Of fools and fortune cookies
I’ll grant you that “Chink in the Armor” is in poor taste when discussing a basketball player of Chinese descent. But now the grandstanding and stink of political correctness has gotten out of control….
I’ll grant you that “Chink in the Armor” is in poor taste when discussing a basketball player of Chinese descent. But now the grandstanding and stink of political correctness has gotten out of control. Bowing to pressure from some uptight jerkwads, Ben and Jerry’s has now pulled its “Taste the Lin-sanity” ice cream because they used bits of fortune cookies in the mix. Let me ask you all this serious question: WHO DOESN’T WANT TO TRY AN ICE CREAM WITH FORTUNE COOKIE BITS IN IT??? It sounds delicious but you’ll never know how that combination will play on your tongue because people with sticks up their asses and a few bad apples who decided to take their Asian jokes too far have ruined it for all of us.
Check out the guidelines the Asian-American Journalist Association has laid out for YOU when talking about Jeremy Lin. I don’t know what exactly the Asian-American Journalist Association does but killing our buzz regarding enjoying this young man’s rise in the NBA is one of them. Don’t say “chink.” Got it. You would think Ben and Jerry’s track record of progressive benefits regarding its employees and its support of things like gay marriage would have earned them a pass on this. But no. The fascists at the Asian-American Journalist Association (notice I didn’t say Emperors) want to tell you exactly how to act. Do they come out this strong when a white guy gets made fun of in a Will Smith movie? How about when everyone chuckles as the lone white guy checks in for one of this three minutes of an NBA game?
Did the above picture draw any criticism from PC Gestapo? Probably not because the guy holding the sign is Asian. But aside from his ethnicity, it’s funny. It pokes holes in an Asian stereotype while simultaneously hyping Lin’s talents. If we can’t good naturedly poke fun at each other, we will never truly get to know one another. Call out racism when it happens. Shove it back down into the pits of hell where it belongs. But when something as harmless as fortune cookies in ice cream causes this much controversy, real racism is probably sneaking in the back door.
For what it’s worth, Lin is of Taiwanese decent. And I asked some in-laws of mine who are also of Taiwanese ancestry to tell me what horribly racist things people in Taiwan say about white people. They didn’t have much and at first I questioned whether they were sparing my white feelings. But they swore one of the only things you’d get called in Taiwan would be “big nosed foreigner.” I guess our noses seem very big to them over there and I’m personally offended that I’m being lumped in with other ethnicities who have big honkers. When the Asian-American Journalist Association amends its guidelines after the next assumed racist attack on Jeremy Lin, I would like to see them add not calling us “big nosed foreigners” to the list as a show of good faith. And if not, can I just get some damn fortune cookies in some ice cream already?
