Jeremy Lin vs. Kenyon Martin: The Dreadlocks Chronicle
NBA Brooklyn Nets guard and Seven year NBA veteran Jeremy Lin opted to grow his hair out into dreadlocks over the past year. While on the surface a bit odd to most (Asians typically don’t wear their hair in dreadlocks), former Nets star Kenyon Martin took special offense to Lin’s new hair-do.
Kenyon Martin took to social media to express his displeasure, confusion, and disagreement with Lin’s choice of hairstyle and went as far as to remind Lin that Lin’s last name is Lin (in case he needed a reminder). Kenyon stated “we get it. You wanna be black”, in a Instagram tirade that read like a cross between a Black Panther Party Member and a Valley Girl from “Clueless”.
Cultural appropriation has been a buzz word among social justice warriors and champions for racial equality and independence over the last 10 years. While some view it as an evil that represents white people stealing culture from others, claiming it as their own and continuing to exclude blacks, others view it less harshly and see it as a way to bond and grow together. The truth lies somewhere in middle. Can’t paint with a broad brush, it’s not all bad, but definitely has and will continue to do some harm if certain groups continue to be shut out of different circles while their culture and ideas are stolen and flaunted for others to use at will.
All that being said, Jeremy Lin did point out that Kenyon Martin had Chinese letters tattooed on his arms and noted that it was “cool”.
Mr. Martin, there are plenty of causes to take up and fight for, if you’re that worried about cultural appropriation, get off of IG and go have a talk with Kareeem.
Getting dreadlocks was no whim for the Nets’ Jeremy Lin, who has cycled through a number of hairstyles over his seven-year NBA career. Worried about being accused of cultural appropriation, the Taiwanese-American point guard consulted with his African American teammates and team staff members before taking the plunge, which involved an eight-hour salon session.
In the end, something as simple as what sits atop his head became something else entirely.
“This process started out about hair, but it’s turned into something more for me,” Lin wrote earlier this week on the Players’ Tribune. “I’m really grateful to my teammates and friends for being willing to help me talk through such a difficult subject, one that I’m still learning about and working my way through. Over the course of the last few years and all these hairstyles, I’ve learned that there’s a difference between ‘not caring what other people think’ and actually trying to walk around for a while in another person’s shoes. The conversations I had weren’t always very comfortable, and at times I know I didn’t say the right things. But I’m glad I had them — because I know as an Asian-American how rare it is for people to ask me about my heritage beyond a surface level.”
In an Instagram video posted Thursday, Martin accused Lin of wanting to “be black” and said in a caption that he was “disappointed in his teammates and the Nets as an organization for allowing this foolishness.”
“Do I need to remind this damn boy that his last name Lin?” Martin said in the video. “Like, come on man. Let’s stop this, man, with these people, man. There is no way possible that he would have made it on one of our teams with that bulls–t goin’ on on his head. Come on man, somebody need to tell him, like: ‘All right bro, we get it. You wanna be black.’ Like, we get it. But the last name is Lin.”
Lin responded to Martin in a comment posted to the video, taking the highest of roads while reminding Martin that he has Chinese characters tattooed on his arm.
“Hey man, it’s all good. You definitely don’t have to like my hair and [are] definitely entitled to your opinion,” Lin wrote. “Actually I [am] legit grateful [for] you sharin it [to be honest]. At the end of the day, I appreciate that I have dreads and you have Chinese tattoos [because] I think its a sign of respect. And I think as minorities, the more that we appreciate each other’s cultures, the more we influence mainstream society. Thanks for everything you did for the Nets and hoops . . . had your poster up on my wall growin up.”
“At the end of the day … we need to spend a little more time thinking about what it’d be like to be somebody else,” Lin said, per the New York Post. “He said what he said but I’m not really that offended. If that’s how he thinks, that’s how he thinks. But my job is to be gracious, loving and if I can just share with him a little of my side I think the next time maybe he’ll have a different viewpoint.
Steve
Steve is an affordable multifamily housing professional that is also the co-founder of Whiskey Congress. Steve has written for national publications such as The National Marijuana News and other outlets as a guest blogger on topics covering sports, politics, and cannabis. Steve loves whiskey, cigars, and uses powerlifting as an outlet to deal with the fact that no one listens to his brilliant ideas.
