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What can one possibly add to the hill of hype that now surrounds the glorious Jeremy Lin, New York Knickerbocker?
We are fascinated by his rise, but instead of focusing on his talent, which is raw and untested, we fixate upon his race and his biography. Lin's parents came here from Taiwan in the late 70s, settling in California, and he grew up as American as he did Taiwanese, with a quiet but devoted Christianity that marks him as a cultural conservative, and a playfulness and sense of humor that keeps him tethered to the modern world. Implicit within the coverage of Linsanity is the assumption that Lin is so special because he is unusual. But he's not, really. If you've been paying attention to integration of second-generation Asian-Americans into the our political super-culture, he's kind of normal.
