Jeremy Lin and the Model Minority Myth

There are many stereotypes that Asian-Americans try and fight on a daily basis. One of the major ones is the stereotype that Asian-Americans are a "model minority":

To quote from the wikipedia entry on Asian-Americans and the model minority myth:

"Asians are seen as hardworking, politically inactive, studious, intelligent, productive, and inoffensive people who have elevated their social standing through merit and diligence. This label is given in contrast to other racial stereotypes which routinely accuse minorities of socially unwelcome traits: such as laziness or criminal tendencies."

Personally, I find this very funny as I was never a great student in high school (graduating with a 2.50 GPA or somewhere along those lines). I attended my local State university and graduated with a double degree. All in all, I'm pretty much the anti-Asian Model Minority.

However, along with this model minority myth comes other stereotypes. Asian-Americans become these model minorities through hard work sometimes at the expense of other things. Stories are told of Asian-American parents telling their kids not to date or play sports so they can study to get into the Stanford's and Harvard's of the world. Thus starts the stereotype of the geeky, smart and non-athletic Asian-American kid who can get into college with an academic scholarship but not an athletic scholarship.

However, if you are Asian-American and live in the community on a daily basis, you will know that the model minority stereotype (as with all other stereotypes) are not true. There are smart and academically minded kids. Then there are kids who are more athletically gifted, though not many of them get into the public eye.

However, there are minimal amount of Asian-American athletes in the professional sports world and thus the stereotype of the non-athletic Asian-American still abounds. Therefore when foreign born Asian athletes such as Yao Ming, Ichiro and others made a splash, many Asian-Americans were happy to embrace them even if they didn't share their American born experiences. These were guys who were different and showed a different side of Asians that many people hadn't seen before.

When Jeremy Lin had some breakout basketball performances during his junior year at Harvard, some Asian Americans (including me) began to track him to see if he could make it to the NBA and finally shatter the stereotype of the non-athletic Asian-American.

Despite a good senior year, Jeremy Lin wasn't drafted. Many NBA executives didn't think he was athletic enough to compete in the NBA. However, Jeremy got an opportunity to play in the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas with the Dallas Maverics. While his stats weren't great, he showed poise, leadership and skill against much higher level of talent than he faced during his four years of college ball at Harvard. Thanks to his performances, there are many NBA teams that have shown interest including the defending NBA champions, the Los Angeles Lakers.

The ironic thing with Jeremy Lin? Yes, he's shown he can play basketball with just about anyone. But he did it the "Asian way". He had a 4.2 GPA in high school and played four years of basketball at Harvard and graduated with his degree! Harvard is more known for it's academics than athletics. Compare Jeremy Lin to the many college kids who leave school early to try to play basketball professionally.

Jeremy Lin has shown that it's possible to be both a good student and an NBA caliber basketball player. I am sure Jeremy Lin spent many hours in the classroom studying but also on the basketball court working on his game. These are all things that Jeremy Lin should be commended for.

Asian-Americans have spent many years trying fight the stereotype of the model minority. With Jeremy Lin leading the way, perhaps Asian-Americans need not try to fight the stereotype and instead channel it into other things besides academics. I hope that Jeremy's exploits will convince Asian-American parents to allow their kids to pursue their passions instead of settling for the traditional money making occupations such as being a lawyer, accountant or doctor. Jeremy Lin has shown a smart kid can play basketball. Why can't Asian Americans become singers, actors or other things?

No matter what happens to Jeremy Lin in the near future, he has already left a good example for future generations of Asian-Americans to follow. We just have to be bold to take those steps to pursue our life's passion rather than settling.