Jeremy Lin's success in the 2012 NBA season has provided a good opportunity to investigate our racial tendencies toward Asian-Americans, a relatively rare occasion in American professional sports. This article by Howard Bryant does just that. In class on April 10th, we tackled the issue of race and ethnicity in sport. Our discussion revolved mostly around the study of African Americans in sport. This article raises the point that we have been socialized to using more politically correct terms with regards to African-Americans. However, it seems that we are not as socialized towards Asian-Americans in the same regard. One example that Bryant raises involves Charles Barkley, an NBA analyst, calling Wang Zhizhi by the name "Wang Chung." Wang Zhizhi was the first Asian player in the NBA, and he was the brunt of racism by an analyst. Bryant contends that this is something we must work on as a whole, to stop wronging the Asian community.
Coakley discusses participation in sport among Asian Americans in his text on pages 302-305. One topic he covers is prejudiced statements from athletes, similar to the Barkley example. He cited prejudiced statements from Shaquille O'Neal and Jan Stevenson, a professional golfer. Statements like these are somehow less frowned upon in society, because we have had less experience with them than with prejudices towards African Americans. If athletes like Jeremy Lin, Yao Ming, Tiger Woods, Junior Seau, and Apolo Ohno can continue to show success as an Asian American athlete, then hopefully we will realize that these prejudices are just as bad as ones towards any other ethnicity or race.
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