Lincidental Ignorance

When you're the self-proclaimed "Worldwide Leader of Sports", there are certain expectations that come with such a prestigious claim. Journalistic integrity? Sure. Factual accuracy? Absolutely. World-class presentation? Definitely.

Somehow, ESPN has been allowed to skate on being inconsistent on the aforementioned three counts. It's like calling yourself the best Italian restaraunt in town but, every now and then, whipping a pizza with too much sauce or serving up spaghetti that isn't al dente but being spared criticism because the restaraunt owner is good friends with the food critic and the only other dining option in town is the McDonald's on the other side of town. It's asking too much to expect perfection but there is a certian high standard that should be consistently delivered when one chooses to call itself the creme de la creme of sporting news, especially when said network butters its bread by constantly pointing out and overanalyzing the blunders of the very athletes that make their network relevant.

ESPN's latest snafu involves their new favorite go-to topic that they will mercifully pound into the ground much like they have with every other even miniscule story(case and point, LeBron's quote about considering a return to the Cavs in the future, which couldn't get enough airtime on Sportscenter). With football season over and thus no reason to obsess over the daily functions of one Tim Tebow, ESPN latched its bandwagon to a new sports Jesus: Jeremy Lin. ESPN isn't alone in its oversaturation of Linsanity. As the breakthrough star in the biggest sports market in the world, it was only a matter of time before Lin's story became constant front page news in the Big Apple. However, in trying to live up to the clever standards that come with calling yourself the "worldwide leader" of anything, ESPN managed to outsmart themselves and shoot themselves in the foot.

Just weeks after lambasting pound-for-pound boxing champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. and infamous FOX Sports columnist Jason Whitlock for comments they made regarding Lin's race, the pendulum swung back at Bristol and smacked them straight in the face. Hours after Lin's Knicks were upset by the lowly Hornets, snapping a seven-game win streak that began with Lin's now much-celebrated debut, ESPN, in a moment of blatant ignorance and inferior creativity, ran with this headline to accompany the story of Lin's defeat:

"Chink In The Armor: Jeremy Lin's 9 turnovers cost Knicks in streak-snapping loss to Hornets"

At the risk of sounding completely unprofessional: ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME, ESPN!?

Weeks of Lin-inspired puns on Twitter and on the various ESPN talk shows ranging from Lintercourse to Lincredible to "All He Does Is Lin Lin Lin", and THIS is the nonsense you come up with? The headline is wrong on so many levels....levels that go without saying. We get it. It was an unfunny attempt at humor which was more obviously recognized as a racial slur. The issues I have with this, as someone who is not Asian and thus not personally affected by the blatant racism of the headline, is two-fold: For one, ESPN spend an inordinate amount of time taking Whitlock to task for his insensitive tweet involving Lin and a common stereotype about Asians not being very well-endowed(The tweet wasn't funny, but it also wasn't something bad enough to be front page news. Maybe Whitlock's defiance and reputation as a rabble-rouser made the issue worse but ESPN certianly didn't sweep it under the rug. The same for the hoopla over Mayweather's comments that Lin's hype has a lot to do with him being Asian and playing in New York, which was ignorant but exactly far off), so the hypocrisy signal is flashing bright here.

Second, and more importantly to me, is the much-wider issue that involves more than just ESPN. Why does it matter than Jeremy Lin is Asian? If you take out Lin's ethnicity and just make him an ordinary black kid, his story is still an incredible underdog triumph. Sure, him being Taiwanese in a black-dominated sport makes it different, but it doesn't enhance the story. Somehow, Lin being popular AND Asian-American was the elephant in the room. It's like people couldn't talk about Lin and not bring it up, much like Tiger Woods being a hodgepodge of different cultures and races was something people couldn't let go during his early dominance of the golf game. In 2012, people still can't be people. Barack Obama can't just be President. He has to be known as a Black president. Eminem can't just be a rapper. He's a white rapper. How is we're still taking two steps forward and one step back in a society that has managed to evolve the way we watch television, order food and listen to music? On a network that tries so hard to censor itself to avoid a Nipplegate-like backlash, how did something so blatantly ignorant slide past the powers-that-be? I'm supposed to believe that NOBODY at the Worldwide Leader, who are the undisputed kings of overreaction, thought that using the word "chink" to headline a story about an Asian-American was going to stir up some trouble? Especially after watching Whitlock get raked over the coals by various rights groups just fot insinuating Lin had a tiny penis(which very well might be true. Not that it excuses Whitlock for even bringing it up, but I'm suspending criticism of Whitlock's comments until Lin proves he's the second coming of Peter North).

Look, we all make mistakes but sometimes you reap what you sew. ESPN, moreso than any network, should have known better for the simple fact that they make their money by generating outrage over the very same comments they got caught using. Eventually, this will all go away and we'll move on to the next controversy but if we truly want to evolve as a country than we need to quit associating color with people. How can we stand on a moral high ground over other countries when we gawk at something as simple as an Ivy League-educated Asian point guard like he's a unicorn snacking on leaves in Shangri La? History suggests that this won't be the last of ESPN's mistakes but if they truly want to establish themselves as the "worldwide leader" then they will take this latest case of Licidental negligence and turn it into something a bit more Linspiring than another reason to stir up debate on one of their many overreacting talking head shows.