ABSTRACT
This chapter considers four words: chink, kike, spic, and wop, and the roles they have played in court proceedings. Chink, as a racial epithet, has been traditionally viewed as a derogatory term for a Chinese person, a Chinaman. Kike is a “vulgarly offensive name for a Jew.” The Oxford English Dictionary lists no other definitions. As a derogatory word for Mexicans, Mexican Americans, and Puerto Ricans, spic is thought to have developed in the early 1900s. Victimization by racial epithets has also affected defendants at sentencing or played a part in determining their culpability. Many government employees receive official immunity from suits when performing government duties. Another category of unprotected speech is libel or defamation—untrue, damaging statements made against another. The courts have been unwilling to find that calling someone a racial epithet, not even “slimy kike” or a chink, stated a cause of action for libel. any government employees receive official immunity from suits when performing government duties.
