Jeremy Lin: National Media's Hypersensitivity Continues to Tarnish Linsanity

There are two instances that have drawn national attention in a negative way to the "Linsanity" generated by the New York Knicks' out-of-nowhere star Jeremy Lin.

The first was a highly deplorable and outright racist and cruel statement from Jason Whitlock: "Some lucky lady in NYC is gonna feel a couple inches of pain tonight."

There's not much needed to elaborate on here. It's so offensive that it doesn't need explanation. The "apology" rivals the statement in its offensiveness:

"

I then gave in to another part of my personality — my immature, sophomoric, comedic nature. It's been with me since birth, a gift from my mother and honed as a child listening to my godmother's Richard Pryor albums. I still want to be a stand-up comedian.

"

In other words, he's sorry for being funny. The fact that he still thinks the comment is in any way humorous is appalling. Playing to racial stereotypes is not humorous. It's ugly. It's demeaning. It's morally reprehensible. 

The second incident is in regards to ESPN analyst Max Bretos, who asked live on the air, "If there is a chink in the armor in his game, where is it?"

There is a racial slur in there if you are looking for it, but was it intentional? Does the manner in which he asked the question look like he's delivering a punch line or just asking a question? If it were an Asian asking the exact same question, in the exact same manner, would you read a double meaning into the word?

Considering the context of the conversation, it seemed a normal way to phrase the question. If he were referencing a black player or white player, there would be nothing about the question that seemed odd. The "bleep" in the armor is obviously his turnover problem. It's something that everyone was talking about with regards to Linsanity.

Bretos tweets his own apology, much more sincere.

One of the reply tweets to Bretos explains just how twisted the conversation has gotten.

Clearly, there is a difference between having a token "black friend" and a token "Asian wife." You're married to your wife. That's the only wife you have. 

It's safe to say that a person who has actually married someone of a different race does not have ill feelings towards people of that race. He has a half-Asian child with her. 

Being accused of being a racist has an automatic guilt tied to it. Anything Bretos says at this point is just going to "prove" that he's racist to those who want to cast dispersion. 

Let's look at this with a little reason. Whatever race a wife is, there is one thing all wives have in common—a ticked-off wife is a frightening thing. If you are married, you agree. If you are not married, you will agree. Do you think Bretos went home and yucked this up with her and her family?

Take Occam's razor here. There are two possibilities.

One possibility is that he meant it to be a racial slur, and not just any racial slur, but the racial slur as it comes to Asians. He intentionally used the single most offensive word that you can use in conjunction with Asians.

The other possibility is he was just using a common turn of phrase that had the unfortunate coincidence of being used in conjunction with a player whose name has been used in about 1.2 million puns, and the dual meaning of the word was entirely unintentional. He unintentionally used a word that has a double meaning.

In other words, he's either extremely racist or extremely not racist. Which is more consistent with a person who has an Asian wife and Asian child?

We have to be careful to not rush to judgement so quickly in this matter that we assume he's making a racist statement because he's white. It seems to me the more reasonable scenario is he was just using an innocent idiom that had an unfortunate double meaning that he didn't see because his brain wasn't trying to see it.