Linsanity

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February 24, 2012 | 10:46 AM | By

How not to report on Jeremy Lin (hint: drop the racially charged language)

Photo by Chris Trotman/Getty images

Jeremy Lin of the New York Knicks reacts reacts during a game against the Dallas Mavericks at New York's Madison Square Garden, February 19, 2012.

“Stop to think: Would a similar statement be made about an athlete who is Caucasian, African American, Latino or Native American?”

So reads a new media advisory put out by the Asian American Journalists Association for those reporting on New York Knicks basketball player Jeremy Lin, a Harvard graduate and California native whose rapid rise to stardom has garnered international media attention, but along with it a good deal of racially offensive press.

Among the most recent examples have been an ESPN headline last weekend that used the phrase “chink in the armor,” a New York Post headline reading “AMASIAN!” and an MSG Network graphic showing Lin’s face emerging from a fortune cookie. That’s just the start.

AAJA.org’s server has been out this morning, but the straightforward guidelines were also posted on AAJA president Doris Truong’s blog. A list of the reporting “danger zones” doesn’t mince words:

DANGER ZONES

“CHINK”: Pejorative; do not use in a context involving an Asian person on someone who is Asian American. Extreme care is needed if using the well-trod phrase “chink in the armor”; be mindful that the context does not involve Asia, Asians or Asian Americans. (The appearance of this phrase with regard to Lin led AAJA MediaWatch to issue a statement to ESPN, which subsequently disciplined its employees.)

DRIVING: This is part of the sport of basketball, but resist the temptation to refer to “an Asian who knows how to drive.”

EYE SHAPE: This is irrelevant. Do not make such references if discussing Lin’s vision.

FOOD: Is there a compelling reason to draw a connection between Lin and fortune cookies, takeout boxes or similar imagery? In the majority of news coverage, the answer will be no.

MARTIAL ARTS: You’re writing about a basketball player. Don’t conflate his skills with judo, karate, tae kwon do, etc. Do not refer to Lin as “Grasshopper” or similar names associated with martial-arts stereotypes.

“ME LOVE YOU LIN TIME”: Avoid. This is a lazy pun on the athlete’s name and alludes to the broken English of a Hollywood caricature from the 1980s.

“YELLOW MAMBA”: This nickname that some have used for Lin plays off the “Black Mamba” nickname used by NBA star Kobe Bryant. It should be avoided. Asian immigrants in the United States in the 19th and 20th centuries were subjected to discriminatory treatment resulting from a fear of a “Yellow Peril” that was touted in the media, which led to legislation such as the Chinese Exclusion Act.

There’s also a link to AAJA’s “All-American: A Handbook to Covering Asian America.”

The guidelines have been making the rounds on Twitter, and some have commented on the implications of having a need for such guidelines in the first place. Longtime sports columnist and University of Maryland journalism instructor Kevin Blackistone (@ProfBlackistone) tweeted:

Sad that in this day and age we in the media must be reminded of this when covering Jeremy Lin

FILED UNDER: AAJA, Asian American Journalists Association, Jeremy Lin, Linsanity, New York Knicks
February 23, 2012 | 3:00 PM | By

Jeremy Lin, the (fictional) musical

I never thought I’d use the word “adorable” to describe a video in which racial stereotypes are dealt with in song. Or for that matter, that I’d be writing about a video that deals with racial stereotypes in song in the first place. But this fictionalized mini-musical about New York Knicks basketball star Jeremy Lin as a teenager is something to behold, even if what is supposed to be Palo Alto looks suspiciously like New York. And yes, it’s oddly adorable.

It was produced by New York theater actor Kevin Yee (who also stars), with help from several talented friends and “absolutely no budget,” as he describes it on YouTube.

(via Broadway.com)

FILED UNDER: Jeremy Lin, Jeremy Lin the Musical, Linsanity
February 20, 2012 | 11:15 AM | By

Jeremy Lin, professional sports, and those ‘underlying racist tropes’

Photo by Chris Trotman/Getty images

Jeremy Lin of the New York Knicks reacts reacts during a game against the Dallas Mavericks at New York's Madison Square Garden, February 19, 2012.

By now much of the country is familiar with the headline scandal this weekend involving New York Knicks star Jeremy Lin and ESPN, which on Saturday posted a headline with the phrase “chink in the armor.” ESPN fired the headline writer, who said it was “an honest mistake,” and the sports network suspended an anchor who used the phrase on-air.

Lin, meanwhile, has since told reporters he’s not ruffled and believes – or at least hopes – that the headline’s message wasn’t intentional.

Good thing he has a thick skin. Whether intentional or not, the headline is by now one of a long list of racially offensive and/or divisive cracks, graphics and comments regarding Lin, a California native and Harvard graduate who in recent weeks has become basketball’s first true Asian American superstar.

The blog Racialicious has compiled several recent examples, including a graphic from the Spanish-language ESPN Deportes depicting Lin in Chinese imperial garb with the phrase “Imperio Lin,” and an MSG Network graphic of Lin’s face coming out of a fortune cookie.

There’s also video of a Saturday Night Live skit spoofing the cookie graphic and several other cracks. Racialicious’ Arturo Garcia gives the show credit, but writes:

Best buckle up, though: the more exposure Lin and the Knicks get the rest of this year, the more inanities we as readers and consumers are going to have to speak up against.

In the New York Times this weekend, David Carr wrote about the “underlying racist tropes that still lurk in the id of American sports journalism, and by extension, the rest of us.” From his media column yesterday:

From the start, his run threatened the tabloid supply of puns and superlatives. “Lincredible!” shouted The New York Post on Feb. 11. And because tabloids have a back page and front page to shout from, we’ve sometimes been treated to a double dose of wordplay: “Lin and a Prayer” was the cover headline on The Daily News one day last week, while the back page blared “Just Lin Time.”

But all the froth and fun started to curdle, first on Twitter — the Fox Sports columnist Jason Whitlock tweeted a crude reference about Lin’s anatomy and the boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. suggested that Lin was getting attention because of his ethnicity, not his accomplishments — and then in the tabloid press — on Wednesday, perhaps at a loss after several breathless days of punning, The Post went with the unfortunate “Amasian!”

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FILED UNDER: ESPN, Jeremy Lin, Linsanity