Lin's success shows reactive fundamental racism

by bchenglk44 on 2012-02-20 13:55:34

It's going to take girls like him telling them they're not feminine enough years before they're of an age to dominate conversations, if they even know they should. 【Ming You Jing Chun Optimization Room QQ contact 4 6 6 4 0 1 6 0 4 7 5 9 5 4 2 5 4 1 0 product keywords guaranteed 4 on Baidu's first page 8000 a year gives you a website!】 Some reactions are predictable. I knew I would be scolded for commenting on the gender appeal of athletes, or someone appearing from my junior high school years later with desire. What I didn't expect was how many people of Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese descent would break the media's habit of treating Asian men as asexual and thank me, www.melamine-ware.com. The success of the movie "Moneyball" is partly because it emphasizes the blind spots in sports at large times. As we believe, sports represent the closest thing we have to a true elite - they really do - we still know that the dogma of scouts and domestic politics & governance affect obtaining and maintaining jobs in this field. As another stereotype of gatekeepers, it prevents children from even trying towards a skewed sports competition for an ethnic group coming from different backgrounds.

But during the pre-game press conference, Yao Ming's potential off the court became increasingly apparent. He had star quality and gentle wit that transcended language barriers. Although female sports reporters should never say as much as possible, what I wrote seemed purely directed at me: Yao Ming had the aura of a teenage heartthrob and a Madison Avenue icon.

Some people can't help but push back. They're afraid.

Most parts of the country have been excited since draft day watching Jeremy Lin refuse to steal the Knicks' bench for D-League exposure. Very few seem unhappy about the transformation of a national boy into an NBA star fitting the mold watched by Taiwanese immigrant children. Intuitively, many fans know that diversity increases the intensity and legitimacy of a sport.

I didn't see it when I watched the movie for the first time. The second time, it slapped me. The same thing happened after so many Asian American men told me about Yao Ming after I wrote about him. I started seeing striking actors relegated to passive roles, almost treated as furniture in movies.

I clearly remember these opinions earlier this week when a certain national columnist, who shall not be named or promoted, chirped racist words about Jeremy Lin's masculinity. It was the kind of comment that only degrades the commentator, making a part of himself who doesn't know his own adulthood feel inadequate and threatened by Lin's success.

But it's still difficult to hold down more than a great athlete, burying a talented actor because he doesn't look like the leading man (read: image studio executive) or suppressing a brilliant engineer because she happens to be a woman. No business pushes harder or faster against stereotypes and cultural expectations.

Culture hasn't done much better for Asian American women, but at least sexiness, one of all performers' staples, hasn't excluded them. Men, as a friend described it a few years ago, are castrated.

Lin has all of it, a Harvard degree, a three-pointer against Kobe and the Lakers in a win over the Raptors, fans cheering every time he touches the ball at Madison Square Garden, and the President enjoying some Linsanity.

Perhaps Lin's breakthrough will help change this situation. Yao Ming became an international icon, but he played from leaving his hometown, being a big man, not allowed for a dynamic performance, such as the guard Lin can provide. I'm sure his picture has already hung on the walls of many young people, now, some wanting to play like him, some admiring his achievements.

For the term starting in the mid-1980s, many Americans thought Japan had everything. They sold us our favorite products, becoming an economic powerhouse, rebounding TVs and cars followed. Some were violent, but how many were simply disregarded or belittled. It's shocking to see certain films from that era now.

"Fatal Attraction" contains scenes mocking Japanese accents so nauseating that it almost drowns out the entire film's sexism base.

When Yao Ming made his first visit to China nearly 10 years ago, I was assigned to write about him and his transition from a superstar in Shanghai to the number one pick in the NBA draft. I thought it was too early to predict that he would exclude games in America.

He greatly strengthened the invisibility that generations have imposed on Asian Americans. Or more accurately, he's playing basketball the way he always has and dispatching his social stumbles.