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Yes, @MSGsportsNYC and @ESPN, You Need to Stop The Racist Asian Stereotypes of Jeremy Lin

February 18, 2012 by 1 Comment



The Jeremy Lin story is still going strong, some stay too strong, but nonetheless the world is still captivated by Lin's amazing performance, one of the greatest initial starts in the history of the NBA. Even though Lin and the New York Knicks lost last night to the Charlotte Hornets to snap a seven-game winning streak, #Linsanity shows no signs of stopping.

Now if only the mainstream media could focus on why people so into Lin these and less on his ethnicity. Because from the looks of this week, the marketing geniuses behind the sports media just don't get it.

Exhibit A: ESPN, which has been all over the Lin story. Maybe, they need to take a pause.

As reported by Guyism.Com this morning, the following image appeared on ESPN.com early Saturday morning:

Here is what appeared on SportsCenter last night:

ESPN immediately responded, but not before someone could take a screen shot. This was the statement issued by ESPN:

Last night, ESPN.com's mobile web site posted an offensive headline referencing Jeremy Lin at 2:30 am. The headline was removed at 3:05 am. We are conducting a complete review of our cross-platform editorial procedures and are determining appropriate disciplinary action to ensure this does not happen again. We regret and apologize for this mistake.

Yes, ESPN, that was unfortunate but at the same time, it might be best to THINK before you WRITE. Even if the writer thought of the line, it is amazing to see that NO ONE, not the producer, not the editor, not the anchor, questioned the line. Learn your lesson, and move on. But in the end, stop the silly Lin puns. Just focus on Lin as a player.
 
Exhibit B: MSG, which is the official network of the New York Knicks. This week, during the telecast of a Knicks game, the following image was broadcast:
 

This image is so wrong on so many levels. Can you imagine a photo of Amar'e Stoudemire jumping out of a fried chicken? Or Carmelo Anthony (half Puerto Rican) hovering over a plantain? MSG tweeted the following on Thursday morning, the day after the image was broadcast:

What appeared briefly last night was not an MSG graphic, it was one of many fan signs in the arena

It is interesting to note that MSG's official Twitter feed no longer contains that tweet, which is another social media #fail. Nonetheless, here is hoping that MSG and its producers got the message. The stereotypes of Lin as the Amazing Asian need to stop. 

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