generasian:

Written by Doris Truong, Asian American Journalists Association national president and Washington Post multiplatform editor.

As NBA player Jeremy Lin’s prowess on the court continues to attract international attention and grab headlines, the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) would like to remind media outlets about relevance and context regarding coverage of race.

In the past weeks, as more news outlets report on Lin, his game and hist story, AAJA has noticed factual inaccuracies about Lin’s background as well as an alarming number of references that rely on stereotypes about Asians or Asian Americans.

Please give careful consideration to the following tips to ensure fair, accurate and sensitive portrayals of Lin and others who are Asian American.

AAJA and AAJA MediaWatch stand ready to assist any news organizations that have questions or concerns about news coverage and race. We all have the same goal: good journalism.

By Doris Truong.

Courtesy of Doris Truong and AAJA. Click title above for link directly towards Guidelines.

I’ve also seen some writers confuse nationality with ethnicity. Just, how can you work at a professional level without knowing that difference. =_=

Plenty of other people though, are expressing annoyance with the “PC”ness of acknowledging his Chinese heritage and insist that Lin is American, while others are fighting over the differences between Taiwan and China and his roots there.

People. He’s Taiwanese-American. Period. Move on.

To disregard his Americanness OR his Asianess is to disregard his entire existence. He is a person born of two cultures and you need to start recognizing and respecting that.