age of 6.”
The problem is that the term “chink” is every bit as racist and hurtful to Asian Americans as “the n-word” is to African Americans—so much so that some have taken to calling it “the c-word.”
“It’s definitely a derogatory term,” said Ginny Gong, national president of the Organization of Chinese Americans, one of several groups pressing for the restaurant to change its name. “Maybe there is this feeling that Asian Americans will not express some degree of outrage. But we are outraged that there is this comfort level.”
For Groh, 45, the name remains part of his restaurant’s tradition. When his mother suggested he change it to “Joe’s,” he said, he told her: “Why would I? This is Chink’s.”
Asian American groups began lobbying Groh to change the name in 2004, after 21-year-old Susannah Park, who is Korean American, heard about the small eatery from friends. When she called to ask why it is called “Chink’s,” she said she was told: “Because the owner had slanty eyes.”
Park, now a 25-year-old college student, grew up in Clarksburg, W.Va., the adopted daughter of white parents. “I had all kinds of experiences with that word,” Park said. “Growing up in West Virginia was traumatic.&nsbp;. . . Imagine being one of the only Asian American kids in a town that’s almost all white.”
Park’s campaign to get the name changed was unsuccessful. In fact, it elicited a backlash when neighborhood residents began a petition drive to support the restaurant. Philadelphia magazine in its “Best of Philly” edition mocked Park and called her effort “the worst complaint” of 2004.
{snip}
But when Groh wanted to open a second Chink’s Steaks in South Philadelphia, Asian American groups protested to the Philadelphia River Port Authority, which owns the site. The lease was denied.
Tsiwen Law, general counsel of the Greater Philadelphia OCA, said opponents of the name organized quickly to block the new restaurant, and will do so again. “We actually stopped it from expanding,” he said. “Going outside of his neighborhood will be difficult, because we will respond,” he added, referring to Groh.
{snip}
And the word—possibly a crude derivation of “Ching guo,” or a subject of the Qing Dynasty—has been used to demean other Asian Americans.
{snip}
“We have not done a good job at sensitizing the general population,” Yu said. Many Americans, she said, “generally don’t associate Asians as a minority facing discrimination.”
Grace Kao, director of Asian American studies at the University of Pennsylvania, said part of the problem is the way race is still defined and discussed in the United States. “In this country, race is still largely a black-and-white issue. Asian Americans and Latinos are largely left out of the conversation,” she said. “In public dialogue, you can’t say certain things about African Americans, but it’s still okay to say things about Asian Americans.”
Yu said the Asian American community is willing to pay for all the costs associated with changing the restaurant’s name and for a publicity campaign around it as well.
{snip}
(Posted on April 15, 2008)
Comments
Asians, unlike some other groups, usually don’t care too much about this sort of stuff. They are way too busy taking care of their families, working hard, making sure their kids are doing well in school, and generally being productive, law-abiding people.
Posted by Dave at 7:42 PM on April 15
OK, I’ll agree to change the name of “Chink’s Steaks” when Asians cease to describe me and mine as “Round Eyes” and “Long Noses”, and when China, Japan, et al embark on an immigration program that will soon reduce Asians to a minority in their own homelands. After all, what’s fair is fair!
Check out the gratitude of Susannah Park, the adoptee raised by white parents in Clarksburg, WV. Probably abandoned by her Oriental parents because she was a girl, I bet.
There’s a National Geographic documentary entitled “China’s Lost Girls”, about the quaint Chinese practice of leaving baby girls to die. In this documentary, we follow American adoptive parents on a journey to China to pick up their newly-adopted abandoned daughters.
Every last damn one of these adoptive parents is a white American. Not a single member of the “Rainbow Coalition” to be found besides the Asian reporter following these parents to China.
Mentioned in the documentary is the need to educate these adoptees in Chinese culture.
The culture that abandoned them to die.
Posted by MikeNY at 8:15 PM on April 15
“Imagine being one of the only Asian American kids in a town that’s almost all white.”
Ms. Park, I require no imagination when recalling filthy names blown at Orientals by darker minorities, right in my presence, at a university noted for its PC ….. against whites, anyway.
If you insist on imaging something, consider your life under the thumb of Hispanics or (worse yet) a black plurality.
Posted by at 8:20 PM on April 15
One of the most astonishing things to me about this disease we commonly call “Political Correctness,” is that the more people are wise to this very real scheme, and the longer it goes on…the more utterly absurd the whole thing becomes! The unthinkably silly is now grounds for legal action - and the people of America stand by and do nothing…
Posted by HH at 8:28 PM on April 15
“We have not done a good job at sensitizing the general population,” Yu said. Many Americans, she said, “generally don’t associate Asians as a minority facing discrimination.”
That’s because you don’t deal with all kinds of discrimination!! I have lost all kinds of respect for these people that I once admired.
Let’s not even mention the fact that Asians have more racial hatred towards others (particularly blacks) than any other group.
And I am sick and tired of people coming from all corners of the globe trying to change everything in our culture.
Posted by kitty at 8:36 PM on April 15
Hey, these so-called “chinese americans” need to get off their high horse. I’m a Euro Am who also speaks Chinese (chink?) fluently. So, being in the SF Bay Area, I’m often in situations where there are chinese people who think they can speak freely and I won’t understand. As we all know, only those of the slanted eye can POSSIBLY speak da lingo, right? Not.
Well, in elevators and other spaces, it’s quite usual for them to speak about me or “us” (“them” to “them”) as foreigners. In fact, the chinese word for foreigner is “waiguoren”, or “outside the country person”, the country being China, of course. Soooo…wherever they are, chinese refer to non-chinese as foreigners. I’ve had some fun with this by politely pointing out that HERE, THEY are the foreigners. Few “get it”.
So don’t give this chink-speakin’ round-eye your spiel: I know EXACTLY what you really think. And you should hear what they say about blacks and jews. It ain’t pretty….
Posted by Chink Lover at 8:44 PM on April 15
We sympathize with our Asian-American friends for the indignity of “chink,” but so that this is not a one-sided discussion, the number one demographic that is slurred in this country is the very diverse white American peoples — anything goes.
Slurs that are acceptable on the pages of the San Jose Mercury News, for example, include English-language slurs like white boy, white privilege, wasp, non-Hispanic whites, white flight, redneck, hillbilly, cracker, white trash, nerdy, white-bread, lily white, typical American, typical white person, goober, white resentment, acting white, and Wonder Bread — along with Spanish-language slurs like anglo, guerro, and gringo.
Comment critical of the slur by the newspaper writer is never included. The demeaned demographic is never allowed a rebuttal in the hate story, or by a letter to the editor. No other demographic suffers this flood of hate speech.
On the other hand, radical left-wing Asian-Americans news writers and columnists consistently write about white Americans using police booking terms, usually emphasizing their own American status while denying our own. That is, we are Caucasians while they are Asian-Americans, Chinese-Americans, or Japanese-Americans.
An example of their unwillingness to support a slur-free society was when a conservative talk show used the “chink” term in place of Connie Chung’s last name. The Irish-American community spoke out strongly, and the Irish-American mayor of San Jose strongly criticized the talk show host who thereafter apologized.
However when the Irish-American community learned that the California Department of Education planned to use the term “paddies” as the definite reference to Irish immigrant workers on the Great Railroad, the Asian-American community agreed that “paddies” was the right name for Irish immigrants.
Don’t be fooled into believing that those complaining about “Chink’s Steaks” support a slur free society…they have an interest in only their own.
Posted by Stanley at 9:05 PM on April 15
Diversity/ multi-culturalism equals no constitutional rights for original Americans, the Euros. So much for appreciation of allowing a few minorities in ( Trojan Horse effect ), since the unconstitutional, non-republican 1965 Immigration and ” Reform ” Act, the flood gates have opened.
Posted by Michigan patriot at 9:16 PM on April 15
I say if the chinese dont like the word chink they can swim back to asia where they belong too who the hell cares about them….I hope no one goes to the olympics…..if G W goes hes a bigger wooze than I thought!!!
Posted by lydia at 9:20 PM on April 15
Just put the last nail in the coffin of what used to be America and get it over with.
I am so sick of our diversity of cultures and races and not a one belongs in this country! I don’t care how some of them may be “good people”. When it comes to what they collectively want as a race and all their whining and crying, then it is time for them to go. This is OUR land, not theirs! End of debate!
Posted by at 10:09 PM on April 15
Is endless whining something that Asians really want to pick up from blacks? For that matter, is there really anything about blacks worth emulating?
Posted by WaitNow at 10:22 PM on April 15
And if someone from China wants to call their restaurant ‘White Devil’ I wouldn’t even care. I wouldn’t want to stoop to their level of hypocrisy by crying victim.
I already know they hate us for our success and are actively trying to take us down. That cancels out any victim-status.
Posted by at 10:31 PM on April 15
If you don’t like the name, don’t eat there. Why don’t you foreigners learn that we AMERICANS have freedom of speech? Or are you planning to change that too? Many posters on this site say that Orientals aren’t a problem because they’re intelligent and not very violent in this country. Just wait until they get to be, oh, 3 or 4 percent of the population. The grievances, backed by lawsuits, will never stop.
Posted by Schoolteacher at 10:32 PM on April 15
I am tremendously glad the petition backfired on the girl. We Whites need to supports Whites and White businesses that come under attack. Furthermore, people need to realize that words such as “chink” have other meanings than their racial usage. The word “chink”, meaning a crack or fissure, existed before it was first used as a racial epithet. Besides, if certain people are offended by the restaurant’s name, they should not offer it their business.
Posted by enoughalready at 11:27 PM on April 15
I am tremendously glad the petition backfired on the girl. We Whites need to supports Whites and White businesses that come under attack. Furthermore, people need to realize that words such as “chink” have other meanings than their racial usage. The word “chink”, meaning a crack or fissure, existed before it was first used as a racial epithet. Besides, if certain people are offended by the restaurant’s name, they should not offer it their business.
Posted by enoughalready at 11:27 PM on April 15
A name like “Chink’s” really has no place in the new multiracial America. Prior generations already gave the country away…we’re just watching the slow-burning results. We already know this guy is going to lose eventually. Even if he wins a court battle, whites will stop patronizing his restaurant if enough heat is applied.
Better to just step aside and hasten the inevitable demise of it all. Putting up a fight will only provide more glory to their victory already assured.
Posted by at 12:09 AM on April 16
Gook (Guk) is also a “racist” word. Turns out that Guk means “man” in Korean. So tell me the word for woman so I won’t offend you. Also, in Hawaii whites are called “haoli” or something to that extent. It means foreigner, but everyone knows it’s slang for whites, and the Asians (filipinos, chinese, japanese, whoever) love saying it. So take it like a Guk.
Posted by at 1:43 AM on April 16
I have a suggestion that might make the PC dogmas easier for the dwindling White majority to obey, and therefore to avoid the punishments handed out to Whites for their transgressions.
Perhaps the state can issue a lexicon or dictionary of all of the terms and words that Whites are forbidden to use, along with the punishments to be employed when these Wicked Whites do happen to use them.
Example: “chink”- proscribed term of abuse for Asians. Penalty for use by White: 500 lashes or amputation of one hand- offender’s choice.
Posted by White Canadian at 1:58 AM on April 16
“Growing up in West Va. was traumatic. Imagine being one of the only Asian American kids in a town that’s almost all white.”
No, imagine that your white parents had never rescued you from North Korea and you ended up facing starvation in a communist hellhole.
Now you show your gratitute to your adoptive parents by endlessly whining about how you’ve suffered living among us evil whites.
Posted by Madison Grant at 2:16 AM on April 16
“Imagine being one of the only Asian American kids in a town that’s almost all white.”
My high school lab parter in chemistry and advanced chemistry was a HK Chinese gal. She was very nice to me. She was also a solid lab partner.
Her sister, a year ahead of us went to the prom with a white guy, which got her tires slashed for her trouble. Not good.
She probably doesn’t have 79 US and foreign patents awarded, but when my blond girlfriend broke up with me, my lab partner used to smile and say, “Let’s get this done.”
I miss her.
If Asians were mistreated at Fairview High School in Boulder, Colorado from 1981-84, I am not aware of it, except perhaps for my lab partner’s sister. On that score, the tire-slasher may have been jealous over some guy and would have done it to any other gal.
Posted by Michael C. Scott at 2:32 AM on April 16
Chink’s Steak’s is a classic name.
It makes me wanna chow down knowing the food is American and served by the heapful.
You know the place is clean without having to second guess.
The name was’nt formed to demean anyone.
Although the name is entertainingly demeaning.
My Dad fought in Korea. Now I want Chink’s Cheesesteaks!
Posted by Colt at 2:42 AM on April 16
“Susannah Park ,, Korean-“American” ,,, “Imagine being the only Asian-American kid in a town that’s almost all White”,,,
That town WAS all White until people LIKE YOU arrived. You are always perfectly free to go right back to Korea where you came from. I am sure there will be lots of all-Asian towns there for you. Her own comments are the best reason I can think of why any Whites who would adopt a Non-White child are crazy.
Posted by at 7:31 AM on April 16
A fascinating point: the only Korean young women visiting the Korean War Memorial in New York State were members of the LPGA (the Korean Women who play our tour), the local Koreans like Ms Park are too busy being local PC bigots in our country.
PC is “mental aids” and is so absurd it is meant only to infuriate, frustrate, and create emotional anxiety, destroying the important values and traditions of our country.
Posted by jdavis at 9:40 AM on April 16
Despite the fact that I agree with most observations by commenters thus far, I think that this “story” is overblown. The word “chink” is indeed offensive in present society, and the name should be changed. No big deal.
Posted by at 10:00 AM on April 16
“Growing up in West Va. was traumatic. Imagine being one of the only Asian American kids in a town that’s almost all white.” Ms. Park
Where is the gratitude here? As others have said, maybe Ms. Park should have grown up in Camden, New Jersey, or Newark. I’m sure that she would have a different perspective from growing up in a mostly “white” state.
Posted by Sardonicus at 12:06 PM on April 16
Reply to Posted by 10:00 AM on April 16- Yea, it’s not a big deal, just a deal. And the story is pointing out the fact that everything found offensive by some whining jerk is getting to be old news to the White American who is the FOUNDER of this country. English is the official language by nature. Various words are used by the founding people by nature. If you do not like it, leave it! For we are sick of it! Can you say Sig Saur?
Posted by Trisket at 12:14 PM on April 16
There’s a nip in the air, a chink in the clouds and I do believe this heralds the start of an indian summer. We could eat sour kraut and play leap frog, but don’t monkey around and yank clothes from my wet back or I’ll wop you. My bank advises me that my account is in the black, but they don’t say which one. What a queer world we live in. My tool box contains a screw driver, a monkey wrench and a bastard file. Did you hear about the arab who bought a dairy farm? They called him the milk shake!!
Posted by Yorkshireman at 1:12 PM on April 16
If I lived in the area and hadn’t eaten there before, I would go for dinner tonight.
“Imagine being one of the only Asian American kids in a town that’s almost all white.”
Yes, I’m sure this dolt would prefer being the pile of dust in a a makeshift grave she would now be if those evil whites hadn’t adopted her.
Posted by Civilized Neighbor at 1:21 PM on April 16
A name like “Chink’s” really has no place in the new multiracial America. Prior generations already gave the country away…we’re just watching the slow-burning results. We already know this guy is going to lose eventually. Even if he wins a court battle, whites will stop patronizing his restaurant if enough heat is applied.
Better to just step aside and hasten the inevitable demise of it all. Putting up a fight will only provide more glory to their victory already assured.
Posted by at 12:09 AM on April 16
I am not assured of their victory, but with ‘fighters’ like you, shooting into my back, I’m going to lose definitely.
A hero-of-your-type must stay under a blanket, enjoying the smell of your spirit, instead of bringing it here. This place is for fighters not cowards.
Posted by alex at 1:35 PM on April 16
“Gook (Guk) is also a “racist” word. Turns out that Guk means “man” in Korean.”
Interesting. There was a South Korean war movie called “Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War (International: English title) (USA).”
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0386064/
It’s a variation of “Saving Private Ryan.” Anyway, this 2004 movie, amazingly enough, portrays Americans as courageous. There is a scene where American Corsair fighter-bombers are attacking a North Korean position; when a Corsair is hit by enemy fire, the American pilot flies his crippled plane into an enemy position.
For a foreign movie to portray Americans that way is pretty unusal these days.
The DVD has an English language soundtrack, so movie fans don’t have to suffer from reading subtitles.
Posted by at 1:39 PM on April 16
So when someone uses the cliche ‘a chink in the armor’, and someone of Chinese heritage is around to hear it; does that make it racist or offensive?
I would like to leave a question for our controlled media to ponder: Since you have already long outlawed usage of the abbreviate terms ‘Chinks’ and ‘Japs’; when are you going to do likewise about the terms ‘Brits’, ‘Scots’, ‘Danes’, ‘Swedes’, ‘Finns’, ‘Poles’, ‘Czechs’, etc. that the North American sports media uses both at will and with impunity?
Shall I add the abbreviations, ‘Lats’, ‘Lithus’, ‘Stones’, and ‘Molds’ to that list?
I thought so. Anything to give White people the short end of another media-imposed double standard.
Posted by FischerFan at 1:49 PM on April 16
Asians, unlike some other groups, usually don’t care too much about this sort of stuff. They are way too busy taking care of their families, working hard, making sure their kids are doing well in school, and generally being productive, law-abiding people.
Posted by Dave at 7:42 PM on April 15
Nevertheless, they don’t belong here.
Posted by at 1:52 PM on April 16
Growing up in a small Midwest town I’d never seen an Asian until a Filipino MD moved into the neighborhood. I would golf with their son who was my age.
I called him a chink a couple of times. Somehow I knew that was a slur for Asians. Possibly from being a big reader. I meant absolutely no disrespect. I wasn’t even sure if it applied to him. I was just a kid and had never even met an Asian before, so of course how could I have had any bad experience to be mad about? Perhaps I was hoping he’d call me whatever word they call whites, but he didn’t. About the third time, he asked me not to call him that anymore and I didn’t. It kind of made me regret I had. On the plus side of the whole thing, now I do know a couple of curse words in Filipino.
Posted by name withheld by request at 2:33 PM on April 16
The majority of Asian-Americans are painfully left-wing, and have a delusion that the Democratic party and other minorities will “look out for them”. This Susannah Park is obviously desperately trying to find an identity and acceptance with other Asians by attacking “the other”, and by changing her last name to a Korean one.
Posted by at 3:55 PM on April 16
I live here in Philly, and never thought to buy a sandwich from Chink’s until shortly after this media circus began….Hell, I even worked right across Torresdale avenue from Chinks at Maribello’s Pizza for a short period of time and never thought to make a purchase there until it came time to show my support….I still have to get to south Philly sometime soon to give Joey Vento my support as well and order a sandwich from Geno’s Steaks…He recenty has come under fire also for the “This Is America, Please Order in English” sign displayed in his window… Anyone living in the Philly area, I implore you to do the same and thumb your nose up at this tyranny calling itself political corectness…They cannot take us down if we stand united….
Posted by Reaper at 5:43 PM on April 16
American Indians complained about some of the names for sports teams so they came up with a name of a team called the fighting whiteys. Turns out they sold so many tshirts they were able to start minority schlorships with the profits. Everybody is ganging up on whites because we are losing power fast and our leaders invited it upon us. We haven,t won a major war since ww2. Some call it white war one and white war two. Divide and conquer is an acient saying that still works. You can,t get white people to unite on anything anymore. Its over.
Posted by at 7:16 PM on April 16
“Growing up in West Va. was traumatic. Imagine being one of the only Asian American kids in a town that’s almost all white.”
——-
Madison Grant wrote: “No, imagine that your white parents had never rescued you from North Korea and you ended up facing starvation in a communist hellhole. Now you show your gratitute to your adoptive parents by endlessly whining about how you’ve suffered living among us evil whites.”
——-
Perfect, Mr. Grant.
Posted by Jane T. at 7:37 PM on April 16
Let me get this straight, the restaurant was opened decades ago and named after a white guy. Now it caught the eyes of the Chinese Organization and they are complaining about it. Seems like they are going around looking for excuses to sue, they seem to be digging hard in American history to find these remote instances.
And the “c” word? Now every race other than the Nordic whites needs a word of their own to exploit.
And a Korean is offended by this? This kind of hypocrisy is beyond words, Park is a rapacious leech on society that her inherently evil nature knows no bounds. She better dead than alive.
Posted by at 11:53 PM on April 16
During WW2, the best gunnery officer in the U.S. Navy was Admiral Willis “Ching” Lee. I don’t know if he was part Chinese, but he got the name at the Naval Academy and it stuck. Of course, there were ruder variants of the nickname used behind his back. In November 1942, he led an inexperienced force of two brand new battleships and four destroyers into battle off Guadalcanal. He ought to have had more escorts than that, but the Japanese had hammered the available cruisers a couple nights before. Japan had trained long and hard for night fighting, and excelled at it. As he comes sailing into Ironbottom sound, named that for the fifty American and Japanese ships that were eventually sunk there, a couple P.T. boats spot his ships in the dark. Not knowing that there were any American ships around, they call out on the radio and ask if anybody knew who they were. Admiral Lee himself gets on the radio and says “This is Ching Chong China Lee, you savvy? Call off your dogs.” Advertising works, the P.T. boats held their torpedos. What would have happened if he’d said “This is Admiral Lee, hold your fire”? Any English speaking Japanese could have said that, the P.T. boats might have fired anyway. But Ching Lee steamed on, the Japanese torpedoed his four destroyers, shelled one of the battleships badly and drove it off, and the last ship, with the Admiral himself in charge, charged up and splattered the Japanese at close range, less than 3 miles. That’s some serious guts, to watch the first five ships get clobbered and to keep attacking with the last one. Admiral Lee knew his gunnery. A great victory for White men, we WN should remember and celebrate it. Someone ought to name a restaurant after it too, “Ching Chong China’s Revenge”.
Posted by Schoolteacher at 1:30 PM on April 17
“You can,t get white people to unite on anything anymore. Its over.
Posted by at 7:16 PM on April 16”
Remember whites getting together when the government wanted to put up a multi racial statue of the 911 fireman?
Or whites driving the black panthers out of a California neighbourhood recently.
Or whites patroling the border?
Posted by ex at 1:52 PM on April 17
Let ALL members of racial minority groups claiming to be offended in OUR America feel free to leave. Undoubtedly they would be far happier in their ancestral lands, surrounded by their own kind.
Posted by Fed Up at 2:59 PM on April 17
“You can’t get white people to unite on anything. It’s over.”
I think the very useful discussion on this website gives the lie to that.
As far as this group of political agitators goes, would you fault all whites for the existance of the SPLC? Of course not.
One college acquaintance with a chip on her shoulder said in Santa Cruz, “I don’t want to be a ‘model minority.’”
“OK,” I replied, “drop out of college, commit crimes, and have illegitimate children with a bunch of different men. Nothing is stopping you except the court system and perhaps your family.”
She looked like she had been struck.
Posted by Michael C. Scott at 3:34 PM on April 17
“Let ALL members of racial minority groups claiming to be offended in OUR America feel free to leave. Undoubtedly they would be far happier in their ancestral lands, surrounded by their own kind.”
Posted by Fed Up at 2:59 PM on April 17
> Too bad we haven’t got the same choice.
Posted by Whiteplight at 7:22 PM on April 17
“”Gook (Guk) is also a “racist” word. Turns out that Guk means “man” in Korean.”“
Yes, Guk does mean man, but it’s not commonly used.
Instead, Guk is used to indicate nation or country. Han Guk means Korea. Tae Guk means Thailand. Which brings us to Mi Guk meaning America. During the Korean War, there was a great deal of starvation.
American soldiers got a reputation for handing out food items to the kids. The kids would line up along the road where Americans were passing. The would yell, ” Mi Guk!” ” Mi Guk!” ( American! American!) hoping to score some treats. Some dry witted GIs would wryly answer, “Yeah kid, you’re a “Gook!”
In the mid 60s the Pekin, Illinois High School The Pekin “Chinks” changed their name to the Pekin Dragons. They felt the dragons kept with the theme of Peking (Beijing), China.
The town claimed to be Peking’s sister city as they purportedly lie exactlly one half of the world away from each other. (Google Pekin Chinks).
I’ve also heard that the name derives from a plaster company in the area who contributed a bit of money to the city. I can’t find anything to support this however.
During WW2 Japp’s Potato Chips in Chicago changed their name to Jay’s.
Posted by I gots a dream at 1:35 AM on April 18