by Jerry Park
Washington Post
On Faith<\/p>\n
Keeping up with the newsfeed on Jeremy Lin has been a new hobby of mine. I\u2019ve justified this time sink as work since I am an Asian American professor who studies and teaches race and religion in American culture. In the sea of news pieces, blog posts, and Facebook essays it\u2019s clear that most everyone now knows the following: Jeremy Lin is an Ivy League grad and few have made it into the NBA. Jeremy Lin is Asian American, of Chinese\/Taiwanese descent. And finally, Jeremy Lin is Christian.
ut how much do we really know about the the communities Lin represents?<\/p>\n
Asian Americans are a small population; in fact, they are a variety of populations. The 17 million Asian Americans counted in the 2010 census are about five percent of the U.S. population. Of these, about a quarter describe themselves as Chinese or Taiwanese in background, making them the largest group of Asian Americans. That seems like a lot but let\u2019s be clear: We\u2019re talking about 3 to 4 million people in a population of 308 million or about one percent of the nation. In terms of race and ethnicity, Jeremy Lin is a rare American.<\/p>\n