Pride and Prejudice: Jeremy Lin and the Persistence of Racial Stereotypes

Prideand Prejudice: Jeremy Lin and the Persistence of Racial Stereotypes byDavid J. Leonard | NewBlackMan
Therecent success and national visibility afforded to Jeremy Lin has both inspiredAsian Americans and has been driven by the adoration and pride he elicits fromsome within the community.  Whetheron twitter, Facebook, or in the stadiums, it is clear that Lin is not simply anational phenomena but a treasure for the Asian American community. 
According toJamilah King, "regardless of how the rest of the season goes for Lin, andthe Knicks, his moment in the spotlight is an important time to reflect on howthe country views its Asian American athletes."  Whereas past Asian athletes, whether it be Yao Ming or Ichirocaptured the global Asian Diaspora's imagination, Lin is the most widelyrecognized Asian American athlete on the American team sport scene.  TimothyDalrymple highlights the appeal of Lin to Asian American males:
He particularly has a following amongstAsian-Americans.  And some Asian-American young men, long stereotyped astimid and unathletic, nerdy or effeminate or socially immature — have foughtback tears (which may not help with the stereotype, but is understandable underthe circumstances) as they watched Jeremy Lin score 25 points, 7 assists and 5rebounds for the New York Knicks.
In"Asian Americans energized in seeing Knicks' Jeremy Lin play," J.Michael Falgoust elucidates his cultural power within the Asian Americancommunity in quoting the thoughts of several different people:
"I don't care about the outcome. I just want tosee him in action. He's as good of an Asian American athlete as there is" — RoseNguyen
"I'm so proud. I don't care if he is Chinese orKorean. I had to see him … my boyfriend has been talking about him somuch" — Christine Lee
"I'm really excited. He breaks so manystereotypes. And my friends are just as excited. If you go to my Facebook feed,it's all Jeremy Lin. I like that he plays smart. But then he's from Harvard. Sothat is expected. He is also humble. He reminds me a lot of Derrick Rose, who'salways crediting teammates" — Andrew Pipathsouk
AndrewLeonard similarly argues that Lin's popularity amongst Asian Americans isemblematic of the power of social media and also the pride that athleticsuccess garners for Asian Americans, otherwise seen as "nerds" not"jocks."  While problematicallyinvoking the language of "genetics" that erases Lin's tremendousathleticism/speed, Leonard concludes that Lin inspires Asian American kids whoyearn for a masculine role model given persistent invisibility and anti-Asianracism within the public square. "He's a triumph of will over geneticendowment, a fact that makes him inspiring to an entire generation ofCalifornian kids restless with their model minority shackles," he notes.
On Monday, the social media world was also gettingworked up about Michigan Republican Senate hopeful Pete Hoekstra's racist Super Bowl ad,featuring a Chinese woman (labeled "yellowgirl" in the HTML code for the Webversion) gloating over all the jobs her country was taking from the U.S. Oncethrown into the 24/7 crazy cultural mashup perpetual motion machine, it didn'ttake long before anger about that ad ran head on into Jeremy Lin pride. I haveseen tweets urging Jeremy Lin to run for the Republican nomination for theMichigan senate seat, tweets warning that the only American jobs in danger fromAsians are those belonging to New York Knick starting point guards, and even atweet riffing off Kobe Bryant's self-identification as "black mamba" — JeremyLin is suddenly  the "yellow mamba."
Linhas trended #1 on twitter on three successive game days, was top-10 searcheditems on Sina Weibo and is all the talk of the sports world.  For the moment, it is Jeremy Lin'sworld and we are all just living in it.                                          Thepride and possibility reflects the broader erasure and invisibility of AsianAmericans within popular culture (minus this year's Top Chef).  "Asians arenearly invisible on television/movies/music, so any time I see an Asian on TVor in the movies, I feel like I've just spotted a unicorn, even though usually,I see them being portrayed as kung-fu masters/socially awkward mathematicalgeniuses/broken-English-speaking-fresh-off-the-boat owner of Chineserestaurant/nail salon/dry cleaners," writesone blogger. "Anyway, this phenomenon is 10x worse in sports.  While there has been some notableprogress with Asians in professional baseball, Asians are all but non-existentin the big three sports in the US (football, basketball, baseball)."   
Lin breaks down, or at least penetrates,the walls that have excluded Asian Americans from popular culture.  The pride, adoration and celebration reflectthis history of exclusion, a history of erasure, and invisibility.  The efforts to link Lin to Nike's"Witness" campaign is illustrative in that we are all witness, maybe for thefirst, time in history, of an Asian American sports hero, someone whochallenges and defies expectations and stereotypes.
Amidthe invisibility is a history of feminization of Asian American males.  When present within media and popularculture, Asian American men have been represented as asexual, weak, physicallychallenged, and otherwise unmasculine. Sanctioning exclusion and denied citizenship, the white supremacistimagination has consistently depicted Asian male bodies as effeminate.  The entry of Lin into the dominantimagination reflects a challenge to this historic practice given the power ofsports as a space of masculine prowess.  
Whethershock or celebration, Lin's cultural power rests in his juxtaposition to thestereotyped Asian American male. According to TimothyDalrymple, "their astonishment at the sight of Jeremy Lin outperforming theother players, their consistent references to how exhausted he must be, and how"magical" a night he's having (rather than a natural result of talent and hardwork) suggests that they've bought into the stereotype of the physically inferiorAsian-American male."
Lin'srecent ascendance is not simply about success or dominance within the sportsworld, a place defined by masculine prowess.  It reflects the cultural and gendered meaning ofbasketball.  Lin is excelling in aworld defined by black manhood, an identity the white racial frames constructthrough physicality, strength, speed and swagger.  Unlike other players who burst onto the American scene (YaoMing, Yi Jianlian, Wang ZhiZhi), Lin is a guard, who has found success becauseof his athleticism and skills as opposed to his presumed freakish stature.  "The best part is how viscerallypleasurable it is to watch Lin play: His game is flashy, almost showoffy, andrequires him to have guts, guile and flair in equal measure," writes WillLeich. "The drama of it is, it's obvious, what's most fun for him. It isall you could possibly want as a feel-good story. "
Inother words, Lin's appeal comes from his ability to ball like a street playerto face off and dominate against black players at "their own game."  The celebration of Lin as a challengeto the denied masculinity afforded to Asian American males reflects the ways inwhich black masculinity is defined in and through basketball culture.  While surely offering fans theoften-denied sporting masculinity within the Asian body, the power of JeremyLin rests with his ability to mimic a basketball style, swagger and skillassociated with black ballers. 
Prideemanates from the sense of masculinity afforded by Lin, a fact that emanatesfrom stereotypical constructions of black masculinity.  "Through no fault of his own, Linstands at a bombed-out intersection of expected narratives, bodies, perceivedgenes, the Church, the vocabulary of destinations and YouTube," wrote JayCaspian Kang, who's Asian American, about Lin's electrifying play at Harvard."What Jeremy Lin represents is a re-conception of our bodies, a visible measureof how the emasculated Asian-American body might measure up to the mythiclegion of Big Black superman" (cited by King in Colorlines)
Fulfillinga fantasy for a "white American fantasy of an athletic prowess that can trumpAfrican-American hegemony in the league" (Farred,p. 56) and the appeal of a masculinity defined by its association withblackness, the celebrations, parties, and various public adoration are wrappedin these ideas of race, gender, and nation.   Writing about Yao Ming, Grant Farred, in Phantom Calls: Race and the Globalization ofthe NBA , reminds us about these issues:
The body of the athlete, which has a long history ofstanding as the body of the nation, is simultaneously reduced and magnified inthe Yao event, in its micro-articulation (Asian-American), it is asked torefute the myth of the feminized ethnic by challenging – and redressing thehistoric wrongs endured – those 'American' bodies that have been dismissed thephysicality of the Asian male.  Asrepresentative of the Chinese nation, Yao is expected to remain a nationalsubject even as his basketball heritage seems difficult to unlearn andcontinues to disadvantage him in the NBA. . . . In his representation of the'Chinese people,' Yao will not become an NBA – which is to say 'African American'– player.  He will not trash talk,he will not develop an 'offensive personality,' in more senses than one, and tohis detriment, he, will not become more 'physical' (62)"
Linis confined by this trap, so his wagging tongue (that was blue during onegame), his trash talk, his swagger, his reverse layups, his flashy speed, and nowhis dunk, all confirms that Lin isn't just a basketball player but aballer.  The celebration is thus,wrapped up in the dominant configurations of blackness, and how hegemonicvisions of black masculinity confer a certain amount power to Lin.  According to DaveZirin, Lin's power rests with his transgressive play: "Asian-Americans, inour stereotypical lens, are supposed to be studious and reserved. We wouldexpect nothing less than that the first Asian-American player would be roboticand fundamentally sound; their face an unsmiling mask."  While Lin is not the firstAsian-American to play professional basketball in the U.S. (Rex Walters, WataruMisaka, and Raymond Townsend – h/t Scott Kurashige), Zirin's analysis points tothe larger ways that race operates in this context. 
Lin'sappeal comes because he defies people's expectations about Asian Americansbecause he is excelling and playing in a way that people expect from andauthentically associate with black players. Zirin goes further to argue,"Instead, we have Jeremy Lin threading no-look passes, throwing down dunks and,in the most respected mark of toughness, taking contact and finishing baskets."With this analysis we see how race not only defines Lin, but the NBA as acultural space.  His power restswith his ability to "become" black within the national imagination as baller,yet remain outside the prison/prism of the black-white binary.  Or as Oliver Wang notes, the fanfareillustrates how "hegemonic masculinity is constructed whereupon whiteness hidesbehind a cloak of black desire." 
Linis therefore not breaking down stereotypes (maybe denting them), but in manyways re-inscribing them. Celebrated as "intelligent" and as "a hustler," his success has beenattributed his intelligence, his basketball IQ, andeven his religious faith.  Hisathleticism and the hours spent on the court are erased from thediscussion.  Moreover, in positioninghim as the aberration, as someone worthy of celebration, the dominant mediaframe reinforces the longstanding stereotypes of Asians as unathletic nerds.Likewise, the juxtaposition of his identity, body, and basketball skills to theNBA's black bodies simultaneously reinforces the dominant inscriptions of bothblackness and Asianness.   WhileJ-Lin brings something new to the table – an Asian American basketball rolemodel;  Knicks' victories – we mustnot forget the many things that remain in place.  
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David J. Leonard is Associate Professor in the Department of CriticalCulture, Gender and Race Studies at Washington State University, Pullman. Hehas written on sport, video games, film, and social movements, appearing inboth popular and academic mediums. His work explores the political economy ofpopular culture, examining the interplay between racism, state violence, andpopular representations through contextual, textual, and subtextual analysis.He is the author of Screens Fade toBlack: Contemporary African American Cinema and the forthcoming After Artest: Race and the War on Hoop(SUNY Press). Leonard is a regular contributor to NewBlackMan and blogs @ No Tsuris.