I know very little about professional basketball, but I can’t be the only person to have noticed that the endless and annoying references to Jeremy Lin in every corner of the old and new media, at least over the past few days, have been distinctly racial. One can’t come across an article about Lin, for instance, without being reminded that he’s “Asian” (Indian? Bangladeshi? Thai? Cambodian? Chinese? Russian? Taiwanese, born in the USA, actually.) One also finds many self-pitying quotes, from Lin and others, to the effect that “Asians” are finally “getting their shot” in the NBA or in professional sports.
This is bad enough, but the appeals to ethnicity have become even more strident. Whereas last week’s Lin stories focused on his general “Asian” character, this week’s stories are all about how Lin is the victim of racism. The latest controversy (after Jason Whitlock’s comments) is that ESPN headlined one of their articles about Lin “chink in the armor.”
That headline is, to be sure, unacceptable, and ESPN has since removed it. But does anyone for a moment seriously believe that the writer of that headline intended malice? It’s an overused sports phrase that was used in an unfortunately inappropriate way. Wrong place, wrong time and all that. But such stories are never taken to be unfortunate mistakes; columnists and news agencies must spin the stories out of control to prove how racially sensitive they are. It’s as if the mere presence of a minority like Lin puts everyone in panic mode, with everyone clamoring to be the first to point out and defend his “Asianness.” During the French Revolution, you were considered an enemy of the people not only if you spoke ill of the Jacobins, but if you didn’t sufficiently praise them as well.
There have also been pseudo-sociological takes on Lin. A boring, pointless article, written by Sameer Pandya, a former professor of mine, claims:
The stories about Lin’s perseverance fall perfectly into the “model minority myth” placed upon generations of Asian immigrants to America. They come here, silently work hard for the collective good, maintain their families, and do not ask for government handouts. And this ideal is often presented in contrast to myths about African-Americans.
Pandya is one of those people who are cognitively incapable of looking at a non-white person and not reducing his entire life to a racial narrative. In fact, you’ll notice that all the people involved in the Jeremy Lin racial storylines–multicultural sportswriters, Jason Whitlock, Floyd Mayweather, liberal former professors of mine, etc.–are all people who probably fancy themselves either victims of racism or spokesmen for such victims. Everything they write is tinged with the innuendo that they’re actually crusaders against (white) racism. And yet they’re not aware that it is they, the multiculti commentariat, who are the only ones engaging in racism and race obsession, not some Archie Bunker Republican stereotype.
Simply put, certain people in this country can not deal with minorities. Members of minorities are not people to them; they are symbols. They see someone like Lin and they immediately start falling over themselves trying simultaneously to praise his racial identity while avoiding the inevitable perils of racial discussions, like rats racing over a mine field to get at a brick of cheese.
For those who read Whitlock it is known that this guy couldn’t go a week without talking about race. He’s the type who wants to celebrate every frickin’ first black this and first black that like it’s some milestone the world should celebrate. Now Lin gets to be a first and Whitlock reacts as do I do Whitlock’s “milestones”: so what it’s 2012 not 1812.
Having said that, it is true there is not a lot of bitching and whining that emanates from the Asian community: over Viet Nam, Opium Wars, racism or squat. Having spent over a year traveling around Asia I can generalize they are a culture of pragmatic rationalists who find little traction in blame or complaint. Stereotypes don’t come from nowhere and though a generalization, in the case of Asians in America, it is true as far as a generalization can be true. I’d rather have Lin as a neighbor than the ever whining Whitlock any day.
Those sports commentators who are Black themselves, like Whitlock, seem to have had an immediate visceral response to Lin’s suddent success that can best be summarized as: “Hey wait a minute! This is a black-dominated sport. We let some of the white boys play occasionally, and we might let a Mexican in if he was tall enough. Asians go to school and get good grades; go get a job on Wall Street or something. Leave basketball to the people who can play.” Apparently there’s a fair bit of racism in the way the sport is scouted, and much of the establishment of basketball never thought the guy would be successful, largely because of the stereotype outlined above.
Then the Knicks were hit with a rash of injuries, and the coach was on the verge of being fired, and he put Lin into a game; the result was the Knicks won, and so the coach started him in the next game, and that was even more successful. Soon we had Whitlock’s “2 inches of pleasure” comment about Lin, and Floyd Mayweather’s slightly more tasteful (if nothing else) comment that Black athletes do what Lin’s doing every day, and no one acts as if it’s important. The Mayweather comment was more or less clueless about the whole thing (he seemed not to understand that Lin had outperformed people’s expectations, which is what drew everyone’s attention) while Whitlock’s was incredibly racist, insensitive, insulting, and just plain mean. It’s hard to believe that someone of any color could have said something like that about a black person, and still have their job afterwards; Whitlock released a semi-apology, and went on writing about the man and his team as if nothing had happened.
“The Daily Show” did a segment on this which, as far as I’m concerned, summarized what is going on. The whole point of the segment was the “senior Black correspondent” essentially complaining that Lin was taking over basketball during Black History Month:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2012/02/late-night-the-daily-show-goes-linsane.html
While it’s funny, I think they’ve essentially hit on the reaction of some Black commentators to the whole “Linsanity” phenomenon. And while there’s been some pushback from the Asian community in response to the various insulting comments (ESPN reportedly fired the guy who wrote the on-screen headline that used a racial slur, and suspended for a month the anchor who used the same phrase) can you imagine anyone making a comment about the size of a Black man’s unit, and having a job the next day? Whitlock did it insultingly, the lamely apologized, and didn’t even get discipinedor suspended as far as I know.
Actually, Lin was born in the US which makes him American (according to the 14th Amendment). As to his race, it’s the same as mine: human.
My son is Korean (actually born there). He’s 36 and still calls himself Oriental. I correct him every time and tell him he’s Asian. You’d think I was calling him Japanese. He just gives me a suspicious look.
Another take on “Linsanity”: I have been an NBA fan for decades and Lin has yet to prove he is much more than a pretty good player. One one night he outscored Kobe Bryant 38 to 34. Reality check: This year Kobe – for the sixth time in his career – score 40 or more points in four straight games. Lin has never scored forty once. Kobe has scored 81, 60 or more several times and fifty or more more times than that. So Lin is fun for the moment, but we shall see how good he really is when other teams start to key in on him, double teaming him as they do Kobe and Lebron every night. My guess is he will be okay but not great.
I don’t follow the NBA that closely but I thought the issue was that he was the first Asian-American to ever start in the NBA not that he was simply an Asian. If black folks can make a party out of “firsts” why not this time?
I believe Lin is the first Tiawanese to play in the NBA.
And how many other Jeremy Lins are there out there Roger who would be okay or more than okay in the NBA? Remember, he was undrafted. Weilands spotted him 2 years ago and had him pegged. (By the way, Weilands also thinks that his production will drop but that he should start and in time might star.) But what have all those scouts and coaches given as their reason for missing him? “He didn’t fit a profile”, they say. A profile? Really? And what would that be? Hmmmm…in another context what would we call that? (But remember: TSA as a matter of principle will not profile.) I love this story because it has the potential to make all the right people uncomfortable.
I follow sports closely, though the NBA more thug than professional. There is no more politically correct, lefty partisan bunch of hacks than that feckless bunch of ESPN imbecilic sports journalists – the former home of the incomparably moronic Keith Olbermann.
Somewhere, and I believe it started with that insufferable idiot Mike Lupica about ten years ago, the title “sports journalist” now qualifies you to speak about world events outside the scope of balls and hoops. Listening to any talk show on ESPN anymore, it’s not enough to talk winners and losers. Now, you’ve got to walk the line of liberal politics too. Yahoo sports journalists have caught the same disease.
This “chink in the armor” comment reminds me of the incident with David Howard, a white aide to Anthony A. Williams, the black mayor of Washington, D.C., when he used “niggardly” in reference to a budget and was lambasted as a racist. Trust me. The morons at ESPN wouldn’t be clever enough to be tacitly racist in their cliche, unless it was pointed toward Bush.
Their too busy kissing the asses of any athlete, preferably black, so they can posture themselves as enlightened and hip.
Lin-sanity is just the leading story line in an otherwise tedious NBA season. Really, what other story lines do they have?
The Lakers are boring, Boston is old, and Miami should win the East again. Ho hum.
Quick, who’s the top team in the West today? Answer: Oklahoma Freakin’ City.
If Lin wasn’t playing in the monster media market of New York, but was in a middling place like Houston (remember Yao Ming anyone?) this story would have no legs at all.