Three outstanding essays on Jeremy Lin

Jay Caspian Kang: Jeremy and Jin

Somewhere in the endless comparisons, odd personal anecdotes about meeting the man, and obsessive odes to Lin’s musculature, these fans have placed an implicit caveat onto his story: if he makes it to the league and plays a White game, this will all be for nothing.

Jay Caspian Kang: Trailblazin’

There is no narrative for an Asian American kid who led his team to a state title, went completely unrecuited, settled for Harvard, for chrissake, dominated the Ivies, went undrafted and then signed with an NBA team straight out of the summer league.

Cord Jefferson: The alarming rise of Jeremy Lin’s black antagonists

Whitlock apologized for his tweet after a day or so of haranguing, but one wonders how a well-respected—or at least very public—media professional could ever think that mocking Asian men’s penises in front of millions of people was the right thing to do. Sadder still is that Whitlock, like Lee, claims to be a big fan of Lin’s. If this is what fans are doing, imagine what Lin’s detractors think of him.

[Edit: Adding one more. Everything this guy writes is so on point.] 

Jay Caspian Kang: A question of identity

In the past, I’ve been as guilty as anyone else of turning a blind eye to racist things people have said to me. For the most part, I have nodded along with the calculus that says that because “our people” have achieved and because we “didn’t have it as bad as others,” we should just shut up and point to the scoreboard of Ivy League admissions. Or whatever. But a career of deflections and rationalizations leaves a residue. Linsanity, and everything ugly that inevitably came with it, has given us cause to clear our throats and expunge what can sometimes feel like a lifetime of silence and compromise.