Ben & Jerry & Jeremy

C'mon.  You really didn't think I could go the whole month without writing a post about Jeremy Lin, did you?

I'm not sure how this post will end up, but I do know where it's going to start.  It's going to start with this link.

Last week, a Ben and Jerry's ice cream shop in Harvard Square introduced a frozen yogurt flavor named "Taste the Lin-Sanity".  That in itself, wasn't very controversial.  After all, everyone's trying to hop on the Jeremy Lin bandwagon these days ( We already got Knicks Lin #17 T-shirts for the boys and Ruth's Dad.  Ruth didn't didn't get one for herself, which surprised me a bit.  I told her that if a guy with MY last name was playing for ANY professional sports team ( well except for the Yankees, Dolphins, or Patriots ), I'd be wearing that guy's jersey 24-hours a day. ), and Lin did go to Harvard, so you could see why the Harvard Square location of Ben & Jerry's would try to cash in.  However, what was controversial was that the "Lin-Sanity" flavor had fortune cookies in it.  This caused enough controversy that Ben & Jerry's issued an apology.

Now, while the idea of a Jeremy Lin fortune-cookie flavored frozen yogurt bothers me, I'm bothered even more by the the response of most people to the Ben & Jerry's apology.  If you look at the comments attached to the linked ESPN article above ( and the comments by the commentators in the video attached to the article ), you'll see exactly what I mean, but a good representative comment was ...

BirdiePool

An apology was not necessary. This country is getting ridiculous.

2398 fans like this.

I also think this country is ridiculous, but I think it's ridiculous because 99% of the people in this county have no idea what's wrong with introducing a fortune-cookie flavored frozen yogurt to "celebrate" a Taiwanese-American basketball player.  I think it's ridiculous that people still think it's okay to make juvenile Asian-themed jokes about Jeremy Lin,  like "Who said Asian's can't drive?" ( This includes one of my favorite comics, Bill Maher.  I was very disappointed that Maher did a bunch of cringe-worthy Asian jokes on his show, including such beauties as "Peking Dunk" and "Moo Goo Guy Slam" - see here and here for the clips ).  I think it's ridiculous that Lin's teammates greeted him with Japanese-style bows after he hit one of his first big  shots.

Why do I think it's so ridiculous?  Well I covered this extensively before in the video below back in September of 2007, but allow me to go on another little rant about this ...



Let's say the Jeremy Lin story had happened exactly the same way, except that he had been a California-born Harvard-educated guy named Jeremy McGraw or Jeremy Schmidt instead of an California-born Harvard-educated guy named Jeremy Lin.  If that was the case, those Ben & Jerry's employees would never have even thought about introducing a shamrock green frozen yogurt to celebrate Jeremy McGraw.  They would never have even thought about introducing a German Black Forest Cake frozen yogurt to honor Jeremy Schmidt.  I say they "would never have even thought about it" not because I think those Ben & Jerry's employees would have thought that a Irish-themed or German-theme dessert would have been offensive.  I say they "would never have even thought about it" because they literally would never have thought of it.  The idea of making an Irish-themed dessert to honor the American-born Jeremy McGraw would never have crossed their minds.  It would have never crossed their minds, because all those Ben & Jerry's employees would have thought of Jeremy McGraw as American rather than Irish.  They would have thought of Jeremy Schmidt as American rather than German.  However, the vast majority Americans still think of Jeremy Lin as Asian rather than American.

This bothers me a lot.  It's bothered me for a long time.  I'm a pretty patriotic person, and I believe that America's greatness is based on its diversity.  I truly believe that the heterogeneous nature of the US population  makes the USA the greatest nation in the world.  Sure, nations like England, Germany, and Japan have had their day, and countries like China and India seem to be on the rise, but nations like those will always be limited their lack of diversity.  Those countries are limited by the fact that only the majority race and majority culture has a real chance to get to the top.  In the USA, anyone can get to the top.  They best, brightest, and most ambition people in the world aren't flocking to England, Germany, Japan, China, or India.  They're coming HERE, to the good old USA!  America is at its best when we follow the spirit of those words at the base of the Statue of Liberty.  It's at its best when its people realize that being an American isn't about where your ancestors were from - it's about were you're going.  It isn't about what you look like, it's about what you can do - what we all have the opportunity to do.  That opportunity should exist for anyone who calls this place home.  All the people who live here and collectively make this country great are Americans, and it sickens me that most people in this country think of Jeremy Lin as Asian rather than American.  It sickens me that most Americans would think of my wife as being Asian rather than American.  I really would have liked to think that our nation would have come farther by 2012, which is why I find stuff like Jeremy Lin fortune-cookie flavored frozen yogurt so disheartening.

That being said, I believe things will get better over time, and I think Jeremy Lin has a unique opportunity to make things better.  Let's face it, the guy is pretty much a walking stereotype-breaker.  Every time he drives the lane and dunks the ball he helps break the stereotype of the meek unathletic Asian.  Plus it appears that Jeremy "gets it" too.  Check out this quote from Mr. Lin:

“a lot of people say I’m deceptively athletic and deceptively quick, and I’m not sure what’s ‘deceptive.’ But it could be the fact that I’m Asian-American.”

I really hope Jeremy's success continues and he has the courage ( rather than trying the "play nice" and be non-controversial in order to maximize his endorsement bucks ( See Jordan, Michael ) ) to keep speaking out.  Very few Asian-Americans have had the forum that he has now, and I hope he can help the rest of America to understand what it really means to be an American.

Rich