NOTE FROM ADMIN: Bunny Names edited. 

 Hello . I have two baby boys (they're brothers) C & L Got them when they were 9 weeks old and now they are three and a half months old.

Their story:

One day a friend called me and complained about how her roommate is about to toss out two baby bunnies into the park nearby because she can't take care of them (she decided to let her pedigreed lionhead and her mini rex mate when she was drunk, and a month later, voila, 4 babies, one has been adopted, she's keeping one so she's throwing these two out). I've always wanted rabbits, but I lived at home and we have dogs that hunt squirrels and I like bunnies a lot better alive so no bunnies. I got my boyfriend to drive over to her place picked them up (I didnt have ANYTHING ready for these two). She kept mom and two babies in a tiny 30x20 cage. So I picked my boys up and dropped them off in my room with a cardboard filled with shredded newspaper and asked my housemate to watch them for a bit. Because of how last minute this is (and how both of them were only one pound then) I went to petco and shelled out for a 40x20 cage and a 4x4 pen. They apparently mainly ate hay and apples O.O. Now they're on a healthy unlimited hay and pellets diet (I will cut the pellets down when they're 6 months old) and learning to eat greenleaf lettuce (tried romaine, neither ate any, actually they wont even come out of their cage if they smell romaine lettuce).

I'm a new bunny mama, so you'll see a lot of my posts asking the most basic questions ever, I plan on getting them neutered in 2 weeks and building a condo for the two of them. If I sounded angry... it's because how they were treated  just pisses me off and i'm sorry for sounding mean .

THANK YOU FOR READING!!!

The buns:

 You really didn't sound any madder than any of the rest of us who have encountered buns in terrible stuations. Glad you found this site, I know it has been tremendous for me. And the people here are super patient with us new and paranoid mamas

no response..? well. I'm just going to put this out there, and I don't care if this violates the forum rules about being cordial towards one another because this is something that deeply offends me as an Asian American. I don't know what ethnicity you are, I don't care. To name your bunnies [C and L], terms that have been used to ridicule Asian Americans and mock our language and culture, is insanely ridiculous to me. These terms are childish and horribly inaccurate, as no Asian language really sounds like that, and to group Asians in one group doesn't make sense since we're comprised of every skin color, language, religions, and cultural practices.

words like [C and L] have been used to put down MY people, to make us feel ashamed of our own culture and heritage, and you should be ashamed for naming your pets these names. if you don't want to change their names, that's fine, but out of respect towards me and the other Asian American members of this forum you could at least have the decency to refer to them as C and L in your posts. that's all.

I am kind of horrified that no one said ANYTHING about this until now.

@Lindsey I think that's what I'll do, since it seems like I'm not going to get any response from the OP. I've gotten everything I needed to say off my chest, and once again I would just like to restate that if the OP does not want to change her bunnies names, that's her choice, but I would prefer not to see [C and L] plastered all over the BB forums [I like this forum too damn much =P]. so, if the OP could just at least refer to them as C and L, that's fine by me.

and if the OP doesn't even want to do that.. well you can all tell I will type lots of angry words. =P *stomp*

I don't think it's entirely fair to put words in her mouth, especially since it seems like the vast majority of people on the board haven't even heard these terms. Trinnie hasn't been on in 6 days... she's not ignoring you, she just has a life. I'm not saying to get over it, because I do think that some people are more sensitive to things and we generally have to respect that. But you just aren't even willing to allow her an explanation... Linglong, as far as I know, isn't a derogatory word at all... I could be wrong in that because I don't know much about Asian history. It could just be names that she thought were cute.
By jumping to conclusions, you risk totally alienating her from this site which is a really great source of information for experienced and new rabbits owners alike. Would you want to get help from a community that's totally judging you on what some person said?
I just think that she should be allowed to give an explanation of some sort. She hasn't been on in days and you can't expect people to drop everything going on in their lives to reply to some random person on a random forum. I'm sure she will get back on and if she isn't totally freaked out, she can explain it. If it is derogatory, by all means go ahead and show what ever hostility you deem appropriate but until then, probably best to leave as is.
I do admire the fact that you brought it up, Angie. I think you have been a really good voice on this forum- about all things.

ETA: I don't want this post to come off as rude/abrasive to either Trinnie or Angie. Just wanted to make that clear. 

When I read the first post, it threw me off a little bit.

As a child, I was 'teased' by classmates because I was the only Asian in my classroom. I was called stupid names.

In my opinion, if someone is going to give their rabbit a name like that, they should look it up first

As for as [L] goes people say it to mock Asian Americans. It does indeed make me angry.

I've taken my last post down since Tate has contacted me privately and put things into perspective. I don't want to start a huge mess here, and since the OP has not had the chance to reply I'll leave it at this. Peace and bunnies. 

 I just received an alert about this and if I would have seen this post sooner, I may have emailed the original poster by now to discuss.  I also don't want to alienate anyone and want to give an opportunity to respond and make right.  We are an understanding forgiving group when efforts are made to be sensitive and understanding. 

I have to admit that I haven't heard the term "Linglong", but "ChingChong" definitely caught me off guard.  (and then it being paired with LingLong" did give me a little cringe.)  Though I am not Asian, part of my family is and so is my best friend, but even if that were not the case,  I certainly understand why the terms are offensive. 

But to gain some sort of understanding for people of my race -- it would be like naming your white bunnies "cracker" and "honky" (showing my age!).  Cracker by itself wouldn't be bad --- could be kind of cute if you are thinking of a cute as a little snack cracker ----, but if you name the second bunny "honky"....well it kind of puts a "theme" to it.   If you want to name your bunnies that -- totally your right, but in a forum where members will see it over and over...that can be an issue.  Who.who wants to deal with that over and over. 

But I also do believe that many people don't  fully "get it". (for those that didn't recognize the offensiveness right away). I really understand being oblivious to it especially if you don't joke that way and are surrounded in a circle that is not exposed so much to that.   I know that for me I was oblivious to many racist terms until I was much older - some derogatory terms I only learned about FROM my friends who are asian, african-american, gay, etc -- because they were unfortunately exposed to the terms and the words were painfully burned in, and if they spoke about it, many times it would be the first time I had ever even heard of it.  I know they were shocked that I had never heard a particular offensive term as they had dealt with the hurt of it for most of their lives.  It was just the way I grew up and the people I surrounded myself with that I guess I was sheltered with--so I can understand how other members could be in that same position too.   And for those that have been targets of offensive words, it must be impossible to understand how others are not so keenly aware.   

WIth that said, I don't think the OP is intentionally being offensive because who would knowingly do that?   I think this is actually a good opportunity for learning. So I ditto Tate's suggestion and let's give the OP the time to respond and see where we go from there.  

I will email the member and try to invite her respond but it would be an intimidating situation to return to for sure, so let's just hope she understands and is sensitive to the issue. 

Note: the full names will not be allowed to stay as is for the future.  Bottomline is it is offensive regardless of intention.

This is a song from South Pacific  - very popular in the 60s. It's a video that you may not have seen on the subject.

I just want to echo what BB said because she and I are in remarkably similar circumstances regarding family and friends - and yet I too, had never heard these expressions. I want to thank Angie for putting it out there for us so we can address and deal with something that is offensive to our members regardless of it's intent. I hope our new member sees this as a valid complaint and did not mean to offend, and will change it. [It may also be that she has found a home for these two bunnies and no longer needs our site. I didn't quite understand if she was keeping them (having dogs) or just supplying their home until she found new owners.]

At risk of sounding Pollyanna here, I take it as a good sign that so many of us have never heard or used these derogatory, prejudicial names. It is a horrible element of human nature to insult those who are different from any self, and that practice is historically rampant in this country. Even the last decade has seen people come up with new names for new "enemies". Who also are our neighbors, yet targeted for prejudice. It is ignorance on parade. [With 9/11 comiing up I'm sure you can think of new examples of that.]

But what strikes me here is that so many derogatory names have fallen out of the vernacular to such an extent that a new generation doesn't even know what they were. As a Jew, I could name many such insulting names, but I never hear them. It's because we have made great strides in teaching ourselves and our kids to stop doing that, stop using them, and to chastise (like Angie has ) those who do. That's actually progress in the face of prejudice. To hear it from movies and videos is far removed from hearing it in your house by your parents and grandparents.

It may seem strange, but my feeling is, if you have to dislike someone, do it because you know them and don't care for that person - not their race, religion or nationality. No longer using derogatory names is the path to that.

Thanks everyone for the calm and thoughtful discussion on this delicate topic. I think it's a short step from global bunny love to global mankind love.

BB's post sums my thoughts up perfectly. I have never heard those terms. I could recognize the "main" offensive slurs for many races/ethnic groups, but there are many times, for example, we might be watching an R-rated movie in the evening and I have to ask my husband multiple times what certain words mean. Had I known what it meant when I initially read it, it would have been alerted, edited, and the OP would have been emailed right then. I honestly had no clue, and from the welcome responses after mine, other members had no clue either. It's never dawned on me to Google bunny names I don't recognize on BB, but maybe in the future, I will. I have edited posts in which members have called their rabbits "gay" or "stupid". That greatly offends me b/c those are terms that are offensive to the people I care about in my life. Likewise, if someone named a rabbit an African American slur, THAT is something I'd probably recognize immediately. My best friend is Korean, and I know some things that offend her, but those particular terms have never been discussed. Also, some racial or ethnic slurs are REGIONAL. In the Bay area, there may be more Asian slurs than there are in our little suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. Just another thought...

Angie, I'm saying this to hopefully explain to you why these terms were not caught and to apologize for the appearance of insensitivity on OUR part. It's not possible to know every single thing, and for you or anyone... if you read a post that is offensive to YOU, PLEASE ALERT THE FORUM LEADERS. You don't even need to respond to the post, just click the orange triangle at the top of the post. We did not get an alert until late, late last night.

BB edited the names out of the OP, but I will go ahead and edit the names out of Angie's post.

Edited to add: I just read Pam's post and she makes an excellent point about age groups.  This made me think of a book I just read, "The Help".  It's a new movie now, but for anyone not familiar with the story, it is about African American maids working in Caucasian homes, and the relationship between all of these women.  There were several terms and ideas in that book that I have never been exposed to before, but then again... I did not grow up in Mississippi in the early 60s.  It makes sense that those terms were foreign to me, they should be.