Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Where in the Melting Pot does Jeremy Lin fit?

 America had, I think wisely adopted the melting pot method.  No matter where we originate from, we are all Americans, one nation, one people.  This is very different from countries like Canada and England where they have the cultural mosaic theory, where each individual maintains their own cultural identity. We are all supposed to be one people on America. Yet, minorities who look foreign, are seldom recognized as American. And the same is the case with Jeremy Lee. He can technically become a President, yet in the US he is looked upon as an Asian American, and in China (note his parents are from Taiwan) he is looked upon as Chinese.

There are plenty of good blogs, claiming what a wonderful Asian player he is. But it is inherently stereotyping that is going on here. To claim that he is a wonderful Asian player, is to say the same thing of a black mathematician. Jeremy Lin is a good player. PERIOD. What does it matter if he is Asian, or black or white? Or whether his parents came over as immigrant or his ancestors landed on the Mayflower?

Even David Leopold, the ex president of  American Immigration Lawyer's Association wrote a blog on Huffington Post stating that if the anti immigration restrictionists had their way, Jeremy Lin would not be here. http://ailaleadershipblog.org/2012/02/19/immigration-linsanity/  So he too sees Lin as an Asian American rather than just American.  Yet Steve Nash is Canadian/South African, and no one claims that has the restrictionists had there way, he would not be here? Or Dirk Nowitzki? Because they look like "Americans?"

My children, like Jeremy Lin, were born in the US. People ask them where they are from. They say , "Houston." Yet very often, people ask, "where are you originally from?" No one asks a white person, if they are from UK, or Ireland. We as Americans can ask if they are from New York or Texas. But asking someone who does not identify with the "mother country" where they are from is just plain Un-American.

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, or Houston Immigration Attorney Annie Banerjee, for more information

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