An update on the Eggrolls Etc. situation, reported here back in April... A "Chinese" takeout and delivery restaurant in Tuscon had drawn quite a bit of controversy from the local Asian American community for its advertising and menu materials, which included a lot of racist and offensive jokes. For example, the restaurant widely distributed fliers that read, "Every order is deliverd via rickshaw by first generation Chinese immigrants... We really should charge more for delivery, old Chinamen are getting expensive these days." These were bad bad bad, unfunny jokes, by a restaurant already guilty of selling awful, bastardized "Chinese" food. Of course, responding to the outcry, owner Mike Reynolds dismissed it with the standard "can't you take a joke?" excuse.

It seems now that Reynolds has had a change of heart... Eggrolls Etc. has removed raciallly insensitive language from its menu, website and advertising fliers: Chinese eatery ends offensive advertising. Reynolds apologized in a telephone interview yesterday for usin the word "Chinamen" in his ads, claiming he was unaware that it was widely considered a derogatory term.

Reynolds said he still doesn't think his menu, on the whole, could be construed as "intended to hurt or damage anyone," but apologized for any "misunderstanding" created by the jokes on his menu, which included a parody of the inability of immigrant Chinese to pronounce words containing the letter "r."

Reynolds said his menu and advertising fliers were "never intended to harm or insult the Asian-American or Chinese-American community."

Reynolds, who never responded to letters from local and national groups urging him to be more sensitive in his advertising, said he doesn't now plan to respond or issue a formal apology.

My guess is, Reynolds just got tired of dealing with the controversy, over something he simply thought was adding off-color humor to his advertising. Mind you, racist ignorance is no excuse. It's that easy for someone to pepper a restaurant menu with idiotic, juvenile, racist language and think nothing of it. To him, it's all just a big "misunderstanding." But what about the indignity and dehumanization of such language? It's a hell of a lot harder to undo that damage. That's racist!