Christian NBA Player Jeremy Lin Bashes Chris Rock's Oscars Asian Joke: 'When Is This Going to Change?'
Christian basketball player Jeremy Lin has spoken out against comedian Chris Rock regarding a racial joke he made during the 88th Academy Awards Sunday.
Lin, who plays for the Charlotte Hornets, took to Twitter Monday to criticize one of Rock's jokes that targeted Asians.
"Seriously though, when is this going to change?!? Tired of it being 'cool' and 'OK' to bash Asians smh," Lin, who is Chinese-American, asked his 1.51 million Twitter followers.
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Lin is referencing a joke made by Rock in which the comedian brought out three Asian children dressed as accountants from PricewaterhouseCoopers, introducing them as the company's "most dedicated, accurate and hard-working representatives."
"They sent us their most dedicated, accurate and hard-working representatives. Please welcome Ming Zhu, Bao Ling and David Moskowitz," Rock joked.
"If anybody's upset about that joke, just tweet about it on your phone that was also made by these kids," the well-known comedian added.
Along with Asian athletes and actors, activist groups chimed in to denounce Rock's joke about Asian-Americans and child labor laws.
Mee Moua, head of the activist group Asian-Americans Advancing Justice, told BBC News that the joke exposed America's "failings" on race dialogue.
"Last 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," she said.
"It is to all of our detriment to look at race narrowly. We need to work together to dismantle the systems that devalue the experiences of minority groups so we can see the tales of the diversity that have shaped our nation reflected accurately," Moua added.
Guy Aoki, co-founder of the Media Action Network for Asian-Americans, added to the Los Angeles Times that the skit perpetuates stereotypes of Asian-Americans.
"Asian-Americans have been conditioned. Whenever we see an Asian-American on a TV show as a guest, or in a motion picture, our first impression is to cringe because our instinct tells us that person is only being used so that he can be made fun of. And what Chris Rock did last night and what Ali G did last night, they just reinforced that fear for millions of Asian-Americans across the country," Aoki said. "They're basically saying, 'Yep, we look at you guys as a joke.'"
Rock also dedicated a large portion of his dialogue to poking fun at the Oscars' lack of diversity. Several African-American actors and directors boycotted the event because there were no black nominees for the major awards categories, including best actor or best actress.
Jada Pinkett Smith, Will Smith, and director Spike Lee were among the big names to boycott the event, which also carried a Twitter hashtag of "#OscarsSoWhite."
Rock, who is known for his controversial comedy style, began to skewer the awards' show long before it began, tweeting on Jan. 15: "The #Oscars. The White BET Awards."
The Brooklyn-raised comedian kept the jokes rolling on Sunday, saying during his monologue: "Why are we protesting this Oscars? It's the 88th Academy Awards, which means this whole 'no black nominees' thing has happened at least 71 other times."
