If my beloved country does one thing really, really, really well, it’s hype. America is the hype-capital of the free world. In an instant, we can turn something obscure into something seemingly monumental and make it sensorially unavoidable. Like a nagging song in your head that won’t go away, American hype can hold you in its grasp and not let you go…until the next seemingly monumental thing. In that way, America, the land of the free, is really just one big annoying infomercial. And I am not too proud to say that I for one often leap on the American hype bandwagon and ride it mindlessly, if only to feel somehow connected to my extended American family. Sometimes I must admit, it’s quite fun, as if the entire country is one big Soul Train line, dancing to the same tune, yet in our own unique styles. From Pop Rocks to Jelly Bellys. From Star Wars to ET. From Thriller to Purple Rain. From Magic to Michael. From Tiger to Obama. I’ve been freely in the middle of the dance of American hype.
Another thing my beloved country does really, really, really well is stumble and bumble its revisionist self through a racist minefield of its own creation, showering saccharin love on non-Whites until they get slip, hit an IED and explode in shameful truth.
The latest subject (or is it victim?) of the American hype machine is basketball player Jeremy Lin of the NY Knicks who in his first five days as a starting point guard scored a record 136 points. Like most people, I had never heard of Lin. When I did, what fascinated me was the fact that he went to Harvard. Yeah, Harvard. Not exactly a basketball-star developing powerhouse. Oddly, what seems to have fascinated the American press has been the fact that Lin is of Taiwanese descent. And it’s not just the press. All of America seems to be caught up in Lin’s race. In the sports world, only the Tiger Woods phenomenon can compare. Not so long ago it was so unfathomable for a man of African descent to dominate the lily white world of golf, that the American hype machine behaved like so many delirious women on an episode of Oprah’s Favorite Things, like their heads would explode. Outside of sports, the campaign and election of Barack Obama provided the next seismic jolt to the machine. And yet again, it was another man of African descent doing something seemingly ‘for Whites Only.’ In both cases, the American hype machine struggled to ride its own wave of awe while simultaneously providing a veneer of political correctness. And in both cases “the PC” veneer cracked. Shameful racism proved too powerful to hold it together. Consequently, I knew that it wouldn’t take long before the Jeremy Lin hype would begin to suffer under the strain of bigotry. It hasn’t.
That it was the New York Knicks own network that stepped on the first racist landmine is truly telling. In case you missed it, in promoting Lin (or “Linsanity” as it is lovingly being hyped), the network covering the Knicks showed a photograph of Lin in the center of an open fortune cookie. I kid you not. It’s only a matter of time before Lin will be flipping through the air like something out of “Couching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” while selling insurance.
It’s sickening. I’ve been joking on Facebook and Twitter about ‘Linsanity.’ One tweet of mine was telling Black men that they’re going to have to do something in ‘high tech,’ since Lin has moved in to dominate ‘our sport.’ In no way am I taking away from the accomplishments of Lin, but in pushing Linsanity, the American hype machine is also not so subtly diminishing the physical prowess of generations of Black ballers. Think about it this way: If Jeremy Lin were Jeremy Jones, a brother from say Kentucky, who replaced Melo in the lineup and scored those very same 136 points, would anyone outside of hardcore Knicks fans even know? Would they even care? Implicit in my hypothetical case is the great American reductive notion that Blacks are genetically engineered to play basketball. They don’t have skills developed through hard work and sacrifice. Nope. Apparently all that cotton-picking is perfect preparation for the ‘pick and roll.’
I know some of you may be thinking I’m off my rocker. I’m not. As a Black man, I know all too well the ‘Great White Hope’ needs that have permeated this nation since Jack Johnson pummeled his first White opponent. Jeremy Lin, though not White, still is able to fill the role of ‘Black giant killer.’ Some sportscaster have been so ‘Linsanely’ effusive in their hype of Lin that they apparently won’t be satisfied until he dunks over LeBron’s head, whips out a pair of nunchucks and beats him to death. Forget the reality that Asians have been playing terrific basketball for years and have achieved in the sports’ biggest arenas. I seem to remember China thumping us at the Olympics. And Yao Ming became a legitimate superstar in NBA. But if you just tuned in this past week or so, you’d think Lin was the first Asian man to ever pick up a basketball. One sportscaster said on TV that she’s “dying to ask Jeremy Lin what it’s like being Taiwanese-American!” Jeez. You’d think the poor man were a panda in the friggin’ zoo. I’m sure the sportscaster could care less that Lin graduated from Harvard. What role did Taiwan play in that achievement? I laugh because that of course plays into another side of American bigotry: that Asians academic achievement is no big deal. See, they’re engineered for that in the same way that Blacks are engineered for b-ball.
A Washington Post article on Lin defined the unique lesson kids could learn from his achievement as such: He teaches us that if you love playing a sport, play it. Certainly kids could never learn that from Michael or Kobe or LeBron. Nope, brothers don’t play basketball for a love of the sport. They just play it because they have to.
Lost in all of this is the fact that Jeremy Lin is a human being with a big brain and great talent who is just beginning to live his dream. I hope that he doesn’t become the latest overly hyped idol crushed by the shifting sands of American hype. I hope he continues to thrive and enjoy his dream. After all, he’s worked hard for it. Just like Wilt and Bill and Oscar and Magic and…
Once again Erik, you are dead on with your insights. It’s very easy to forget when a sport was dominated by just one color then America exploded when “the first” crosses the line to that sport. You highlight quite effectively that racism and bigotry still live quite happily in the closet in American culture; we just air them out in public as the need arises. I’m sure other cultures have their own issues with their sports stars too but America seems to be far more public around the world for its views.
As a Latina, I was first enthralled by your insights. However, after reading you for a while I am sickened by your inability to see your own level of racism. I am unsubscribing from your posts.