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Golden Stuff Tarnished by Tolbert Race Apology

For Asian Pacific Americans, the Super Bowl came a week early. Just as the Raider Nation has come together for The Big Game against the Bucs this weekend (the Raiders will win, 27-17, you heard it here first), the APA Nation had its own unique sporting concern last weekend when Shaquille O’Neal met Yao Ming.

For those who missed the Rockets/Lakers basketball game, allow me to review our SportsCenter moment:

Shaq, dumpy and overweight, looking like an oversized, over-cooked pot sticker, actually came out on the court wearing a Fu-Manchu mustache — perhaps his idea of a joke to match his “ching-chong” comments about Yao.

After the opening tip-off, Yao, the soft-spoken warrior, defended the basket against Shaq, who got the ball and made a crossover move to his left hand. Shaq made a jump stop under the net, and with his two feet firmly planted, the 340 pounder went straight for the rim, his arms extended, the ball lifted high.

And Yao made him eat it.

Call it the “Golden Stuff.”

Yao stuffed Shaq so thoroughly, the jokester was laid out on the court like a boar on a banquet table. Coming just 12 seconds into the game, Yao’s block was so strong, Shaq fell to the hardwood, supine, legs up, while five Rockets sprinted to the other end of the court.

Shaq finally caught up, but Yao was already under the Lakers’ basket, where he got the ball, bounced once, then pivoted off his left foot to put up a high-arcing right-handed hook shot. Photographer’s flashes caught it — a flat-footed Shaq, who when face to face with Yao, couldn’t jump as high as the Asian man.

Two points? No much, much more.

Savor it, APA Nation.

The Rockets went on to win the game 108-104 in overtime. And while it is true that O’Neal ultimately played better than Yao throughout the game, Yao put Shaq’s “ching-chong” comments in perspective in those first 30 seconds.

So much for sport. Now on to real life.

No progress there.

While the Organization of Chinese Americans staged a protest before the game, demanding a much more serious apology for Shaq’s remarks, there were no apologies to APAs.

That would have been nice, and classy.

Instead, the NBA comes out with a release saying it doesn’t condone what Shaq said. But nothing more.

Shaq said he already apologized for saying “Tell Yao Ming: ‘ching-chong-yang-wah-ah-soh.’” Remember, he was just joking. Oh yeah, he’s Vegas comic Shaq-y Greene.

Where’s the respect for Asians?

Same place it’s always been, nowhere. People still don’t get it.

THE MEDIA GIVING VOICE TO RACISM

Who needs an apology when there are so many apologists? The lesson learned here is that anti-Asian racism is still a foreign notion to Americans.

The media seems to be more dumbfounded than ever, like they’ve never heard of Chinese Exclusion laws, or anything other than black/white racism.

Instead of universal denunciation of O’Neal’s comments, the media has incredibly sought balance in this debate, as if racism could have a positive side.

On the ESPN broadcast, Bill Walton, the former basketball great, actually led the condemnation of O’Neal’s “ching-chong” statements. “There’s no place for those kind of comments in our world, our culture, our society, by Shaq or anybody else,” said Walton. “If you want to joke or tease around, that’s fine. But don’t make statements like that in a public setting … the apology was unacceptable.”

You wouldn’t find ESPN putting the Klan on if the issue were black/white racism. But racism against Asians is held in so little regard that you don’t have to go to extremes to find someone acceptable who espouses anti-Asian views.

So with the opposing view, ESPN sent up Tom Tolbert, a former NBA benchwarmer now enjoying his fifteen seconds as an ex-jock analyst. Tolbert, who also broadcasts on KNBR, could have been speaking for the Aryan brotherhood.

“I think it’s ridiculous,” said Tolbert. “If you look at how Shaq was saying it, it wasn’t meant to be derogatory, there was no malice behind it.”

Malice makes no difference. As Shakespeare may have said, a slur by any other name would stink as bad. If Shaq were Asian, his comments would be borderline. But the cross-cultural use of such language invites problems. You won’t see the NAACP taking kindly to Asians calling each other “nigger.”

But then Tolbert, in his role as sports journalism’s idiot savant really went further to justify the remarks.

“We want our athletes to open up … we want them to show some personality, but when they step out of bounds a little bit they get thrashed. No wonder we get all these athletes who give us clichés and tired answers.”

Frankly, Tommy, give me clichés from a superstar rather than racist comments, any day.

Mr. T didn’t stop there. “If we had microphones in the locker rooms, baseball I don’t know, but basketball I do know. [People] would think we were all racists, ‘cause we all kid around with each other, we all have fun with each other and those would be taken out of context. But in the context of a locker room we all have fun with each other, and we all think things that probably wouldn’t be acceptable in the outside world, but they’re acceptable because we know one another.”

This makes racist comments against Asians acceptable? Bill Walton took up the debate for the APA Nation, which sparked the following exchange:

Tom Tolbert: “[Shaq] was trying to be funny.”

Bill Walton: “At someone else’s expense, at someone else’s ethnicity, and that is unacceptable on any front.”

Tolbert: “I disagree. I think we all need to learn to laugh at ourselves a little more.”

Send your letters to ESPN television and KNBR radio in San Francisco. Would they dare give equal time to the Klan? But when it comes to Anti-Asian racist remarks, suddenly, there are two sides to the issue. That’s just not the case. If Tolbert doesn’t wise up, he could be the second coming of Jimmy the Greek.

Reach Emil Guillermo at emil@amok.com.