Racist double standards, #47

SSDD: Ex-NBA player Kenyon Martin blasts current NBA player Jeremy Lin about having dreadlocks, accuses him of “wanting to be black,” Lin rebuts with kindness but also points out Martin’s Chinese character tattoos, owning him as if slavery still existed

Another day, another double standard where a black guy cries victim of ____, but has no hesitation of taking it out on Asian guys.  Honestly, there was a time where I kind of liked Kenyon Martin; I loved those Nets teams of the 2000s with Jason Kidd and Richard Jefferson, and I totally pulled for them in the Finals against the Spurs where they lost in six.

Sure, there were always questions about his character, his propensity to whine and argue fouls and his perceived character based on the countless tattoos and questionable demeanor.  But he was still a really decent basketball player that was fun to watch, so I never had any problem with him, even when those Nets teams disbanded and he went off to Denver before I stopped giving any shits about the NBA in general.

But I guess I’m not surprised by him coming out on social media and blasting current-Net Jeremy Lin for having dreadlocks and accusing him of misappropriating black culture and “trying to be black.”  However, I did think of how stupid he sounded before I even read about Lin’s rebuttal, because one, he’s validating the oft-notion that black guys love to pull the race card when they feel that they’re being wronged, but have zero hesitations when it comes to putting down Asians themselves.  Two, dreadlocks do not solely belong to black culture, as I’m sure hippies of all races and colors, Jamaicans and any other Dutch or Latin cultures that utilize dreads would attest to.  And third, I astutely remember that Kenyon Martin has at least one prominent tattoo of Chinese characters, which by his logic would mean he’s misappropriating Chinese culture, thus making him a giant hypocrite.

Well, Kenyon Martin wasn’t in the NBA because of his brains; it just so happens unfortunately for him that the guy he was trading social media barbs with is also Harvard-educated on top of being on his former team.

Make no mistake, Jeremy Lin handled the situation in the best possible way.  He didn’t stoop to Martin’s level and make veiled racist remarks, but he also didn’t ignore the barbs thrown his way and was quick to point out his own potential misappropriation in his Chinese character tattoos.

Naturally, Martin wasn’t smart enough to take the incident offline or just disengage outright, and ended up looking like the dumbass he probably is by playing the old “it was just a joke” song and dance, and digging his own grave a little deeper.

I kind of feel bad for every black guy that ever reads about this situation that happens to have Chinese characters tattooed on themselves.  They’re obviously not all going to agree with Martin in the first place, but because of his big mouth, them and every non-Asian person with Chinese characters tattooed on themselves might feel a little self-conscious about the potential insensitivity permanently attached to their choices.  At least if Jeremy Lin felt like he was being racially insensitive with his dreads, he can shave them off and start over any time he wanted to.  Tattoo removal is pretty expensive (and supposedly painful).

The point is, Kenyon Martin is a dumbass who obviously spoke without thinking, and was systematically dismantled and exposed as a dumbass by someone clearly smarter than him.  But he still acted on an alarmingly frequent double-standard where black people love to cry foul on racism but have zero qualms at acting the same way towards a different culture.  And much like Lin states, the more such behaviors can be confronted and discussed, the better chance there is that they can be rectified.  But we live in such a spineless society, that such will not have a chance of happening and instead, this story probably ends up with Kenyon Martin hating Jeremy Lin, while Lin gets the W and remains on the higher ground, looking all the better for it.