Jeremy Lin's Strategic Appropriation of Black Masculinity

“I HAVEN’T DONE ANYTHING TO BE POLARIZING”: JEREMY LIN’S STRATEGIC APPROPRIATION OF BLACK MASCULINITY by Nicholas H. C. Wong Bachelor of Arts, University of Victoria, 2014 A thesis presented to Ryerson University and York University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the joint program of Communication and Culture Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 2019 © Nicholas Heng Hua Churchill Wong, 2019 Author’s Declaration for Electronic Submission of a Thesis I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this thesis. This is a true copy of the thesis, including any required final revisions, as accepted by my examiners. I authorize Ryerson University to lend this thesis to other institutions or individuals for the purpose of scholarly research. I further authorize Ryerson University to reproduce this thesis by photocopying or by other means, in total or in part, at the request of other institutions or individuals for the purpose of scholarly research. I understand that my thesis may be made electronically available to the public. ii “I HAVEN’T DONE ANYTHING TO BE POLARIZING”: JEREMY LIN’S STRATEGIC APPROPRIATION OF BLACK MASCULINITY Nicholas H. C. Wong Master of Arts in the joint program of Communication and Culture Ryerson University and York University, 2019 Abstract This thesis investigates the appropriation of Black masculinity by Asian American basketball player Jeremy Lin. Subjecting media coverage to a combination of content analysis and critical discourse analysis uncovers the presence of four appropriative themes of Asianness: (a) the supraethnic viability of Asianness; (b) the necessary defeat of Blackness; (c) the disallowance of anti-Asian sentiment; and (d) the presence of a helpful Black cohort. These themes are themselves given meaning by five racially magnetized frames that position Asian Americans in opposition to Blackness across multiple dimensions: (a) Asian Americans as model minorities; (b) Asian American men as emasculated; (c) Asian Americans as invisible; (d) Asian Americans as forever foreign; and (e) Asian and Black Americans as enemies. The results of this study suggest that Asian American men benefit from the appropriation of Blackness, but that this benefit is contingent upon their ability to uphold heterosexist, white supremacist ideologies. Keywords: Jeremy Lin, basketball, race iii Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Nicole Neverson, for her patience, wisdom, and guidance throughout this process. I would also like to thank my committee members, Dr. Lily Cho and Dr. Anne-Marie Lee-Loy, for generously taking the time to share their perspectives on this project. And lastly, a big thank you to my family, friends, and partner Lauren for their support and encouragement. iv Table of Contents Author’s Declaration for Electronic Submission of a Thesis ii Abstract iii Acknowledgements iv List of Tables vii Introduction 1 Theoretical Concepts 6 Intersectionality........................................................................................................................... 6 Race and Racialization: Racial Formation and Race as Sliding Signifier .................................. 7 Relative Racialization: Racial Triangulation and Racial Magnetism ......................................... 8 Misogylinity .............................................................................................................................. 10 Performativity ........................................................................................................................... 12 Cultural Appropriation and Minstrelsy ..................................................................................... 13 Strategic Rhetoric of Whiteness................................................................................................ 14 Literature Review 17 Revolutionary Roots: Afro-Asian Relations in the United States (1950s–1970s) .................... 17 Racial Adversaries: Afro-Asian Relations in the United States (1980s–Present) .................... 25 Sports, Race, and Masculinity .................................................................................................. 30 Jeremy Lin ................................................................................................................................ 40 Research Questions 45 v Methodology 46 Data Collection ......................................................................................................................... 50 Sample....................................................................................................................................... 52 Data Analysis ............................................................................................................................ 52 Findings 56 Quantitative Content Analysis .................................................................................................. 57 Voices and writers................................................................................................................. 57 Topics and themes................................................................................................................. 60 Critical Discourse Analysis....................................................................................................... 62 Themes of Asianness. ........................................................................................................... 63 Racially Magnetized Frames................................................................................................. 77 Conclusion 103 References 108 vi List of Tables Table 1 Analytical Concepts Organized According to Campbell & Wiggins (2015) Typology ... 57 Table 2 Race of Writers and Voices in Jeremy Lin Media Coverage ........................................... 58 Table 3 Topics and Themes Over Time in Jeremy Lin Media Coverage ...................................... 60 Table 4 Topics and Themes by Race of Writer ............................................................................. 62 vii “I Haven’t Done Anything to be Polarizing”: Jeremy Lin’s Strategic Appropriation of Black Masculinity Introduction When Jeremy Lin briefly became the marquee star of the National Basketball Association (NBA) in February 2012, the story generated an unprecedented amount of media attention for a number of reasons. There was his education and college basketball career at Harvard University—a school synonymous with high academic achievement but typically devoid of basketball standouts. There was his path to the NBA—passed over by every team in the entry draft and then twice cut by teams after receiving little playing time. There was also the setting—New York City, the centre of the media universe and so called “Mecca of basketball”. There was, of course, the team—the long-suffering New York Knicks, desperate to give their fanbase a taste of success after years mired in disappointment and mediocrity. Then there was the level of play—Lin led the struggling team to seven straight victories, hitting game-winning shots and breaking scoring records after finally getting the opportunity to showcase his talents. However, of all the factors just mentioned, none was more salient and scrutinized than race. Lin, who was born in Palo Alto, California to Taiwanese immigrant parents, was considered a racial anomaly. Only a handful of players of Asian descent—and even fewer Asian Americans1—have ever played in the NBA, let alone found success. Basketball has long been considered a Black2 domain, a notion seemingly borne out by the fact that African American 1 Following the Asian American Journalists Association (2014), I use the term “Asian American” rather than “Asian” when referring Lin and others of Asian descent who are U.S. citizens. Making this distinction clarifies the cultural differences between the two groups and disrupts stereotypes of Asians as “forever foreign”. However, the category of “Asian”—American or not—is itself broad, ill-defined, and unstable (Korhonen, 1997). While my analysis tends to maintain a focus on East Asian (e.g., Chinese, Taiwanese, Japanese, Korean) diasporic people and communities, aspects of it may be relevant to those with roots in West, South, and Southeast Asia. 2 Traditionally, most style guides have recommended writing “black” and “white” in all lowercase letters when referring to race (Perlman, 2015; “White, white”, 2016). However, more recently, many have argued strongly in 1 athletes make up nearly 75 percent of NBA players (Lapchick, 2018). Asian American men by contrast have been viewed as too small and meek to possibly succeed against their supposedly physically superior, aggressive Black counterparts. Lin’s streak of stellar play therefore left media commentators baffled, seemingly unable to process the incongruous visual spectacle of an Asian American man competing and excelling against Black athletes at the highest level of hypermasculine sport. This media frenzy came to be known as Linsanity, a derivation of NBA icon Vince Carter’s nickname “Vinsanity”. It is a phrase that therefore captures both the surreal quality of Lin’s star turn, and binds him to a legacy of Black athletic excellence as embodied by Carter. Characterizations of Lin’s basketball success as beyond belief and “Linpossible” seem to support Sean Tierney’s (2006) expectation that unquestioned movement across racial boundaries is a privilege only afforded to white3 people in popular culture. For him, the ability

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