The Illinois Humanities Council has commissioned a number of people - from the arts, media and academia - to share their thoughts on the cultural swirl around Jeremy Lin. Here's another one in the series of their posts that I'm featuring on my blog over the next few days. You are also invited into the conversation! Leave your comments below and join us at the IHC's event Monday: Linsanity: What's Beyond the Hype? They'll discuss Lin and screen the Knicks-Bulls game!
The Great Yellow Hope, by Claire Jean Kim
"Linsanity" makes me uncomfortable. As someone who teaches Asian American Studies classes, I get what the craze is about. Lin is offering in the space of a few smoking months to redeem that which has always been denied to Asian American males in the white imagination — their athleticism, their masculinity, dare I say their full humanity. For all those who have suffered being seen as nerdy, physically weak, passive, feminine, even poorly endowed — in a word, unmanly — Jeremy is a savior.
When I did a online search of Jeremy Lin this morning, many of the headlines that popped up were pronouncing an end to the so-called 
