Charlotte’s Jeremy Lin criticizes Asian-mocking skit
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Hornets guard Jeremy Lin is disappointed about the way Asians were stereotyped during an onstage skit at Sunday night’s Oscars, and said more racial awareness is needed.
“I just feel like sometimes the way people perceive Asians or Asian Americans today can be disappointing in the way they view them,” Lin said after the Hornets’ practice Tuesday.
At Sunday night’s awards show, host Chris Rock introduced three Asian children dressed in tuxedos as PricewaterhouseCoopers accountants and joked: They sent us their most dedicated, accurate and hard-working representatives.
Mee Moua, president and executive director of the Washington-based Asian Americans Advancing Justice, called the show a setback for diversity in a statement Monday.
Sunday “night’s ceremony, and particularly the ‘joke’ involving Asian children, which played off more than one damaging stereotype of Asians and Asian Americans, exposed one of the failings of how we talk about race in America: race relations are not a black-white binary,” Moua said.
Lin, who earned national attention for his scoring prowess while playing for the Knicks during the “Linsanity” era, said too often Asians are depicted with certain stereotypes in Hollywood.