Is Jeremy Lin the Asian Jackie Robinson of our time?

Nice post. I just finished finally watching Linsanity - Lin even said himself it probably won't happen again - perfect storm and divine intervention. I remember when I heard the Knicks had picked him up I told my wife something like 'man, I hope this guy gets some playing time because he's gonna surprise a lot of people.' She replied 'who is Jeremy Lin?'.

 

That's just it. There's no way to divorce Jackie Robinson's position as a source of inspiration from the violent racism that he dealt with everyday. Its not just that he became the first Black person to play in the MLB. Its that he overcame life-threathening obstacles to do so. The same obstacles that many Blacks faced everyday. He was a source of hope in the most desolate of conditions. When you compare people to Jackie Robinson, or say someone's story is analagous, there is an expectation that said person faced similar odds. There's a certain cultural sensitivity at play. I mean, I would not compare Tiger Woods to Jackie Robinson, nor say the story is analogous. On an emotional level, its just not right. I think there are, however, simiarities btw Tiger Woods story and J. Lin.

I think this whole thread is unnecessary, though. I think Lin is a solid player and I'm happy that he's a Rocket.

 

I voted first and I put no vote in favor by one. I then thought that there must have been a big joke to keep the answers even.

 

How is this even close to 50/50?

 

no offense to the african americans, but my boy jesse owens punked hitler in natzzi germany. that's a bigger feat and that's how the Irish roll. Owens > Robinson

 

Lin isn't the first Asian to play in the NBA and there's certainly no concerted effort to keep Asians out of the NBA. It's a stupid comparison for any reason. If anyone deserves some mention for breaking down a barrier or being an inspiration for being the first Asian it's Yao, not Lin.

The Lin fans have trumpeted racism from the word go. They've accused coaches, teammates, fans, refs, and even Clutch. These folks area a constant melodrama and this is another attempt to put Lin on some pedestal where he doesn't belong. They didn't randomly select Jackie Robinson for comparison for how they look up to Lin. They do it very purposely because of what Robinson faced and the implication is that Lin has faced something similar. You're naive for believing otherwise. Lin is a great kid and he has a great story but this whole thing is ignorant and embarrassing.

 

But you are creating the comparison, not them. They are really just saying it's the first time an Asian American player who isn't a 7' Freak is in the NBA. It's more akin to Tiger Woods. It's just Asians rooting for an Asian doing well, the same way god forbid blacks were happy to see a black man do well in golf.

All this racism overcoming barriers is what you guys are presuming they are talking about because one person innocently threw out Jackie Robinson in one post as an example.

No one is making the comparison you are accusing them of.

 

Yes, of course. Defending African Americans is heroic and progressive.

Defending anyone else is considered crying and deserve to be ridiculed.

I'm beginning to think you're actually just purposely being this ridiculous. You don't actually believe in the things you say right ?

 

Let me just clarify something and you guys can going on arguing.

Yao Ming is not Asian American. He is Chinese. He was the king of basketball in China before he became an NBA player. He was never discriminated against in his youth because of his race. He is a freaking giant, so no one would overlook him as a basketball player.

Yes, there were some haters when he came over to America. In fact, you can see some posters here dismissing his accomplishment just because "he's never healthy" or "he's too easy to be neutralized" which is not really true. But overall, Yao and Lin come from very different situations. Saying that Yao is the first Asian playing in the NBA, while technically true, is missing the point. Lin is an American phenomenon (just like *gulp* Jackie Robinson) spilling over to Asia. Yao was a Chinese phenomenon spilling over to America.

Lin is similar to Robinson in that both of their stories are American stories. Apart from the American context, their stories wouldn't have been as meaningful.

I know a lot of black people would resent comparing Lin to Robinson. (For the record, I agree with those who say that whatever Lin suffered could not come close to what Robinson did.) But only Asian Americans understand what it is like to be an Asian living in the US. Dismissing that just shows insensitive ignorance. Ironically, the resentment against comparing Lin to Robinson also stems from the feeling that it is insensitively dismissing what Robinson went through.

 

As an Asian-American who grew up dreaming about the NBA I am very happy to see Jeremy Lin in the NBA and have been rooting for him to do well since GS selected him but really these comparisons are silly.

Jeremy Lin is an inspiration but Jackie Robinson he is not. As others have noted the situations are not comparable given where the culture is and that he isn't even the first of his race to do so. While Yao didn't grow up here in America I was still proud and inspired by his success too. Plus let's not forget that Wang Zhi Zhi two years before Yao had already broken the Asian race barrier.

As Asian-Americans we can certainly take pride with the success of Jeremy Lin without getting carried away.

 

I've only seen a few people who really try to compare Lin's story to Jackie Robinson, and obviously it's a huge stretch to believe he went through the same things that he did.

Nobody is arguing that Yao Ming wasn't Asian, he wasn't the first to ever play in the NBA, but the first to be an All-star and most likely Hall of Famer. His legacy has already been established. However, looking at the context of a Chinese national, even if he had never made it into the NBA, he would have probably still dominated in the CBA.

See: Wang Zhi Zhi and Yi Jianlian
Another note: There has never been a Chinese guard in the height range of most NBA PGs, ranging from 5'9-6'4". If that ever happens, and he turns out to be good, obviously that will also raise inspiration for Chinese players.

Jeremy Lin's story is different in the case that he sheds light on the modern day experience of a born and raised U.S. American minority, who happens to be an Asian-American/American of Chinese & Taiwanese descent, and the prejudices/double-standards that are still held against them.

Jeremy Lin is definitely no Jackie Robinson when comparing actual events, but still a unique story both in his own personal experiences and how the media handled Linsanity. That is the context.

The biggest problem is the extreme posters who keep bringing this topic up and it's the same vicious circle of arguments. Not only does the topic of race come up, so does the topic of politics with the whole "Chinese vs Taiwanese", which Jeremy himself isn't as extreme. That question has been answered numerous times. Nevertheless, because of that specific heritage, it helps him in the business world and overseas. There's no denying that.

However, I don't think that applies to all Asians. As mentioned numerous times, I think if Lin was a Vietnamese-American, his background story would be different (especially since many Vietnamese first came here as refugees) and his marketing appeal overseas would drop significantly.

I knew about Lin during his Harvard days and saw his games when he was fighting for the spot in the Summer League, even played against Houston (Shout out to Hayesfan who was moderating the chat room). The bandwagon obviously got bigger after Linsanity, and that has brought of the extreme Lin fans, but not all Lin fans agree with them either.

At this point, we all know about Jeremy Lin's story, and now it should be about what he contributes to this team.

 

I like Jeremy Lin. And for whatever it is and isn't worth, I'm Black.

But Jeremy isn't Jackie Robinson. Not in reality or in fiction.

 

close thread.

 

Jeremy Lin is the Harriet Tubman of our time.

 

Not many people would compare the travalies of an African American in the 1950"s to any minority member's treatment in today's America. This thread is a strawman.

 

And only poor black people know what it's like living being a poor black person growing up in the US.

Where are the tears for Richard Sherman - Compton to Stanford?

White people locked their doors when he walked by their cars. White people still had no troubles playing basketball with Jeremy. Sports are a different form of life - people are teased for having a limp step .. buckteeth .. and he might have heard a few asian comments but it certainly didn't deter them from allowing himin nice schools and playing basketball for their team..

Save us the pity party

 

Let me put this up front: Jeremy Lin is no Jackie Robinson.

Why? Jackie Robinson had OUTRIGHT direct racism thrown at him and he was the first African-American player to play in the MLB.

That being said, Jeremy Lin's situation illustrates a lot of what Asian-Americans face in real life. Asian-Americans are NOT seen as athletic but as "model minorities" (smart, educated, good immigrants). Keep in mind, I'm not saying that everyone thinks that way as I'm sure many people here know Asian-Americans in real life who are athletic and perhaps not the smartest in the world. Heck, I'm Asian and graduated high school with a 2.5 GPA.

However, Asian-Americans have been fighting (along with other minorities) for years is better media representation. Jeremy Lin was a good high school player. But colleges had no frame of reference for a 6'3" Asian point guard. Jeremy is forced to go to Harvard. Then in the NBA, the only Asian players in the past few years are these giants. Jeremy has to scrap and is now a decent rotation player in the NBA.

Jeremy's fight has and always been about perception. People say Jeremy "can't do this or do that". As a long time fan of Jeremy before Harvard, I don't care. He's made it to the league and played for a few years now. His influence will carry over to the next "great Asian hope". In fact, I hope there will be more Asian players because it will help Asian players under 7 feet tall see they can play. Perhaps the NBA will be like the MLB where Asian players are regularly succeeding.

So Jeremy is not Jackie Robinson but this is not to say he hasn't had to scrap and earn his way to the NBA.

 

Finally moved to the DND where it belongs!

 

This is the dumbest thread I have seen in a while. What a idiotic comparison.

Complete troll job by OP.

 

Let's not pretend that Lin did not suffer from any "model-minority" stereotypes - which could very well explain the dearth of interest he generated going to college.

Being Asian did put up some barriers. After he's made it, he got extra rewards. I think that is undeniable - and who the hell really cares anyways? I don't think anyone seriously equates him to Jackie Robinson.

The smelled of a trolling thread so you just have to expect a bunch of trolling votes. I think some are going to take the poll results as "ammunition" in this never-ending jihad.

It is kind of interesting the nuances the board had gained.

Is a response a

1. LOF repsonse
2. LOH response
3. trolling LOFs?
4. trolling LOHs?
5. someone pretending to be one of the above?
6. an honest post from a fan?