Former NBA star Jeremy Lin says he was called a “coronavirus” on the court

Former NBA star Jeremy Lin says he was called a “coronavirus” on the court

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“Being a 9-year-old NBA veteran does not protect me from being called a ‘coronavirus’ on the court,” wrote the former New York Knicks star on Facebook.

Lin, who currently plays for the Santa Cruz Warriors, an affiliate of the Golden State Warriors in League G, expressed his distress over racism and violence against Asian Americans on Thursday.

In his post, Lin reported on the various ways in which Asian Americans experience racism, prejudice and intolerance.

“Something is changing in this generation of Asian Americans. We are tired of hearing that we do not experience racism, we are tired of hearing that we must keep our heads down and not create problems,” he wrote.

“We are tired of Asian American children growing up and being asked where they REALLY are, having our eyes mocked, being objectified as exotic or hearing that we are inherently unattractive. We are tired of the stereotypes in Hollywood that affect our psyche and limit who we think we can be. We are tired of being invisible, of being confused with our colleague or saying that our struggles are not so real.

In 2019, Lin became the first Asian American to win an NBA title while playing for the Toronto Raptors. Lin became a household name in 2012, when he emerged as the star of the New York Knicks. Its success was dubbed “Linsanity”.

Lin, who has helped other Asian American athletes to fight racist stereotypes, is the latest high-profile figure to speak out to prevent violence against the AAPI community.

Earlier this month, actress Olivia Munn joined the effort to help find a man who attacked an Asian American woman on the streets of New York while actors Daniel Wu and Daniel Dae Kim teamed up to offer a $ 25,000 reward for information that led to an arrest in attacks that took place in Oakland’s Chinatown.

A ‘moment of great fear’ for AAPIs

Communities and advocates across the United States have been on high alert in recent weeks, following a series of recent attacks against Americans of Asian descent.

While it is unclear what is fueling the most recent incidents, advocates and officials have seen a pattern of hatred directed since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.

California allocates $ 1.4 million to track and prevent attacks against Asian Americans
Cynthia Choi, co-executive director of Chinese for Affirmative Action, said the anti-Asian sentiment is linked to the false idea that Asians can be blamed for the pandemic.
Choi is also one of the co-founders of Stop APPI Hate, a coalition that has documented hatred and discrimination against Asians since March last year. Nearly a year since its creation, the coalition has received more than 3,000 first-hand reports of anti-Asian incidents, said Choi.

“It is a time of great fear, a time full of anxiety and enigmatic, because Asian Americans feel that they are experiencing a lot of racism and intolerance. Some are legitimately afraid to leave their homes,” Choi told CNN on Friday. .

CNN’s David Close contributed to this report.

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