Jeremy Lin Launches Charlotte Reading Challenge in Campaign to End Bullying
Jeremy Lin is determined to end bullying and is taking on that challenge by launching a creative initiative to educate Charlotte students about the harms of harassment.
Lin, the 27-year-old Charlotte Hornets guard, has started a one month reading challenge through his Jeremy Lin Foundation. The challenge gives students in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District an opportunity to earn points for reading articles and taking quizzes centered around bullying.
"The Jeremy Lin Foundation Reading Challenge ... encourages students to read from a collection of JLin Foundation aligned articles around 'Bringing an End to Bullying, featuring an article at five different levels from Jeremy Lin," a description of the challenge states on the Newsela website.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Newsela is an online community that helps students develop their reading and comprehension skills by reading non-fiction articles. Now that Lin is teaming up with the online portal for his reading challenge, the winners of the contest with the most points will be visited by the NBA star.
In an article he wrote for Newsela, the Hornets point guard reveals his own experiences with bullying.
"People who ask me about bullying are often surprised when I tell them that I have been singled out for my race on the basketball court," Lin wrote in the Newsela article titled, "Opinion: Ignore the bullies and dare to be different, Jeremy Lin says."
This is not the first time Lin has attached his name to a bullying campaign. When the White House launched an anti-bullying campaign called "Act To Change," Lin stepped forward.
"For me, growing up Asian-American and trying to play basketball was a bit tough at times," said Lin. "Sometimes people would make fun of me and just say, 'Oh, you're Yao Ming.'"
"That's not that bad, but sometimes it would get worse and people would say, 'You're a Chinese import' or 'go back to China' or 'can you see the scoreboard with your eyes?' And then sometimes it got really ridiculous."
Lin said people have addressed him using racial slurs, and the normally mild mannered basketball player became understandably upset. He even lashed out once.
"I remember one time I got really upset, kind of lost control and just responded really negatively. My coach told me after the game, 'Jeremy, when people say that to you they're trying to get in your head,'" Lin said. "Honestly, the best thing to do is take that negative energy and turn it into positive energy. Fuel yourself, motivate yourself with that. Don't react in anger."
The Christian point guard shared lessons he learned from being bullied and encouraged others to embrace the things that make them different.
"My lesson that I learned, and if there is anything I can pass on to you guys, is a lot of times bullies bully other people because of insecurities they have in themselves. Don't let anyone else tell you who you are or what you can or can't do," he advised. "Definitely look inside yourself, have confidence in yourself, believe in yourself and understand what makes you such a unique and special person. Everybody has different and really cool characteristics and talents.
"Always stay positive and hopefully one day you'll take a look back at these experiences and realize, 'Hey, me getting bullied or me having to go through these experiences only made me stronger," he continued. "So hopefully, [if] I just pass anything on, [it's that] it's OK to be weird, it's not ok to be bullied. Together we can stop bullying. Join the movement, let's 'Act To Change.'"
