People are talking about the fact that The Onion used the word “kike” to mock the refusal by Dan Snyder to change the name of the Washington Redskins. Snyder is Jewish, and the Onion headlines its story, “Redskins’ Kike Owner Refuses To Change Team’s Offensive Name.” The story also uses the epithet “hook-nosed kike” and “shifty-eyed Hebe.”
Redskins is a slur for Native Americans, so the Onion is satirizing in a good cause (the same cause Lawrence O’Donnell has taken up on MSNBC, also citing Snyder’s Jewishness). But the story has made some uncomfortable, among them the JTA, whose story is headlined, “The Onion deploys Jewish slurs to skewer Redskins owner;” the Atlantic Wire, which is ambivalent about the usage– “journalists have been unsure how to discuss the story and whether it crosses the line or not, while still retweeting the story link”– and Salon, which seems to think it’s OK in the end. (
mondoweiss)
