Jeremy Lin on Chris Rock joke: ‘Tired of it being “cool” and “OK” to bash Asians’
“I thought it was a chance for me to stand up for Asians,” Torrance-born Jeremy Lin said of his tweet about Chris Rock’s Asian joke. The former Laker, whose parents are from Taiwan, plays for the Charlotte Hornets.
Jeremy Lin thinks Chris Rock is a “funny guy.” The former Lakers guard said he enjoyed watching the comedian host the Oscars on Sunday and appreaciated Rock’s recurring message about the lack of diversity in Hollywood.
But Lin, now with the Charlotte Hornets, also thinks Rock fell way short of the mark with one particular joke.
During the broadcast, Rock introduced three Asian children as PricewaterhouseCoopers accountants. “They sent us their most dedicated, accurate and hard-working representatives,” he said. “I want you to please welcome Ming Zhu, Bao Ling and David Moskowitz.”
Oscar host Chris Rock, right, introduces three Asian children as PricewaterhouseCoopers accountants.
Rock added, “If anybody’s upset about that joke, just tweet about it on your phone that was probably also made by these kids.”
Lin did just that on Monday.
Lin spoke to reporters about the tweet after practice on Tuesday.
“I thought it was a chance for me to stand up for Asians,” said the Torrance-born Lin, whose parents are from Taiwan.
“I just feel like sometimes the way people perceive Asians or Asian Americans today can be disappointing in the way they view them. Even Asian American masculinity or whatever you want to talk about, just a lot of the ways that Asians are perceived I don’t always agree with.”
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He added: “In acting, you look at Asian roles, they always seem to be in similar roles. I feel like we are just so much more broad than that. What you see on TV, that is so influential. Perception is reality and that’s the truth in today’s day and age where it’s such a digital and technological age.
“So if we can start branching out a little bit or at least showing that we are different than what other people think we are, maybe we can start to break down some of those walls.”
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