My gut as a white American (incidentally, my partner is Asian) is that this doesn't pass the smell test and I'd avoid it. I actually came to this thread specifically to see if anyone else felt that way.

If that person is a criminal that shamelessly stole vast amounts of money from ordinary people then pretty sure all jokes are fair game.

You sorta give up your right to be treated decently by society at that point.

I’m not convinced racist jokes are okay just because the subject of the joke is a criminal.

I don't see how it's a racist joke.

It's a very specific joke that's only relevant for a very specific person. It would've been the same joke if his name was Connor, race is not relevant at all for this joke.

But yes, "all jokes" is probably too broad of a statement.

I'd say innocent until proven guilty. Outlawing people without a fair trial is barbaric. But I think the pun isn't too bad.

Generally yes, but as he is known to joke about people "staying poor" so I have zero sympathy for him.

Not saying we should throw him in jail without a trial, but I see no reason to feel bad for him in any way.

Meh, I'm OK with it. And to be frank a "kwon artist" is several levels nicer than what thousands of Korean "crypto investors" would be calling him right now.

It’s a low-effort pun enabled by the coincidence of his name rhyming with con. And he is almost certainly a shameless con artist. What exactly is offensive about this?

What I find offensive is indeed the rhyming without consideration of what it means in the source language. I find myself not too sensitive or PC, if my name was “Lecoq” (or if I had an Asian friend named “Phuk”) I would of course find it okay if an English speaker had an innocent giggle, but not if they took that more seriously and wrote that down as a public joke to shame me.

I find this moralizing over an inconsequential pun in the face of a brazen financial fraud to be bizarre (not to mention illogical since your two examples have nothing to do with meaning in the source language).

The tone of the article is unprofessional, sure. But, respectfully, so what? Kwon’s own actions have sullied his name more than any blog title ever could.

> Is it okay to publicly joke on someone’s name in the US?

Yes.

Would it be OK if he was American? Or had a english/german/something else European sounding name?

Korean here. Bring it on! We actually love making puns out of people's names. Our own media do it all the time. Some of those puns might be offensive in one way or another, but that has nothing to do with racism in general. Our language and naming conventions just happen to be perfect for multilingual punning and we know it. :)

It’s roughly the same as calling the French President Emmanuel Macaroon during a hypothetical baked goods scandal or Emmanuel Bacon during a hypothetical pork belly scandal.

Con man = Kwon man

I’m not sure how a rhyming pun is offensive, could you elaborate on why it is? Would it be racist if he was a European person named Walter Kahn and the headline had Kahn Man in the title?

Now that you bring it’s maybe a cultural difference because I can’t really remember the last time I saw or heard a pun on a politician name in the news, even of opposite sides. Making fun of someone family name is of very poor taste and is not something you will find in public. So I guess my gut reaction as a French seeing a pun on family name (not okay in the first place) + foreign sounding name was it’s racist, because honestly only real racists could attempt that here. I know that sound maybe too sensitive which is quite paradoxical because I usually find Americans generally way more PC on these subjects than us.

Edit: for more cultural background I think maybe it’s because there are common French family names literally translating as “Thefat”, “Chicken”, “Myass”, “Thegay”, “Sausage”, “Thewhite”… so it’s learned early in school to be respectful of others names.

One material difference is that Basecamp was making fun of their customers' names.