Careful with your words, he says

(RE: ‘Yellow Peril Invades Loch’, 09/01). I am surprised to see your newspaper risking its reputation, such as it is, by employing a well-known anti-Asian slur to describe a weed.

Given that anyone with a primary school education is aware that the phrase “yellow peril” has long been used throughout the English-speaking world as a term of derision toward the Chinese and other Asians, it is difficult to know what your sub-editor was thinking.

Type the phrase into Google and the first hundred or so results all explain how and why it is deeply offensive. So why use it?

Isn’t “Ragwort Rampant” sensationalist enough? Do you really need to add a lurid phrase that insults members of the fastest growing community in Australia to make your point?

I wonder how your advertisers, particularly national brands, will feel about being associated with a newspaper that gratuitously employs such racist language. An apology is in order.
 

Frank Zelko, Venus Bay.

Editor: As you correctly point out, everyone knows the historic association of the term “yellow peril” so there can be no confusion that we are using the words in a completely different context. Thank you for your interest.