Rosie O'Donnell Sort Of Apologizes for Racist Remarks

Rosie O'Donnell says she was ignorant and didn't realize that Asians would take offense to being mocked by her attempt at humor.  The robust talk show host let loose with an insensitive string earlier this week on 'The View' and mocked the Chinese by trying to make a joke about Danny Devito's appearance on the show where many believed that he was drunk.

Rosie O'Donnell Sort Of Apologizes for Racist Remarks

Rosie tried this as the punchline, "The fact is that it's news all over the world.  That you know, you can imagine in China it's like: 'Ching chong … ching chong.  Danny DeVito, ching chong, chong, chong, chong. Drunk.  'The View.' Ching chong."

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But Rosie says she had no idea that Asians would take offense.  According to a report on the People Magazine website O'Donnell was clueless.

The weekly magazine reports:

After running a clip of the offending segment, which originally ran Dec. 5, she said, "This apparently was very offensive to a lot of Asian people. So I asked Judy, who's Asian and works here in our hair and makeup department. I said, 'Was it offensive to you?' And she said, 'Well, kinda. When I was a kid people did tease me by saying ching-chong.'

"So apparently 'ching-chong,' unbeknownst to me, is a very offensive way to make fun, quote-unquote, or mock, Asian accents. Some people have told me it's as bad as the n-word. I was like, really? I didn't know that.

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Wow - who would have thunk that would offend? 

Here's the quasi apology per People: O'Donnell said that her joke was "never intended to hurt anyone, and I'm sorry for those people who felt hurt or were teased on the playground," but added that in the future, "there's a good chance that I'll do something like that again ... Not on purpose."