Watch This: Jeremy Lin a Star Despite Bigotry

ColorLines' Jamilah King says that the rise of New York Knicks star Jeremy Lin — the deeply religious son of Taiwanese immigrants — shouldn't be surprising. But the fact that it is a shock to many unearths and challenges some deeply held assumptions about the place of Asian Americans in U.S. culture. Suggested Reading Three…

ColorLines' Jamilah King says that the rise of New York Knicks star Jeremy Lin — the deeply religious son of Taiwanese immigrants — shouldn't be surprising. But the fact that it is a shock to many unearths and challenges some deeply held assumptions about the place of Asian Americans in U.S. culture.

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From ColorLines:

Lin is only one of a handful of Asian-American players in the NBA's history, and the first in over a decade. Although 1950 is usually seen as the year when two black basketball players broke the color barrier, Japanese-American Wataru Misaka technically did it two seasons before in 1947-48, when he played for the New York Knicks.

Although Lin has consistently shown promise since his high school days — even leading his Palo Alto, Calif., high school team to a state championship his senior year — he was overlooked by both college coaches and NBA scouts. The first time he showed up to a summer league game in San Francisco's celebrated Pro-Am tournament, someone at the gym told him: “Sorry, sir, there’s no volleyball here tonight. Just basketball.”

It was a precursor to the thinly veiled prejudice that Lin and other Asian American male basketball players often face after decades of racist caricaturing that’s stereotyped them as nerdy and un-athletic, wholly incapable of excelling in a distinctly physical sport like basketball. “The most glaring stereotype to plague Asian athletes is that they are too small to succeed at the highest levels — too short for basketball, too weak for football,” Adachi said.

Read more at ColorLines.

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