thewayistare:

Yes, the emergence of Jeremy Lin as the Knicks’ current savior is pretty awesome. Yes, he is Asian and went to Harvard. I understand that everyone wants to create the latest meme/nickname/cult figurehead.

But some of these nicknames, posters, sayings and t-shirts are tip-toeing to a very sticky place. Basically it worries me that a whole bunch of seemingly oh-so-clever but actually kind of gross puns or memes where Lin’s ethnicity is the punchline are forthcoming.

In the course of one Knicks game I saw a poster reading “Yellow Mamba” and one written in that red, spiky “Chinese food delivery”-type lettering. Also read the comment “look at that incredible lay-up! Who says Asians can’t drive?!” along with sadly inevitable comparisons to Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, etc etc. 

Which…you guys. Come on. You’re treading on dangerous ground. I’m not Asian, so far be it for me to sit here and draw up a list of stuff that will or won’t offend people of a culture I’m not a part of.* But as a fellow POC…surely the basketball-enjoying public can come up with some better puns based on something other than Lin’s Asian-ness.

Just something to keep in mind. 

*In that same vein, if I’ve said something that is off-base or offensive toward Asian people please feel free to direct me the entire fuck out the paint.

ETA: I thought it’d go without saying that oh yea, as a general rule try not to be a blatantly racist douchefuck, but lo and behold, I was wrong.

I mean, I feel like the reason why Lin is blowing up so big is BECAUSE HE’S ASIAN. And cos white advertising people be all like “OMG WE GOTS TO ROLL WIT IT” they come up with weird, chinky-ass comparisons that make NO SENSE AT ALL.

See: the Whole “Chink the Armor” debacle.