If you keep up with basketball, you have heard about Jeremy Lin. Jeremy Lin is an Asian American who graduated from Harvard. He played in the D-league and played for the Golden State Warriors and Huston Rockets before playing for the Knicks. Society stereo types Asian Americans men as being smart and hardworking. In movies and TV shows the Asians Americans are shown as intelligent and geeky but never athletic. The media is going crazy over Jeremy Lin because he graduated from an Ivy League school. Lin has been the starting point guard for the New York Knicks for less than a month and already has been featured on the cover of Sport Illustrated twice. Shirts that say “Linsanity” has been printed and sold which he got trademarked.
The reason why he is getting all of the media attention is because he makes a great underdog story and also his race. Lin is a breakthrough because the Asian American male has always lagged behind in cultural visibility and acceptance. Asian Americans men never dominated professional sports. Most Asians athletes are from Asia like Yao Ming, Ichiro, and Hideki Matsui or are not identified as Asian like Tiger Woods. Jeremy Lin said fans, and players would often say racist things to him but ignored them. Why is everyone so obsessed about Jeremy Lin? We as Americans haven’t seen an Asian American dominated basketball ever. This is a huge step for Asian Americans in the sports world and he has a huge fan base.
Jeremy Lin shatters the stereo type of Asian’s not being athletic. ESPN got in trouble when a writer posted an article with a racist tittle and the writer was fired. Saturday Night Live opens up the show with a skit using Asian stereo type jokes with Lin puns. Even if Linsanity doesn’t last, Jeremy Lin made a huge impact on the Asian American community.
I think Jeremy Lin was a great story for the nation and especially for his hometown country. I think we need more people like J.Lin, in order to bring the different race and ethnicity to the united states.
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