May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. May is also when the National Basketball Association (NBA) Playoffs begin to heat up. The Golden State Warriors – the defending NBA Champions and perhaps the NBA team with the largest percentage of Asian Pacific American fans – continue to be the hottest team in the league. Therefore, a significant portion of Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States as well as in the diaspora are likely focused on NBA basketball right now. And when it comes to putting Asian Pacific American people and NBA basketball together, many folks will most likely think of Jeremy Lin.
Remembering “Linsanity”
Jeremy Lin – a Taiwanese American basketball player – rose to stardom in 2012 while playing for the New York Knicks. He went from being an unknown, fringe NBA player to infusing hope on a struggling NBA team. After being inserted as the starting point guard for the Knicks as a last resort – the other point guards on the roster were all injured – Lin surprisingly led his team to a decent win-loss record.
Jeremy Lin’s rapid rise from being an anonymous guy often mistaken as a fan by NBA arena security to the NBA’s most popular player was mind-boggling! After playing in just 12 games, major media outlets such as USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, and CBS Sports stated that he already deserved to play in the All-Star Game! In just two weeks of getting major playing time, Jeremy Lin made it on the cover of Time magazine, GQ, and Sports Illustrated. After playing in just 26 games, the New York Times already called Lin the Knicks' “most popular player in a decade”!
Over the years since that very brief but “out-of-this-world” moment of “Linsanity,” Jeremy Lin has turned into a decent NBA player with averages of 11.7 points, 2.8 rebounds, and 4.4 assists per game over a six-year career so far wherein he has started 183 games.
Let me be clear: I’m not taking anything away from Jeremy Lin. He obviously has game and his story from not being recruited out of high school, to Harvard star, to not being drafted by an NBA team, to barely making an NBA roster, and to now being a solid NBA player is definitely inspirational for a lot of Asian Americans – especially Asian American men who constantly face emasculating stereotypes. His story is the stuff of “Hollywood,” which is fittingly and deservingly told through “Linsanity: The Movie.” So I am not hating on Jeremy Lin at all. In fact, more power to him and I am genuinely rooting for him!
I am just curious why the same amount of attention is not given Jordan Clarkson.
The Invisible Asian American
Yes, I am referring to that Jordan Clarkson who is the starting point guard for the Los Angeles Lakers, and who is considered as the Lakers’ next star especially now that Kobe Bryant has retired. That Jordan Clarkson who worked his way up from not being a highly-recruited high school prospect to playing for Tulsa, and then transferring to Missouri, to playing in the NBA D-league, to now being the Lakers’ starting point guard. That Jordan Clarkson who started 38 games for the Lakers as a rookie - averaging 12 points, over 3 rebounds, and over 3 assists per game - which led to him being awarded NBA All Rookie First Team honors. That Jordan Clarkson who started all 79 games he played this year, averaging almost 16 points per game, making him the Lakers’ second-leading scorer behind Kobe Bryant’s 17.5 points average. That Jordan Clarkson who is only in his second year in the NBA but already has better statistics than Jeremy Lin.
You might say, “Well, Jeremy Lin is Asian American – which is a big reason why he became so popular.” That is very true. Jeremy Lin being Asian American definitely played a huge role with “Linsanity!” This is because it is very rare to see an Asian American NBA player; it is literally out of the scope of many people’s minds – it’s incomprehensible – to see an Asian American NBA player. It is literally “Linsane!”
Well, in case you did not know already, Jordan Clarkson is Asian American too. Yes, Jordan Clarkson is Filipino American - and very proud of it.
People might say, “Well, Jeremy Lin was playing for the Knicks – a huge media market.” Well, so is Los Angeles. In fact, one can argue that Los Angeles might be a bigger basketball market now given their teams’ (Lakers and Clippers) recent successes compared to the Knicks. Also, given the fact that Los Angeles and California has a much larger Asian American population than New York, one can argue that Los Angeles is a much bigger market for an Asian American NBA player than New York.
So why is there no similar amount of shock, awe, fandom, pandemonium, attention, and hype surrounding Jordan Clarkson’s rise as an NBA star in the NBA’s most glamorous, most star-studded, and most “Hollywood” franchise?
Where’s the “Linsanity” over Filipino American NBA Star Jordan Clarkson?
I am not really sure, but here are four potential reasons why people are not going “Lin-sane” about Jordan Clarkson, reasons that bring to light much larger issues that are widespread in the Asian American community and the general population.
1. He doesn’t "look Asian," he looks Black, so he doesn’t shatter stereotypes. Jeremy Lin looks like the prototypical Asian, so he stands out in the NBA. Asian features have been equated with weakness, lack of athletic ability, nerdy-ness. So Jeremy Lin clearly and very obviously shattered stereotypes. The visual of him on an NBA basketball court doesn’t fit people’s – including Asian people’s – mindscapes and expectations. And because of that, people were surprised by him, awed by him, and thus, remember him. On the other hand, Clarkson does not have prototypical Asian features. In fact, Clarkson looks Black, and Black phenotype has been equated with athletic ability. So the visual of Jordan Clarkson tearing it up in an NBA game definitely fits people’s expectations and stereotypes already. In people’s minds, Jordan Clarkson is nothing out of the ordinary. So there’s nothing to hype about him – he’s “Just another athletic Black man who is very good at playing basketball.” This right here, however, should make people reflect on the stereotypes we hold about certain groups of people – including our own groups – and how limiting and harmful such stereotypes are for people, including ourselves.
2. Anti-Black attitudes, even among Asian Americans. Many people – including Asians and Filipinos – who know that Jordan Clarkson is Filipino still tend to not hype him up as much as they hyped up Jeremy Lin. Perhaps one of the reasons for this is they do not see Clarkson as a “true” Asian because he’s mixed-race; Clarkson is also Black. There seems to be a strong and widespread anti-Black sentiment among Asian Americans, especially among Filipinos. Being Black – or even simply having darker skin complexion – has been associated by many Asian Americans with inferiority, undesirability, and unattractiveness. Many Asian families will be fine with their children to marry White people, perhaps they might even encourage their children to do so, but they will explicitly forbid their children from intermarrying with Black people. This racism in the Asian American community needs to be acknowledged, addressed, and resisted, as the reality is that many of our brothers and sisters are mixed-race – many of whom are Black. Even further, the Asian American community is very diverse in terms of skin tone and heritage (e.g., there are indigenous peoples in Indonesia and the Philippines who have African roots), so it is time that we eradicate anti-Black prejudice and colorism in the community.
3. Filipinos are marginalized, even by other Asians. Jordan Clarkson being Black may not be the only reason why many Asian Americans are not as excited or proud of him as they were with Jeremy Lin. Another reason for why many Asian Americans might be ignoring Clarkson is because he is Filipino. Indeed, research shows that Filipinos commonly experience discrimination even from other Asian Americans. Research also shows that Filipinos continue to be the “Forgotten Asian Americans” even though Filipinos have a long and significant history with and within the U.S. - with the Philippines being a former U.S colony, with Filipinos being on the lands now known as California as far back as 1587 long before there was even a United States of America, and with Filipinos composing 20% of the Asian Pacific American population that makes them the 2nd largest Asian Pacific American group in the U.S. This marginalization of Filipinos within the Asian American community may be a reason why Asian Americans aren’t as hyped about Jordan Clarkson as they were about a “true,” “phenotypically” Asian American player like Jeremy Lin.
4. The general public may not see Filipinos as Asians. A recent book by Dr. Anthony Ocampo shows that many folks do not see Filipinos as Asian. Instead, many people may see Filipinos as Pacific Islanders or as Mexicans or as other Latinos/as. For example, Pulitzer Prize winner Junot Diaz stated upon visiting the Philippines that “Filipinos would have no problem over there (Dominican Republic). You wouldn’t even notice you’ve left…Our countries have been colonized by both the Spanish and the (Americans). I feel the similarities very strongly.” Also, Dr. Ocampo’s research suggests that many Filipinos may not see themselves as Asians, as he found that while 96%-98% of Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese individuals identify as “Asian,” only 47% of Filipinos do. Therefore, even folks who know that Jordan Clarkson is Filipino may not be associating the same kinds of stereotypes to him as they do with people who are “phenotypically” Asian (e.g., non-athletic, nerdy, etc.), and so Clarkson doing well in the NBA is not seen as surprising as seeing Jeremy Lin doing well in the NBA. This case of “Filipino Americans breaking the rules of race" needs to be given some attention as it reveals the complexities and nuances of racial identity not just among Asian Pacific Americans, but among all of us.
Toward a More Nuanced and Accurate Asian Pacific American Picture
The public’s lack of attention, perhaps even ignorance, about Jordan Clarkson relative to the hoopla paid to Jeremy Lin is just one example that reflects larger issues in the Asian Pacific American community. The Asian Pacific American population is very diverse – perhaps the most diverse racial group in the country. One out of five Asian Pacific Americans is Filipino, yet they are still forgotten and invisible to many. A large segment of Asian Pacific Americans are mixed-race and mixed-ethnicity, so they don’t easily fit people’s stereotypes and may confuse people. Asian Pacific Americans face various economic, education, and health struggles - contrary to the "model minority myth." Finally, Asian Pacific Americans commonly experience injustice and discrimination as well, including from other Asians and Pacific Americans.
The lack of hype surrounding Jordan Clarkson is a great example of how we need to move beyond the “Asian American equals Chinese/Japanese/Korean/East Asian” mind frame and the many stereotypes associated with such a limited understanding of the Asian Pacific American community. For Asian Pacific American Heritage Month and beyond, perhaps we can challenge ourselves to see Asian and Pacific American individuals and their lived experiences in a much more nuanced, complex way – the more real and accurate way.
Let's keep working.
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E.J.R. David, Ph.D. has two books, "Brown Skin, White Minds: Filipino American Postcolonial Psychology" and "Internalized Oppression: The Psychology of Marginalized Groups."
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