Asian stereotypes appearing in coverage of Knicks' Jeremy Lin

 link


The feel-good story of the year is taking a bit of nasty turn with Asian stereotyping beginning to appear in media coverage of New York Knicks star guard Jeremy Lin, the NBA's first American-born player of Chinese or Taiwanese descent.

CNBC's Darren Rovell got the ball rolling Wednesday night by questioning why MSG Network showed Lin's face above a fortune cookie during coverage of the Knicks' victory against the Sacramento Kings, with the words, "The Knicks good fortune."

Tweeted Rovell: "MSG walking a fine line with this Lin fortune cookie graphic tonight."

MSG put out a statement Thursday saying it had nothing to do with the image: "What appeared briefly last night was not an MSG graphic, it was one of many fan signs in the arena."

The network declined to comment on why it telecast the image.

Rovell corrected himself on Twitter on Thursday.

It's a "tough call" whether MSG should, or could, be faulted for showing a fortune cookie sign created by a fan to TV viewers, says Andrew Kang, senior staff attorney at the Asian-American Institute in Chicago.

"I would prefer maybe they didn't show that — although I could imagine people finding it humorous. But I think it does go to what people think when they think of Asians. They think of food. Because that is really their only point of contact, or awareness, with the Asian-American community."

The New York Post also took criticism for using the headline, "Amasian," after Lin drilled a game-clinching three-pointer for the win against the Toronto Raptors on Tuesday.

During CBS' The Late Show with David Letterman on Wednesday, Jon Stewart of Comedy Central mocked the headline, according to SportsBusiness Daily.

Stewart told Letterman: "It'd be like when Sandy Koufax threw a perfect game, you just wrote on there 'JEWTIFUL!' … I feel like it's very 'Lin-sensitive.'"

Boxer Floyd Mayweather caused headlines earlier in the week by saying Lin is only getting a lot of attention "because he's Asian."

Columnist Jason Whitlock embarrassed Fox Sports with a tweet about Lin playing off Asian stereotypes. On that, the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) sent a letter to Whitlock that read, in part:

"The attempt at humor — and we hope that is all it was — fell flat. It also exposed how some media companies fail to adequately monitor the antics of their high-profile representatives. Standards need to be applied — by you and by Fox Sports.

"The offensive tweet debased one of sports' feel-good moments, not just among Asian Americans but for so many others who are part of your audience.

"Where do we go from here? How about an apology, Mr. Whitlock."

Whitlock apologized, and the AAJA thanked him for that.

The sophomoric, sexual stereotype was "completely out-of-line," Kang says. It was also "misogynistic" — so he's not sure who the columnist offended more: Asians or women.

"There's this idea that it's OK to stereotype Asians — just don't with African-Americans or Latinos because you'll get in trouble and you'll get an aggressive response," Kang says. "But somehow it's OK to do that to the Asian-American community. …

"In some ways, I'm grateful that it is coming out so we can talk about it and people can really start to challenge what are their pre-conceived notions about the Asian-American community or Asian-American athletes."

But Kang also sees "soft" racism in media debates about why Lin went unnoticed for so long by the basketball establishment and why he's setting the NBA on fire now.

"You hear endless debates about: 'How can this be happening? How can he be doing so well?'" Kang says.

"The very simple answer is he's very talented, he was overlooked by scouts or they missed that one. What they really mean is: 'How can an Asian-American be doing so well in the NBA?'

"I think they're looking for answers other than he's athletically gifted," Kang says. "They're trying to attribute it to (Knicks coach) Mike D'Antoni's system, (All-Star forward) Carmelo Anthony's not around. So somebody has to put up the shots. They're trying to figure out how can this Asian-American be such a playmaker — and why didn't anyone else notice him earlier."

Offensive racist chant leads to suspension of entire hoops team

link

An entire varsity girls basketball team in the Buffalo area has been suspended after its use of a racial slur as part of a pregame chant led to an in-school fight involving the team's only African-American member.

As reported by the Buffalo News and NBC affiliate WGRZ, among other sources, at least 12 members of the Kenmore (N.Y.) East High girls basketball team were suspended for their use of a pregame chant in the locker room that included the most offensive racial epithet associated with African-Americans. According to the News, the team would chant "One, two, three [N-word]" just before leaving the locker room.

When the team's only African-American member, Tyra Batts, voiced her concern about the chant, teammates told her that the use of the slur was a team tradition, and that they were not willing to stop using it. For the record, Batts said the team's coach, Kristy Bondgren, had heard comments in practice referring to her race but that Bondgren was unaware about the team's pregame chant.
"I said, 'You're not allowed to say that word because I don't like that word,'" Batts told the News in a home video she submitted to the newspaper. "They said, 'You know we're not racist, Tyra. It's just a word, not a label.' I was outnumbered."
Yet, as long as the chant continued, so did Batts' frustration and anger. Eventually, following weeks of other racially inappropriate references -- teammates allegedly made jokes referencing slavery, shackles and picking cotton -- a teammate used another disgusting racially insensitive insult, calling Batts a "black piece of [expletive]." That's when Batts could take it no longer and was involved in a fight on school grounds with the teammate who hurled the insult.
"It was a buildup of anger and frustration at being singled out of the whole team," Batts told the News.
Because of school rules, Batts had to be suspended for her involvement in the fight, as was the other girl involved in the fight. She was banned for five days, though she could have been suspended for longer for her role in the altercation. That changed because she told administrators of the reasons for her frustration, and her suspension was immediately shortened while Kenmore officials investigated the claims of racism.
When they discovered that the chant had indeed been used, the school swiftly suspended at least 12 members of the team for two days a piece on the grounds that the chant was a violation of the school's code of conduct. The school board also canceled all team practices for a week, canceled a scheduled team bonding trip and scheduled a mandatory cultural sensitivity training session for the entire team. The superintendent of the Kenmore-Town of Tonawanda School District also unilaterally rescinded a league-wide sportsmanship award which had been awarded to the school in 2010.
"The insensitive chant is absolutely unacceptable, insensitive and not representative of the diverse student body within the ... school district," Mark Mondanaro, the Kenmore superintendent, told the News. "[The pregame chant was] wrong, unacceptable, unfortunate and will never, ever be tolerated."

There's little question that officials reacted swiftly when they became aware that the racist chant was being used, but that hardly mitigates the fact that it was used in the first place, and that it appears to have been for some time. Add to that the fact that only two of Batts' teammates have apologized for their use of the slur, and the teenager's father was left to openly wonder whether the program -- which is situated in a town whose population is 97 percent white -- has quietly been fostering a culture of racism for longer than anyone realized.

"This wasn't something that just developed this year," said Raymond Batts Jr., Tyra's father. "This is something that's been ongoing for quite some time."

Fox Nation Patriot Wishes The Chinese Had Stomped The Black Georgetown Basketball Players “To Death”

source



Fox Nation claims to be a community of patriots “committed to the core principles of tolerance (and) civil discourse.” But as we’ve proven repeatedly – when we pointed out how readers want President Obama assassinated and the racist glee over the Williams’ sisters loss at Wimbledon, e.g. – the site has proven to be anything but. The latest example of “love” for country and “tolerance” is the shocking bigotry shown and hatred toward the American basketball team from Georgetown University. In the comments linked to a post about the brawl that broke out between Georgetown and a Chinese basketball team, at least one Fox Nation reader wished the Chinese had stomped the Americans to death. Why? As one “patriot” asked, "WOULDN'T IT BE NICE if BLK people really believed they are AMERICANS FIRST???" As another put it, “The majority of blacks are rude, overbearing and evil no matter where they go in the world.”