A few weeks ago, I gave a talk to a group of teen writers at my alma mater, in which I read from my essay on Jeremy Lin and offered two pieces of advice: 1. to make yourself vulnerable and 2. to get involved in the community. The first question I got was from a black student who asked if, when I wrote about race, I was worried people wouldn’t read it. I said, “If by people you mean white people.” I said she shouldn’t worry about trying to reach everyone; she should worry about connecting.
Maybe this was the trouble I had, as a child growing up in white America, reading desperately. I never found anyone like me, except for in a single book, We Adopted You, Benjamin Koo. A book I recently realized has become a huge part of my subconscious past, so much so that I can no longer tell book from reality. I’ll get to that.
I love books. I loved them as a kid. I was always reading fast enough for multiple personal pan pizzas at Pizza Hut (Book It!). I could get lost in a book completely, closing off the outside world. My parents would ask why I hadn’t done whatever they had asked me to do while I was reading, and I wouldn’t be able to recall ever hearing the question.
But I was never able to have that moment, which I realized other kids had, where the character seemed to be me. I was always aware that I was reading about other people. Sometimes people I wished I was. White and with secret powers.
Recently, another writer told me he thinks the world is getting better for people like me. For Asian Americans, he meant, and for adopted kids. This was a white person, though he was full of hope. He is an adoptive father himself. I found myself thinking immediately of Jeremy Lin. Yet not as a positive example.
Lin is back at the top of the media cycle, and the Asian American consciousness. This time, it’s about money. Or, rather, it’s still about race. When the original story was playing out, the underdog story—in part because race had made Lin an underdog—people were rooting for Lin or at least were caught up in the narrative. Then the first loss came, and with it the Chink headline and lower TV ratings, and finally, injury, and Lin was out of the news cycle. Sports media shifted its focus to articles explaining why we should at last stop hating Lebron James for rejecting his hometown team in a public broadcast.
Now the season is over and Lin is in the news for getting paid and “leaving” New York. At first, the media seemed to blame James Dolan, the owner of the New York Knicks, for letting Lin go. Then articles started to appear in which the decision was explained as being about money and loyalty. Dolan didn’t like the way Lin had stayed out of the playoffs when he was physically at “85%” (which he clarified later to mean 85% of the bare minimum to play). Dolan didn’t like the way Lin had shopped around and gotten a high-paying offer from the Houston Rockets, an offer that, if the Knicks matched it, might cost them over $30 million in Lin’s third year. Dolan thought Lin was being disloyal, wasn’t the “hard-working,” “humble” player he was before the Knicks “gave him his big shot.”
When Lin announced his decision on Facebook, the responses looked like this.
It seems to me that the racism in those responses is not so far from the factors behind Dolan’s “decision.” The money argument simply doesn’t hold water. Lin would have made the Knicks much more than he cost. His rise to stardom had already increased the value of Madison Square Garden, their home court, by an estimated $600 million and $228 million during said rise. The advertising money and the TV rights abroad would have added even more. Lin’s jersey was the highest-selling jersey last season. So what we are left with as a possible reason is loyalty.
Loyalty on a team of highly paid superstars who left other teams to go to New York. Loyalty on a team that nearly cut Lin, was rumored to dismiss his talent all season, and only played him when they had no other option. Loyalty when the Knicks hadn’t re-signed Lin right away, when they had told him to shop around instead of making an immediate offer that would have shown they wanted him. Where does this notion of loyalty come from?
I keep going back to what one coach said about why he had passed on Lin in the first place: because he “didn’t have a frame of reference” for him. He didn’t have a model for Lin as a basketball player, as there were no other Asian American point guards in the NBA. But that coach, and Dolan, had a frame of reference for Lin as a person. That was the problem. The frame of reference didn’t include basketball star. I will bet it included quiet, reserved, humble, loyal, studious, hard-working, etc.—all the labels the media put on Lin after he broke out—as well as weak, effeminate, exotic, and so on.
As others have brought up, I cannot escape thinking about Dolan’s loyalty issue, an issue he applied only to Lin, as racial.
I am worried about singular models. My daughter just turned one, and we spend most of our money building a library for her. The more books we buy, the more I find myself liking animal protagonists, because the English books with human characters are largely books with white children. On the other hand, the animals are defined by their physical characteristics, and I worry too that this presents a message to my daughter that what you look like determines whether you get to play in the Reindeer games or not.
Maybe I am being oversensitive. My wife might say so. But I have experience with this.
It wasn’t until a couple of months ago, when I was reading through my daughter’s bookshelf for the books that might best instruct her in life, that I realized I had been confusing my experiences and even difficulties as an adoptee with those of Benjamin Koo, the character in the children’s book my parents gave me.
Imagine me as a kid in rural Connecticut, in a college town full of white professors’ kids. I have one Asian friend. My parents have told me I’m adopted, but I don’t really know what that means. I think of my parents as my parents, and how do I reconcile that with what they’ve told me? Always I try to forget that I am a kid from another family, that my mother left me not knowing whether I would live or die, that my parents are not my biological parents and who they are does not make a genetic difference to who I am.
What I get at that time of confusion is We Adopted You, Benjamin Koo. And Benjamin Koo is 9 years old and was left on the doorstep of an orphanage as a newborn, where the orphanage workers found him and gave him a name and a birthdate and raised him until his adoption. Benjamin Koo, as a child of white parents, was called “Chink” and teased and got strange looks from people when he went out with his family, and didn’t know who he was. Benjamin Koo would draw pictures of his family with him brown and his parents white without realizing what that meant. Benjamin Koo, one day in second grade, looks in the mirror and is shocked to find that he looks like almost no one he knows, that he is the only one who is different in his particular way.
Benjamin gets angry and confused. He wants to know who his birth parents are. He tells his mother he is going back to Korea, to find his “real mom.” He wants to run away, but doesn’t know where to go. Then the guidance counselor tells him a story about a duck looking like a duck and quacking like a duck, and he sees that his mom is his mom after all.
This is the turn in the book, the realization, that his mother is his mother, because of a story about ducks. He never comes to grips with who he is, but all seems happily resolved.
I feel something lodged in my throat as I look at this book now and type these words, making the comparison.
There were the similarities to my situation, you see: being left by my birth mother and taken in by an orphanage, being named by someone else, being made fun of and looked at strangely, being adopted by a schoolteacher, that day in the mirror. I saw myself for the first time as not white (literally saw this) around the same time I read Benjamin Koo, and I didn’t know what to do with this knowledge.
I began to confuse my life with Benjamin Koo’s, I think because I had little else to help explain what I was feeling. For a long time, I thought that like Benjamin Koo I didn’t know my real birthday, that I was the one who arrived in America in pink and was mistaken for a girl, that I drew those pictures and made those same realizations about my mom being my mom. And that I had gotten over all of that and was fine. Because I didn’t have any context for what my parents had told me, I borrowed context from a story written by a white woman who had “consulted” an adopted boy to know how he felt.
As if a boy, an adopted boy, knows how he feels as an adopted boy! That realization with the ducks. That happy ending that focused on Benjamin Koo knowing that his parents were his parents. That fucked me up. How simple it seemed, that someone could tell you a story about ducks and you could all of a sudden feel at peace. What was wrong with me, that I didn’t? That even if I accepted that my parents were my parents, which I eventually did, I didn’t feel any less confused about myself?
I had only that one model, you see, for resolution. And there wasn’t even any resolution in it, a fact I didn’t see until those few weeks ago. I didn’t realize until then how much of my experience I had conflated with a fictional character’s, and I am still unsure about what this could mean (and has meant) to me.
Singular models. How dangerous they can be. And how often they are applied to minorities. The way we extrapolate a person from another person we know, when we lack context.
Recently, I had a short story published with the subtitle, “How to Be Asian American.” The story deals with a half-Korean kid who grows up always confused about the white and Asian sides of himself, unable to figure out who he is. An Asian writer on Twitter said she wasn’t sure what she thought of it, but it made her think, and I asked her to share her thoughts once she was ready. When she emailed later, one of her points was that she knew a half-Korean man and he wasn’t like the protagonist of my story. This was an Asian person telling me this. I couldn’t help but think no one ever says, I know this one German American person and he’s not like the German American person in your story. To give the writer credit, she did also mention that we each have our own experiences, and I did title the story as I did. Perhaps I was worried I wouldn’t get people to read it, otherwise, as the teen writer asked me. By people here, I mean Asian Americans.
Another publication story: a piece of mine was accepted at a literary journal a few months ago and I was contacted by the editor who said the major misstep was that the narrator, who is Korean American, refers to another character as Asian—“simply Asian,” wrote the editor. The editor said he didn’t know any Asian Americans who wouldn’t specify another Asian person’s ethnicity. Setting aside the fact that the person being described is a ghost, and that I am an Asian person who often calls other Asians “simply” “Asian,” there is the issue that because this editor doesn’t know anyone who would do this, that my protagonist should not do it. I debated pulling the piece or writing back with the above facts, but in the end I tried to be happy for the acceptance at a magazine I deeply love. I made the changes.
Singular models. Or limited models. And our insistence on them.
Maybe why all this Jeremy Lin news keeps getting to me is because I wanted, as a kid, to be a professional basketball player. It was my one true dream, the path I would have chosen if God had let me be anything I wanted. I grew up thinking I was going to be—different. I didn’t have a player like my friends whom I could point to and say, I want to be him. Now with Lin it feels as if the world is telling Asian American kids that even if you can be different, be the first Asian American basketball star, that difference means you have to follow different rules than white or black stars, that that is the bigger difference and you can never get away from the Asians in movies, you have to be “loyal,” “humble,” etc. That is the model you must not break.
After a while, when I realized there was no way I could play in the NBA, I had very serious dreams of playing basketball at least in college. I remember distinctly telling myself that if I couldn’t make a Division I team, I could at least play Division II. That my best friend could play Division I, but let’s face it, I wasn’t as good as that, so I would settle for Division II. This is the friend who turned his back on me, in sixth grade, without warning. His father was the coach of our travel team.
I didn’t play much. Mostly I sat at the end of the bench, wishing I had a real opportunity but never getting one. Years later, when we were no longer friends, a fact that only seemed to bother me, this former best friend had me and another childhood playmate over to shoot some hoops for old times’ sake. His father, our former coach, was there, too, so we played two on two. This was a summer home from college, I think. My former friend was playing Division II somewhere. In his driveway, I had a good game. I don’t think it would be an exaggeration to say that I was the best player on the court that day. As I sank a shot on his father, my former friend said, “Were you always this good?” I felt a rush of angry pride, a pinch behind my eyes for all of the games we had played together and the games we could have played if we’d stayed friends. You can see how I was still trying hard to show him why he should have loved me. I never really got over losing his friendship, and I thought of basketball as the one way I could show him I was different, better, than who he thought I was now that he no longer knew me.
My daughter turned one-year-old a month ago today. In Korea, a person’s one-year birthday is a huge deal. My wife and I decided to throw a couple of parties back-to-back, one for my relatives (hers are in Korea) and one for our friends. We rented all the traditional decorations and the materials with which our daughter would, as is the custom, choose an item that represents her future life. An old coin for wealth; a bow and arrow for the military—I made my wife leave this one out; a stethoscope for medicine; a notebook for the world of letters; and so on. I know, I know, models, but I am superstitious and fond of the traditions of this birth country I hardly know.
For one of my daughter’s presents, my aunt sent a book that must have been hard to find, about this “game” and the traditional one-year birthday, 돌. It was a very thoughtful gift, in one way. I was able to learn from the book a full explanation of what the traditions meant. But on the other hand, it was very clearly written by a white person, like my Benjamin Koo book. The baby is described as having “silky black hair” and a “round-as-the-moon face,” etc.—the pervasive descriptions you find in many stories where a white person describes Asians (not to mention unnecessary in an illustrated book). Things that white people say by rote, but an Asian person would avoid because they know it’s how white people think of them. How do I read this to my daughter? How do I explain to her that this is probably all my aunt could get, a book about Korean tradition written by a white person who had “consulted” a Korean?
How do I explain to her that even if she grows up with the multiple talents her choice in items predicted, that the majority of people in this country will still see her in only one way?
24 responses
Hi Matthew and Rumpus Readers-
Am I the writer you mention in this section?:
“Recently, I had a short story published with the subtitle, “How to Be Asian American.†The story deals with a half-Korean kid who grows up always confused about the white and Asian sides of himself, unable to figure out who he is. An Asian writer on Twitter said she wasn’t sure what she thought of it, but it made her think, and I asked her to share her thoughts once she was ready. When she emailed later, one of her points was that she knew a half-Korean man and he wasn’t like the protagonist of my story. This was an Asian person telling me this. I couldn’t help but think no one ever says, I know this one German American person and he’s not like the German American person in your story. To give the writer credit, she did also mention that we each have our own experiences, and I did title the story as I did. Perhaps I was worried I wouldn’t get people to read it, otherwise, as the teen writer asked me. By people here, I mean Asian Americans.”
If so, I feel like you took my words out of context. Here is the part of my e-mail that responds to your story (the part I leave out is irrelevant, just mentions that we are both acquainted with the writer Catherine Chung) :
“So I’ve read your story a few times. Like I said to Alex Chee, though I’m half-Taiwanese and half-white, I didn’t relate that much to this particular narrator’s point of view–which is just an observation, and not a critique of your story. I think that’s probably because I grew up in NYC, and went to a hs that was 50% Asian. Also, your narrator seems very bitter, and seems not to have felt any love between his parents—which, hey, happens.
Actually, in HS, the only person that really made me feel uncomfortable about my ethnicity was a Chinese American guy who said he’d never be able to take me home to his mother because I was too outspoken and not Chinese enough. Turns out he came out of the closet in college, but his presumption that I was interested in him at all was pretty ballsy. He was kind of a dick. In college, sometimes the Chinese kids in my Chinese language class would ask why I was bothering to study Chinese. They were getting easy As. Nothing as obvious as “chink”. I think bi-racial people mostly get “what are you?” than anything else. At least that’s been the common thing I’ve picked up from other people I’ve met with my background. But everyone has different experiences, which is why in the end, though I didn’t really relate to your narrator, I could appreciate the story on its own. Like you do with any fiction, really.
I mentioned on twitter that guy I used to be friends with who felt mostly American, culturally, even though he was half Korean. All of his cultural touchstones were American. He had a good relationship with his Korean mom. I guess he really did feel like a white guy in a Asian guy’s body.
I wonder about your title. Was the “How to Be Asian American” meant to be ironic? The people in the story are so unhappy, it seems like, no, this is not a good way to be Asian American.
I’ve also been thinking about the distinction between Asian and Asian American. Your character El says she has a theory about Asian-ness but it’s really only relevant to Asian Americans. Asians in Asia don’t have a crisis over their identity as Asians.
My last observation of your story– I didn’t really believe that Helen would call him a Chink after 30 years, but that’s just me.
A thought provoking story! The best kind…
take care,
Adalena Kavanagh”
You characterize me as Asian reacting to your story but I am not “Asian”. I was reacting to your story about a bi-racial Asian as someone who is a bi-racial Asian writer. I could be labeled “Asian American” and if I’m forced to choose a designation and that is the only one that is available to me, then I will choose that because “white” is less accurate than “Asian American” but if people ask me I always say I am bi-racial, and I will say I am specifically “Taiwanese-Irish American”. I make these distinctions because my identity has been formed by those two distinct ethnicities/races. For me to deny my whiteness would be just as disingenuous as trying to deny my Asian-ness, but I am neither, singularly. Just as you suggest that we should not be expected to represent ourselves within a singular vision, and that we shouldn’t be presented singularly, in my life I own the fact that I don’t have a singular identity.I also write about this identity in my fiction because I am interested in exploring that.
But Matthew, you did not engage my comments. Here is what you wrote back to me:
“Jul 17
to me
Thanks! The title isn’t meant to be prescriptive, more like Lorrie Moore’s how to be a writer. Glad to have your thoughts.
Matt”
You did not engage in anything I wrote except about your title, which was probably the easiest thing you could have chosen to discuss with me, but I guess it’s easier to take what I wrote and insert it into your public essay to fit your thesis instead of actually directly engaging me, the writer who was trying to engage you in private.
Not that it matters (except to give some more context to my comments), but my aunt by marriage is half-Korean and when I was growing up I sometimes looked to her to measure my own experience as a bi-racial Asian but one thing I realized is that she grew up in a different time period and Korean culture is not synonymous with Taiwanese/Chinese culture. That’s why I don’t often use a blanket “Asian” description unless the person’s ethnicity/nationality is unknown. There are important cultural distinctions among Asian groups that non-Asians aren’t even aware of. That’s the reason I hesitate to use that descriptor when I can be more specific.
Growing up my sister and I had this game where we pointed out to each other “famous halfies”. It was reassuring to see other people like us, and we studied them to see what their experiences were like. They were often different from ours, as are the experiences of the many half-Asian people I have met in my life, several of them half-Korean, many of them writers.
In my response to your story I pointed out what I felt rang false to me–the end where the woman calls the man a Chink after 30 years. I didn’t buy it. That seemed to fit what you wanted your story to say, rather than what these set of characters would have done given how you set up that particular character. But that’s just my take. It was never my intention to force you into one way of thinking when it comes to Asian Americans. I was trying to tell you a little bit about my own experiences. I think that’s very clear from how I worded my response to you and that’s why I feel like you’ve misrepresented my reaction to your story.
Anyway, I wrote an essay on my blog about what I want to read when stories engage race. Here it is:
http://adalenakavanagh.blogspot.com/2012/08/deeper-complexity.html
I want complexity. I want editors to dig deeper. I want editors to present a range of voices and a range of experiences of race that are not just about being a victim because our experiences *are* more complex than that.
But thanks Matthew–even though I don’t always agree with you, I appreciate being able to read your point of view.
Adalena Kavanagh
Regarding what you say about only having ‘one story’ with which to explore your identity, I was strongly reminded of Chimamanda Adichie’s excellent presentation on what she calls ‘The Danger of a Single Story.’ Matthew (and everyone), I think you will enjoy this: http://blog.ted.com/2009/10/07/the_danger_of_a/
I’m not sure that this comment is, all in all, as helpful as it could be. It is clear that the questions posed (in Mat’s article, and in your response) about race, culture, and biracialness in particular–or social categorizations in general–are good ones, and ones worth discussing. It seems like this is part of a useful and intelligent discussion that we need more of, not only in a literary forum, but also in a larger, social and political context. So yes, for the most part, I am onboard with your points regarding identity and the ways in which we talk about it. It seems particularly important to me that such discussions contain a plurality of perspectives, and I think your points are well made.
What I don’t think is particularly useful is making this discussion personal rather than cultural. It seems less valuable or impactful–to me–to defend oneself on a personal level when you are not the explicit subject of the article to begin with, identifying (and publicizing) a private conversation in a way that seems to point fingers. It is the author’s choice to identify (or not identify) the subjects of his article, and it doesn’t seem like the place of those subjects to “out” the writer unless they feel that what has been said is untrue or slanderous. I think that the points you make could have been done–intelligently and articulately–without making this a conversation about an exchange that occurred between two people in a limited, isolated context. And, I think it is sad that these comments were not made with a greater attempt to reach beyond such a specific, personal, and frankly irrelevant context in which they exist, because the message (which is otherwise important) seems muddled in these details. As fellow writers, shouldn’t we protect one another’s license to speak openly, especially about such useful things?
What you have to say is smart and valuable, and I support it. I just hope that in the future we can all discuss these sorts of issues–as Mat has so well done here–without posing our opinions as antagonistic toward the views of others–especially those who are trying to open up a line of communication for the same conversation.
@Adalena: representation is complex–and sometimes it’s impossible to represent all sides. which is why literature/writing needs as many voices as possible–because only from a multitude of views/voices can we learn the “whole.”
kudos to Matthew Salesses for hanging himself out there–writing is an act of vulnerability as much as it is power. it’s brave to put words and thoughts out, knowing that not everyone will agree, but with the purpose of starting important discussion. especially wrt to the larger context of our children.
Thank you, Robin–this video looks fascinating. I’m looking forward to it.
Adalena, we don’t discuss race in terms of victimhood here and I think that interpretation is very subjective. In terms of presenting a range of voices, I warmly encourage you to submit the kind of work you would like to see here. We accept submissions at therumpus.submittable.com.
While I agree with J, that the interpersonal details that structure Adalena’s comment are unnecessarily distracting from her points, I am glad that she made those points. Thank you, Adalena AND Matthew, for publicizing your perspectives. In the interest of dissolving the Singular Model problem — the more perspectives, the better for all of us.
And Matthew, re: your last line… I hope you never have to explain the world to your daughter in that way. You’re doing great work, raising awareness about problematic cultural norms through writing, and there are others like you. Let the conversation spread! I hope everyone who reads your work will contribute to the effort. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if, by the time your daughter is old enough to understand, these conversations are more pervasive than stifling assumptions?
Matthew,
I totally applaud what you wrote, please we need more of that muliplicity of awareness out there, especially for the asian/korean adoptees. As taking a part in many of the interracial groups year and years ago, so many times we had adoptees come in feeling unable to express their story, it’s so very brave for you to take the next step.
Adalena,
I totally understand your frustration and while it took thinks a bit personally, I’m going to stick my neck out here and say I got it that you felt a quote of yours was taken out of context and needed to express that. Taking Roxanne’s statement into place, rather than get needlessly frustrated to sharpen and direct your energy into an essay forwarding your perspective.
Thank you both for opening a dialogue.
Quick thoughts:
The NY Knicks didn’t re-sign Jeremy Lin due to Salary Cap restrictions, it wasn’t the cost of his contract per se, it was the cost of his contract + the salary cap fines they’d have to pay, the latter of which have implications for singing other players.
Also as a lifelong NY Knicks Fan, this is how Dolan operates, if any major star of ANY race had not come back for the Playoffs whilst at 85% Dolan would’ve been irritated.
Also – the money from Jersey sales wouldn’t help Lin or the NY Knicks specifically, it’s all shared equally by all the teams: http://www.insidehoops.com/business.shtml
MSQ always sells out anyway, so ticket sales wouldn’t provide extra revenue. Adding value to the company is a bonus to be sure, but that’s intrinsic value vs. profits they can tap into.
Now there are other sources of revenue to be sure that Lin would influence, however, they have to operate within the salary cap. I have multiple Asian friends who were angry that Lin would go to a team that cut him for more money, instead of taking less for the Knicks (they’re all New Yorkers). The issue was that Lin got a offer the Knicks couldn’t really match per the rules.
Everyone who follows the NBA knew Lin wasn’t coming back once he got an offer that was higher than the salary cap limits the Knicks had to work within.
I see the racism in how people reacted to what was a decision Lin should’ve made IMO, not that the Knicks didn’t sign him. People have this ideal of the pro athlete who takes less money to stay with his original team, or his hometown team, etc., someone who puts the fans desires ahead of their own financial needs.
I have an Asian friend who posted on Facebook: “Effing Harvard Kids, always chasing the money” when Lin left.
It creates a rather interesting situation:
In some ways it’s racism against Jeremy Lin that’s unique and specific to his race and how Asian people are viewed in sports, in others ways he’s being treated just like all the other pro athletes.
If Derek Jeter left the NY Yankees to play for another team simply over a salary offer the Yankees couldn’t offer, people would freak out.
People hate Alex Rodriguez in Seattle for doing the same thing, he got a mega contract in ’00 that the Seattle Mariners couldn’t match from the Texas Rangers.
To this day people in Seattle cheer when he gets injured over that contract.
Let’s look at another situation: Jay Cutler got injured during the playoffs in January of ’11 and was seen standing around on the sideline. Players, analysts and fans all ripped on him for not going back in despite being injured, “he was just standing around”.
Jay Cutler is a White Quarterback.
My point is that pro athletes are expected to sacrifice their bodies for the fans, owners, teammates, etc., history shows any athlete of any race would’ve received criticism from SOMEONE for not coming back for the playoffs if they were at 85%.
Meaning: it’s all quite a bit more complicated IMO.
Finally, Sports Fans feel they have ownership in their favorite players, they feel those players owe them something. When a player leaves all kinds of hate comes out, just look at LeBron James. I hate reading comments on sports articles when a player leaves, because the racism always comes out.
I.e. I’m not sure it’s specific to Lin per se.
I say plenty of N-Bombs hurled at LeBron after he left Cleveland, people burned his jersey in the streets.
People feel they own their favorite athletes and react horribly when they leave their favorite teams.
To me this speaks to our country’s messed up relationships with athletes AND how people will stoop to racism when they’re angry.
Overall I agree with many of your points, I just feel that some of the sports specific items occur to all athletes and there are some other issues I felt you didn’t address.
I love your writing so I feel weird writing a criticism, so please know I loved the piece overall and mean NO disrespect.
@Roxane
I just want to clarify this statement:
“I want complexity. I want editors to dig deeper. I want editors to present a range of voices and a range of experiences of race that are not just about being a victim because our experiences *are* more complex than that.”
I actually meant that in the context of fiction and not in the context of non-fiction on the Rumpus or elsewhere–certainly not this essay! In my blog post I explained my position on this and said that I thought journalism was perhaps a better outlet for this issue, though I understand if others disagree with me on this point. Thanks for the invitation to submit non-fiction here but I am concentrating on my true love- fiction.
@others
Many here have made some interesting points. My intention was not to make this about me, or for my comment to derail the conversation. I’m simply trying to *have* a conversation, so I was surprised Matthew included my comments to him in this essay when in real life he seemed uninterested in engaging in those comments *with me*. I am in no way trying to silence Matthew, but clarify what I *actually* said and clarify my POV. I wouldn’t have responded if he hadn’t included my comments in his essay in the first place.
I did think my comments were misunderstood, and then taken out of context to serve the purpose of the thesis. Still, I believe Matthew makes interesting points and while I obviously don’t agree with everything, I respect him enough to engage with him.
On twitter Matthew said:
“if i am talking w/a writer, i expect that anything i don’t claim off-limits is fair game. writers are the most public & most private people”
So in fairness I don’t think I am out of line in quoting my own e-mail to Matthew.
I’m disappointed Matthew has chosen not to engage my actual comments. That’s all I wanted. He doesn’t have to, of course, and I respect that as well.
Thank you, and thank you Matthew for writing this. Like I said before, I don’t always agree with you, but I don’t have to. You make me think and that’s a good thing.
Adalena Kavanagh
I have to agree with Markham in that it seems like you’re reading into a lot of the reaction of lin leaving nyc as unique to his asian-ness when in fact a lot of sports fanatics say and do terrible things when a beloved or valuable player leaves their team.
I do think you make some good points about the under representation or lack of diversity of models for asians in the larger culture. I just don’t see lin’s example as fitting neatly with your argument.
The first paragraph threw me off a bit too. Are you saying you don’t think white people will read your stuff because they avoid issues of race? If so, isn’t this an example of falling into a single model type of mind set?
thanks.
Can’t say I agree 100%. Yes, Lin is Asian and Dolan Caucasian, but I don’t see how “Dolan’s loyalty issue, an issue he applied only to Lin, [is] racial”. In my opinion, Dolan is simply being Dolan – immature, tyrannical, cut-of-the-nose-to-spite-the-face idiotic, and irrational. If anything, he probably felt betrayed because he gave Lin the chance of a lifetime to realize his dream, and was miffed that Lin signed an offer sheet much higher than the previously leaked amount. The negativity towards Lin in those FB reponses, seemed to me were attributed more to disappointment, feeling of betrayal and anger, and less about race. After all, the very same fans DID embrace Lin during the height of Linsanity despite the fact that he IS Asian.
Race definitely helps define one’s identity, but it is not the SOLE identity of an individual. So, if I were you, I’d tell your daughter that the only time “the majority of people in this country will still see her in only one way” is if she ALLOWS them to. I’m not saying racism doesn’t exist (it ABSOLUTELY does) but not everything negative involving a minority is racially motivated. I think it’s lazy and cowardly to simply blame everything on racism.
Oh, before you or anyone else reading this comment accuse me of being a racist who doesn’t understand what Asian-Americans are facing, I’m a 1st generation Chinese-American with parents who barely speak English. At work, I manage a team of 12: 8 Caucasians, 2 African-Americans, 1 Hispanic, 1 Filipino. I can tell you this – I don’t strive to be a good Asian manager; I just strive to be a good manager. Period. Being Chinese has a profound impact on who I am, but it does not solely define me.
Markham: As a Taiwanese American man, I have followed the Lin saga closely, including Dolan’s decision not to re-sign Lin. Up until this decision, I had considered myself a Knicks fan, having gotten to know the teammates through Linsanity.
While the salary cap issue was certainly there, you can see the race-specific undertones of the decision if you look at how the Knicks organization reacted after the decision, giving off the record comments by people “in the Knicks organization” about Lin’s lack of “loyalty” to the Knicks. Compare this with two similarly situated players this off season:
You did not see those kinds of comments by the Knicks organizationmp made in relation to Landry Fields when he signed a huge contract with the Raptors this off season. You can also see the way Lin was treated differently compared to how the Knicks handled Novak’s contract talks, which is directly analogous because Novak was, like Lin, a restricted free agent. The Knicks refused to make an offer to Lin and told Lin to go establish his market value, then turned around and failed to match the only offer sheet he was given. Meanwhile, the Knicks directly negotiated an offer with Novak, which he signed, without asking him to go find an offer sheet to “establish” his value. I think Lin’s situation supports this article’s premise about the dangers of “SINGULAR MODELS” as it relates to racial Minorities—- The issue of singular racial models affected Lin in more than one way…. First, as the first “breakout” Asian American NBA player, Dolan and the Knicks felt they didn’t have a frame of reference to properly value Lin, thus they refused to make him an offer without Lin testing the market. They somehow felt they could value Novak’s skills, even though Novak also had a season which made his value suddenly rise. Then, their reaction to the Rockets offer sheet was colored by their frame of Lin, which required Asian American males to be humble and submissive and “loyal”, rather than assertive and demanding to be paid what they are worth. Knicks felt “slighted” because Lin signed a max contract only because they had some expectation that Lin should not have sought a max contract even as he was being asked to test his market value.
Maybe you have to understand what it feels like to grow up as an Asian American man in America to see this point, so I don’t fault you for not seeing or agreeing with this article’s points. Honestly, I think there are probably many Asian American women who don’t really understand how it is to be an Asian American man and why Linsanity so powerfully affects Asian American men.
@ Adalena
I don’t think your comments were misunderstood. Perhaps you just didn’t express them the way you think you did.
Because reading your replies—and your original email—seems to just confirm Matthew Salesses’s point.
Also, your defensiveness and out-of-place anecdotes seems to just confirm it.
Representation of minorities in fiction is indeed often difficult, as you experienced with the book about an international adoptee that was written by a white woman who “consulted” an international adoptee about the subject.
Narratives about other races and other cultures written by members of the majority or the dominant culture are sadly sometimes taken as the only or the most authoritative texts on the issue, which of course is problematic.
I also wonder if finding one’s “cultural placement” and becoming comfortable in it is particularly difficult for international adoptees who have grown up in one culture where they may not always feel they belong, but do not have the culture of their parents or grandparents in which they can seek a sense of belonging.
At least it’s good to see that books and narratives by international adoptees have been published in the later years, hopefully giving some models and narratives for other international adoptees.
@Linsane in LA
I respectfully disagree.
LeBron James received the same criticism w/r/t loyalty after he left Cleveland.
He was disloyal for leaving the hometown team.
He was selfish
He was somehow lacking in character for either not staying with the hometown team, or going to the NY Knicks to seek greater glory.
Lin was the Superstar who got his break in NY, Landry is a guy hardly anyone has heard of, it’s hard to make that comparison.
Fans aren’t going to care if Landry leaves.
Either the salary cap issue made the situation untenable.
Plus like the other Asian-American commentator said: Dolan is a D*** I’ve been a Knicks fan since I was a little kid (I’m in my mid 30s) Dolan is a D***
I’m not Asian, but as an African-American I understand racial expectations.
When I started school (I was homeschooled for a bit) I tested off the charts, but they kept putting me in remedial classes until my Mom intervened.
In another case I tested into advanced Math – 9th grade level when I was in 7th grade.
They refused to move me.
At one point I moved to a new High School and the Basketball Coach sought me out to introduce himself.
Thing is – I SUCK at Basketball and I’m 5’9″.
So when I became good at a sport (Track) it bothered me, I liked being the stereotyping defying smart kid, being good at sports really made me uncomfortable.
My Sr. Year I got into an elite school.
My Track Coach just assumed I was a stupid athlete.
So when I said I wasn’t interested in talking to the Community College coach who wanted to recruit me, he yelled at me until another coach (who had me in her class) intervened and noted the school I got into and the fact that I had a 3.9 GPA.
So trust me when I say that I get the overarching theme.
I’m just not sure Jeremy Lin is the best example.
For instance:
I one watched a game where Lin drove the lane, split two taller defenders and dunked on them.
In a game against the Mavericks he hits a big 3 on Dirk, celebrates by flossing his Jersey and chest bumps a teammate.
Chest bumps.
Game wasn’t over, mid third quarter, hardly time to celebrate.
He’s a dynamic guy on the court.
Next day after the game against the Mavericks, a writer notes how humble he is, how his game is mental, he’s not demonstrative.
??????
If he was a Black Player he would’ve been criticized for showboating.
THAT fits into this narrative.
Lin not re-signing with the Knicks? I don’t think it fits, especially considering how Dolan tends to behave. I.e. just like the guy who had a tantrum about LeBron signing with the Heat and wrote a letter criticizing him and claiming that he would never win a championship.
Consider this: http://www.nba.com/cavaliers/news/gilbert_letter_100708.html
If you Google some of the tweets directed at LeBron post his move to the Heat….
…it’s no different than what happened to Jeremy Lin.
I’m not saying there is no racism involved, but considering how common that reaction is, I don’t think it’s the best example.
A big name player leaves a team and people are going to get upset, and you’ll have owners that feel the player is disloyal.
It’s pretty standard.
@Markham
The big difference between Lebron and Lin is that Lebron was an unrestricted free agent. He made The Decision to leave. So Cleveland fans clearly could blame him and him alone for leaving. Lin was a restricted free agent. The Knicks chose not to match (even though it let words out that it would match “up to one billion” beforehand). The decision was the Knicks’, not Lin’s. So why would NY fans blame Lin so harshly or buy the Knicks’ spin about loyalty so easily? Has any other team ever launched a smear campaign after the team decided not to match a restricted free agent? Has any fanbase ever blame the restricted free agent after the team decided not to match? The treatment Lin received stands out and it does have a racial tone to it.
And the Knicks did have means to match Lin. They won his early bird right in an arbitration. It means whatever the Knicks pay Lin wouldn’t have been counted toward its cap. Luxury tax is just money out of Dolan’s pocket. Plus, Lin didn’t cause the luxury tax. The Knicks are already in the luxury tax territory because of the Big 3 contracts: Carmelo, Stoudemare, Chandler. Lin is underpaid in his first two years as a starting PG in the NBA because of the Gilbert Arena rule. There are multiple ways for the Knicks to avoid the high luxury tax in the 3rd year if Lin doesn’t pan out. Lin is also one of few valuable tradeable assets the Knicks have. He’s also a better PG with much higher upside than Felton. Not matching doesn’t make basketball sense.
It doesn’t make business sense either. Lin is called the most popular player the Knicks have in a decade by the NYT. He did bring in a lot of revenue that MSG is still enjoying. In the first quarter he broke out, MSG’s revenue increased by 63% and in its quarterly earning call, MSG’s executive attributed the revenue increase to Linsanity. There are many revenue streams not shared with other teams: local cable deals (Lin was the reason why Time Warner gave in to MSG’s demand), sponsor signage around the arena (Lin brought in two Taiwanese sponsors and Coca Cola added Chinese version to its signage because of Lin), jersey sales in the arena and through the team’s website (Lin caused traffic to the Knick’s online store to jump by 4000%), ticket sales etc. The revenue Lin brought in easily paid his salary.
Given that the Knicks’ decision didn’t make business or basketball sense, it gave credence to the leak about Dolan’s feeling “betrayed”. When was the last time that word was used for a restricted free agent?
It looks like this could go on forever, so I’m going to make a few points before I respectfully bow out.
1) Dolan is one of the worse owners in NBA history, FACT. For Lin to fight into this model Dolan would have to be a rational actor who is known for smart business decisions who suddenly made an irrational decision when it came to Lin.
But he’s not.
2) Let’s talk about value to a Franchise: http://aol.sportingnews.com/nba/story/2011-10-04/nba-gm-agrees-with-wade-stars-are-underpaid
The owner of the Lakers thinks Kobe is worth nearly 3X what he pays him in terms of value to the Franchise, other GMs think other top players are worth similar. BUT, with the economic model being what it is with respect to restrictions, they’re not going to pay it.
Meaning: the talk of “1 billion” is hogwash as it wasn’t attributed to anyone, and if Kobe can’t get $70 million when the owner says it’s his value…
Also: Jersey sales don’t go to the Knicks, they’re shared by the league.
Finally, the salary cap issues are very real, hence the reason analysts were saying the Knicks needed to let Lin go. The whole thing is more complicated than people realize.
3) Once fans invest emotionally in a player they get angry when he leaves if it was voluntary. Lin had an offer from the Knicks, but he choose a higher paying one from the Rockets. People get angry when that happens, regardless of type of free agent he was, the circumstances, etc.
Beyond that was there really a backlash beyond some Facebook comments? Not really, most of the new fans were fans of LIN as a player, moreso than the Knicks.
4) During Jeremy Lin’s Rookie season he averaged 10 minutes a game and 2.6 points over 29 games. Then he was sent to the development league, caught on with the Rockets and was cut by them as well.
With the Knicks he cut on and blew up in a system that he could be successful in.
The situation is rather rare. Throw out the Asian aspect, if a player of any race goes from Ivy League, to putting up Lin’s Rookie numbers to having that crazy stretch of incredible games, it would be out of the ordinary.
I’m not sure its ever happened before.
Considering the level of ownership fans, coaches and owners feel they have in athletes, it’s possible someone would think that athlete owed them something as far as taking less money to stay with the Franchise that made him a star as opposed to the one that cut him.
If we’re being fair we can at least acknowledge this might happen. Remember we have NO PRIOR MODEL for something like this. A dev league with a 2.6 ppg average suddenly blowing up.
As I said previously, I agree that there are elements of racism here, but it’s not neat example because a lot of this stuff would happen to anyone.
I.e. Salary Cap, Dolan being a nutter and a fan backlash, which by recent standards, was really just a few commentators on Facebook it wasn’t the wide spread hate other athletes got.
Better yet – a lot of bad decisions are made in the sports (the NBA especially) every off season, it’s not really fair to say that this ONE decision was influenced purely by racism and not by any other factor.
There are way too many variables at play to say: “It’s 100% racism” and then slot it into Matthew’s narrative, far too many. Especially when Asian-Americans from NYC have criticized Lin for not re-signing with the Knicks for slightly lesser money, since they’re the Franchise that made him a star and the media opportunities in NYC would easily make up for the pay difference, and Houston is a small market that cut him.
I get what several of you’re saying, I’m arguing that it’s a simplification that ignores too many variables.
@markham,
You obviously didn’t follow Lin’s free agency and business-side of NBA closely. You got many facts wrong:
1. The Knicks NEVER gave Lin an offer. You can read SI’s interview with Lin or the ESPN’s “Six Degree of Separation” articles to verify. The Knicks told Lin to test the market. They talked to his agent “conceptually” about a deal that would be lower in the 3rd year than the first two (5/5/4) but they never made him a written offer. So Lin did exactly what the Knicks told him to do. He got ONE written offer from the Rockets and the Knicks chose not to match. How does this make it a “voluntary” leave on Lin’s part?
It contrasts how they handled Novak. They negotiated directly with Novak’s agent and made him an offer right away. Novak wasn’t told to test the market and no team showed much interest in him. Novak signed with the Knicks pretty quickly. Novak was also a restricted FA and the Knicks also won Novak’s early bird right. Novak was a journey man on vet minimum salary before. He broke out this season because of Lin. He’s one shooter who couldn’t create his own shot. Lin’s penetration and kickout tripled/quardupled Novak’s PPG. Yet, the Knicks were willing to make him an offer ($15MM over 4 years) but not Lin. Why do you think that is?
2. When it comes to business, I’m not talking about some experts’ estimated “value”. I’m talking about MSG’s bottom line. Look up its quarterly earning report on MSG’s website. 63% jump in the whole company’s revenue in one quarter. As I already told you, jersey sales through the team’s store in the arena are not shared. Neither are local cable TV deal such as the one MSG struck with Time Warner. Neither are advertisement in and out of the arena. Neither are ticket sales. Lin brought in revenues from all these revenue streams and he still is. The cable TV deal will last for several years. Dolan and MSG shareholders enjoy at least $600 million in increased stock prices that were mainly caused by the increased earnings.
3. You listened to some dumb “experts”. Please look up “Early Bird Right”. The Knicks won Lin’s Early Bird Right so they could sign him at whatever price and it wouldn’t have counted toward its cap. And they couldn’t use that money to sign anyone else at a similar price level as Lin. Actually, Felton caused the Knicks part of its Mid Level Exception. If the Knicks had signed Lin, they could have used the MLE on someone else. So Lin doesn’t cause the Knicks any cap space. He would have caused them luxury tax only because they already overpaid on three contracts. Luxury tax simply means money out of Dolan’s pocket. It doesn’t hinder the team in any ways. $600 million should be sufficient in paying the luxury taxes 10 times over.
4. The Knicks didn’t make Lin a star. They played him out of desperation. They were planning to cut him on Feb 10. Lin made himself a star by working his butt off during the lockout. Read NYT’s “Revolution of a Point Guard”. Lin never got much time during practice or games before Feb 4. So how did the Knicks make him a star? They’re as surprised by his performance as the rest of us.
5. Lin could get more endorsements in NYC than Houston is a myth. None of the top 10 endorsing athletes in the U.S. plays for a NY team. By Forbes’ estimate, Jeter was a top 10 earning athlete in the U.S. in 2011 but most of his earnings came from salary, only $5 million came from endorsements. Lin’s marketability comes from the fact that he can deliver Asia, which is a much much much larger market than NYC. Per his agent and friends, lots of multinational companies on both sides of the Pacific are interested in Lin. Lin has turned down more endorsements than what Jeter has because he doesn’t want commercial commitment cut into his practice time. BTW, TV broadcasters in Asia will follow Lin to Houston because their audiences want to watch Lin, not the Knicks. Last season, Taiwanese TV broadcasted his games LIVE with a 12-hour time difference. They didn’t do that because of the Knicks.
Again, Dolan’s decision doesn’t make sense from basketball or business sense. It’s rumoured he made it out of sense of betrayal. The writer made a good case that the sense of betrayal was probably caused by racial stereotype.
Remember my earlier point about Dolan?
For the example to fit neatly he would have to have a history of smart decisions, he doesn’t.
Top 5-10 players are worth twice what their franchises pay them, but no one bucks the cap to do it. Remember, I didn’t dispute the economic impact of Lin.
NY is the biggest market in the country, any Athlete can do more with that platform. Would Sanchez get the same exposure playing for a small market team? Probably not.
Either way the problem here is Dolan, he’s petty, he’s stupid, he’s all but destroyed the Knicks. For the argument to work he would have to a rational actor.
Great points Callin.
Markham, I don’t think the decision was “100% racism”. As with almost all racist decisions, there are other factors which can help mask the element of racism which were part of the decision.
I think you are right to point out Dolan has a history of questionable decision making, but the question in this case I want to focus on is whether Lin’s race played a factor in Dolan’s decision, specifically whether Dolan’s expectations of how Lin is supposed to act due to Lin’s race, given Lin was a restricted free agent, not a free agent. Respectfully, I think the answer to that is yes. Given what you have written, if you focus yourself on that question, your answer may be yes as well. That’s all I’m saying.
I think the fan reaction is a different question and, as you pointed out, Fans will react negatively when a player leaves their team, so I am less interested in this issue. Dolan, however is the owner of a NBA team in one of the biggest markets in the NBA, so I think its fair to ask whether Dolan’s decisions, being as erratic and irrational as they are, whether his decisions are sometimes colored by racism.
I agree Dolan is not rational and I’m well aware of his history of questionable decisions, but that doesn’t preclude this decision from being influenced by racial stereotyping. Racism is irrational, so the question is whether it’s irrational racism or random irrationality. Racial discrimination is when someone makes a decision based on race rather than personal merit. As has been discusses, the basketball reasons and financial reasons go in favor of NYK re-signing Lin, but they didn’t do it because they felt slighted and because they felt Lin should have been more “loyal”. Well, if they wanted him to “take less money” they could have offered him a contract, like they did with Novak, who was also a restricted free agent. I know they can’t offer him the max, but they never made any offer. After passing on making him an offer, they called him disloyal for signing the only contract offer he got.
Markham, you mentioned your experiences with the racial expectations of you being a dumb jock. For Asian American men, there are different expectations, one of which is to be submissive rather than assertive or aggressive. When Lin bucked this assumption by signing a max contract, Dolan felt slighted because it challenged his assumption about how Lin should act in relation to his boss, just as your old coach got angry that you wouldn’t talk to the community college recruiter becaused your actions challenged his racial assumptions about what you— as an African American, he assumed you were not smart and therefore that you should be grateful for a chance to be recruited athletically. He didn’t realize you had abetter option. Dolan felt Lin should be grateful to the Knicks and would probably get a medeocre contract offer somewhere, but he was surprised and angry when Lin got a max offer.
Linsane, Callin, – I think we’re arguing around the magnitude or the significance of the same points.
In any event if you look at some of my earlier comments you’d notice the core theme wasn’t that I said there wasn’t any racism, just that I didn’t think the Lin situation fit especially neatly into the Matthew’s narrative. I say this because of Dolan, Lin not coming back for the playoffs even though his knee was at 85% (A decision I agree with 100%, but in the macho world of pro sports it could easily turn off people – just ask Jay Cutler – the white Quarterback), Salary Cap, Luxury Tax, etc.
There are just too many variables IMO for this to fit neatly into the situation, the fact that we’re arguing said variables in some respects proves the point.
The other aspect is that we only have Lin to discuss, we don’t have other players or better yet, Asian employees of Dolan’s coming forward and discussing how they were treated in salary negotiation situations.
Also racism is weird in employee vs. employer situations, especially in pro sports. Your employer may not want you dating his daughter but it doesn’t mean he won’t pay you to keep you around. I’ve had managers I suspected were a touch racist that paid me really well because they wanted to benefit from my skills.
It’s an odd thing.
I should also point that luxury tax is not just “money out of Dolan’s pocket”, The Knicks are owned by MSG, Inc. a publicly traded company, so the costs would be absorbed by the P/L for the Knicks and then by the parent company. I seriously doubt a recipient of nepotism like Dolan (considering his lack of business acumen), who seems to just want to abuse the companies he’s only running because of his Dad to make himself rich isn’t cutting his own pay when the Knicks costs go up!
But let’s step away from Lin and I’ll share a anecdote that’s similar but maybe more accessible, since none of us have played pro sports.
A group of Black employees sued a former employer of mine, a company I once said was run by an “Evil Mr. Burns”. Their beefs were getting promotions and not getting paid, “they’re already doing the work, why should we give you a raise” – was the message Sr. Management gave to their managers.
Sr. Executives telling them to be grateful, “when are people like you going to get this opportunity” – whether it was the job or the travel.
Firings that seemed to be unfair.
If you look at their grievances vs. the evidence it looked pretty bad, nothing overt per se, but I definitely understand why these guys felt they were being discriminated against because of their race.
But they weren’t.
The company treated White people like that too.
It came down to who they liked, who they felt catered to their egos.
So a white woman who didn’t perform well got promoted.
While an employee of mine who was the most important manager I had, and I ran the most important unit of the company, I had to fight for her raise to get her to the level of her peers. “Markham she’s already doing the job, why pay her more, just convince her to stay if she gets another offer/we’ll deal with it then”
Did they have gender bias towards Women? Maybe, or perhaps they were just unethical and willing to use it to their advantage.
I heard the “When are young people like you going to get the chance to travel internationally?” – said in response to myself and my Biz Dev guy noting that we had to raise pay because we were at the bottom of the market or we were going to keep losing employees.
Thing is, Biz Dev guy is blond haired and blue eyed. If I was in the room alone, I might’ve thought it was racism, but we were in the room together so I realized they were just a**holes.
My point is that it would be easy to look at my former from one lens and say “They were racist and misogynist” but if you look at it holistically it gets really complex.
They put a 30 year old Black guy (me) in charge of their most important business, and let him travel to Europe and Asia to represent it to their most important client. Women were in key roles too, as were other people of color.
They also treated various people of color, women and all the white people like dirt too.
The behavior was inconsistent, confusing and often just plain wrong.
I could easily find a situation present it to you and we’d all nod our heads and say: “That was some racist or misogynist ish”
But I could provide other evidence and you’d say, “oh they’re just a**holes”
By the way during depositions that’s what the attorney for the Plaintiffs said: “Oh, you mean they treat everyone like this?”
So again, I won’t deny that there are probably some racist elements in here, but, there are a bunch of other ones that make it hard to fit it neatly into the author’s narrative.
Which is the only point I was really trying to make, albeit in my writerly verbose way.
At the end of the day though, I wasn’t surprised Nolan didn’t find a way to make sure Lin stayed around for a long time.
HE’S DOLAN! He’s been voted the WORST owner in the NBA, even over the owner of the Clippers who NO ONE disputes as being racist. Stern even criticized him for being a bad owner.
I think that’s the thing I can’t get past as far as just putting the racist stamp on this situation, if it weren’t for the uniqueness of the Lin situation I doubt anyone would be discussing racism at play if another player who through 40-50 games had a barely 3 PPG scoring average turned into a star, wouldn’t come back for the playoffs with his knee at 85% and then Dolan get mad about something petty and didn’t sign him.
Does that sound remotely surprising to anyone who has followed the Knicks for 20 years?
Doesn’t to this lapsed fan.
I say lapsed because once Lin left I lost interest again.
I had lost so much interest that I followed Dolan’s nonsense more than the team, and wasn’t until my girlfriend and her family caught Linsanity that I started paying attention.
Needless to say they’re all Rockets fans now.
Thanks for your essay. It brought back the memory of a book I related to as a child, given to me by my parents – Harry The Dirty Dog. Names aside, the story is about a dog that is white with black spots, who changes to a black dog with white spots. Same dog, but even his family does not recognize him. And all this time I thought it was about a dog getting dirty and then getting a bath. Live and learn…Anyway, on the sporting side, and since Yom Kippur is coming shortly…Do you remember (or read about) when Sandy Koufax, a great pitcher with the L.A. Dodgers sat out game one of The World Series because it fell on Yom Kippur? Or when 1st base great Hank Greenburg refused to play in the middle of a close pennant race in 1934, for the same reason? The Detroit Free Press run a poem about it…”We shall miss him on the field, and shall miss him at the bat-But he’s true to his religion, and I honor him for that.” I know these examples did not directly involve money (well, maybe they really did), but two men who acted on their “otherness” did not get any flak (as far as I know). I am not a sports fan, but I think that, yes, it is Money coloring in the outlines of the epitaphs directed at Jeremy Lin. Professional sports are just a business, and business is only about Money and Profit.
“Singular models. Or limited models.”
Re: the debate earlier in the thread: I backtracked a bit to follow this, and read the short story in question. On her blog, Christine Lee Zilka (Kartika editor) wrote an interesting post on writing from the pov of another race. She says, “And well–it’s been awhile since I pissed people off, so I guess I’ll take a risk here and say that I don’t think writing characters of another race should be any sort of dalliance. If it is in any way, don’t write them. Writers should tread very carefully and thoughtfully (as they always should) when writing another race, because there is the added weight of social responsibility in that very act….To be frank, failing at writing characters of another race–and by failing I mean being thoughtless and insincere and not aiming to understand or empathize–comes off like doing Blackface.”
As a fiction writer, I think agree that you *can* write from anybody’s pov, as long as you do it thoughtfully and well. Otherwise, it can look like farce.
But what struck me with the story under debate–though certainly there was attention to craft–I wondered if the “singular model” can be applied in a case where a Korean American man writes a story from the pov of a mixed-race man and make it the same “tragic mulatto” narrative mixed-race people always have to hear about. I think the commenter above notes this too: “I want complexity. I want editors to dig deeper. I want editors to present a range of voices and a range of experiences of race that are not just about being a victim because our experiences *are* more complex than that.” Exactly. As a mixed-race person, as soon as I read about a “confused” mixed-race character, I roll my eyes. It’s 2012. There are a billion and one different complex experiences that people have, but just because those are all in the realm of possibility, it doesn’t mean they have to be rehashed and rehashed, especially when they intersect with stereotype.
Do confused mixed-race people exist? Of course. But it’s a cliche, which, in fiction, may be the worst offense of all.
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