The sudden emergence of New York Knicks’ PG Jeremy Lin has been an amazing story of perseverance and triump over adversity. He has a contract that became guaranteed Friday night. As the 4th string PG, he was one week from likely being cut from the Knicks roster. The timing of his break out could not have been more perfect. Lin has galvanized the Knicks’ fanbase, temporarily saved Mike D’Antoni’s job, and answered criticism that his jump shot was sketchy. Lin’s humility, on par with Derrick Rose, has endeared him with fans, and more importantly, with his team mates.
Unfortunately, as he continues to play at an All-Star level, Lin is bombarded with blatant racism at every turn. Friday night at Madison Square Garden against the Los Angeles Lakers, signs stating “Yellow Mamba” were shown on ESPN. Besides being racist, it’s tacky and classless. Black Mamba’s actually exist, and let’s not forget that Kobe Bryant gave himself that nickname. The same night, after the game, Fox columnist Jason Whitlock tweeted “Some Lucky Lady in NYC is gonna feel a couple inches of pain tonight.” I would expect that from the comments section of a Yahoo Sports article, but not a Professional Sportswriter. Imagine if Skip Bayless made a fried chicken joke about Kyrie Irving.
Of course, racism is nothing new for Jeremy Lin. It played a part in him not getting any Division I scholarship offers. He’s heard people during games use jeers such as “Open your eyes!”, “sweet and sour pork”, and suedo-Chinese gibberish. Racism even helped keep him from getting drafted into the NBA. But now the racism is coming from people who are, or should be, cheering for him. Fans in the stands with ignorant, stereotypical signs. “He drives better than any Asian I’ve ever seen” read a sign during a recent Knicks’ game. Some of the time it’s just bad attempts at being funny, but remember, there is a thin line between being racist and having “jokes.”
Ball Never Lies 
Brings up an interesting question… Can people of the same race / ethnicity be racist against their own? Because I’ve seen a few Asian (of Chinese ethnicity) refer to him as “Yellow Mamba” several times in the last week. I’ve also seen Asians claiming “YELLOW POWER!” from time to time too; in a playful way of course. But are these terms really offensive when other Asians use it… or only when used by non-Asians? I actually thought it was kind of amusing when I first heard “Yellow Mamba”. Sure, Black Mambas actually exist (…and as far as I know, the “black” part of Kobe’s nickname really has nothing to do with his race), but the J-Lin version was basically a play on words, which injected race for humor / effect. It reminds me of Jason Williams’ old nickname, “White Chocolate”. He didn’t give himself that nickname either, but it caught on after he was drafted and (as far as I know) wasn’t really considered a negative remark at the time. I guess “Yellow” isn’t typically used as a color (in relation to race) when filling out applications… so I can see why it might sound offensive to some. In fact, when I think of Yellow people, I think of “The Simpsons” cartoon… but technically, Black people aren’t really “black”… and White people aren’t really “white” either… so, is calling someone “yellow” any less legitimate than calling anyone else by their skin-tone affiliated color? I don’t know… maybe we’re being too sensitive at times. I wouldn’t be any more offended by a talented Asian NBA baller being called “Yellow Mamba,” than I would a fast African American track runner being called “Black Lightning”.
Now with that said, the “inches of pain” comment was ignorant, foolish and clearly racist, imo. So are some of the remarks that have been yelled out by audience members… although, I’ve seen plenty of asshole fans / audience members at games, so that’s not too surprising. I also remember a story about him being called “chink” by a teammate at his Ivy-league college. So, yeah… He’s definitely no newbie to such obvious racism.