A tense discussion erupted at the Kenworthy Performing Arts Center Wednesday night after a free, public showing of the documentary “Linsanity.”
The movie featured NBA star Jeremy Lin and his rise to success as a basketball player, while he endured challenges of racism and discrimination. The film showing was hosted by the University of Idaho School of Journalism and Mass Media, and after the documentary, a panel of five people opened a discussion about racism in the NBA, Asian stereotypes and Lin’s successes in his athletic career.
The panel consisted of Sharon Stoll, a professor in the department of movement sciences at Washington State University and the director for the Center of Ethics; Denise Bennett, assistant professor in the UI school of journalism and mass media; Yong-Chae Rhee, assistant professor of sports management at WSU; Brian Quinnett, former NBA basketball player and WSU alumnus and Michael Park, assistant professor in journalism and mass media.
“(The film) was a great story of success it’s a story of someone against all odds and against underlying racism succeeding you like stories like that,” Stoll said.
The conversation flowed between the topic of discrimination against Asian culture and other races in athletics, to how the director of the documentary possibly skewed the story to make it seem like Lin had dealt with more discrimination than he did in reality.
Park asked the panel if the NBA is a system based on pure ability or if the NBA is a flawed system based on race and stereotypes.
“As an Asian person, I feel like I’ve been through what he’s been through we have this stereotypical norm on how we should be raised and how should they should perform and one of them is not as an NBA player,” Rhee said.
Park said Lin is one of the six finalists to be deemed “Mr. Basketball” of California. He pointed out the other finalists received multiple Division I offers to play college basketball, while Lin received none.
“You wonder all these players are getting these offers and Jeremy just won the state title against one of the most predominate high school sports programs it really raises some questions,” Park said.
Quinnett said he also experienced racism and stereotyping during his time playing in the NBA for the New York Knicks.
“There was times I was the only white player on the team … there were times I was the only white player in the game,” Quinnett said. “I felt like an outsider, like I wasn’t a part of the culture. I think he (Lin) got a little lucky with timing I really related to him I think the interesting concept would be is what if he had been a black kid? Would there have been the hype? I was all in, I loved seeing an Asian guy do it. I know how hard it was for him to come over the prejudice.”
The discussion was relatively calm until Park called on the audience to ask the panelists questions and to comment on the issues that “Linsanity” highlighted.
One audience member said the film used Lin as a basketball character in a religious message and that he found it unpleasant to watch. Park replied that religion was an important element in the movie, because Lin is known to be a devout Christian.
Other members of the audience asked questions about whether the fact that Lin played for a more well-known NBA team affected his popularity, or if he’d be considered an “underdog” if he wasn’t Taiwanese.
“You guys (the panel) talked about race and racism and you talked about diversity and overcoming the underdog story but I mean I thought it was kind of funny you guys all jumped into the race issue you didn’t see a man up there,” one anonymous audience member said. “I saw a man in that movie. There was a man chasing his dream he talks about overcoming racism. You talk about racism up there, but you didn’t mention how he turned it into something good.”
The panelists were quiet for a moment then replied, “We do know what you mean but we wouldn’t be here if he wasn’t Taiwanese-American right? Whether we like it or not, these issues do exist,” Bennett said.
The audience started to throw comments and criticisms back and forth concerning race, religious content in the movie and whether the documentary portrayed the story correctly.
“Whose truth is it?” one of the videographers filming the panel asked.