Ben and Jerry’s finds a new ethnic stereotype to project onto Jeremy Lin

Sure, most people thought the media frenzy surrounding basketball phenom Jeremy Lin hit rock bottom with ESPN’s already-infamous “chink in the armor” headline, but that doesn’t seem to have stopped the folks at Ben and Jerry’s from grabbing their own shovel and doing some digging. When the company decided to make a new, limited-release flavour to honour Lin, they settled on a mix of vanilla frozen yogurt, lychee honey swirls and crumbled-up fortune cookies. Yes, fortune cookies, that staple of North American Chinese food that, it seems, is practically unknown in China. (The company has since opted to include a waffle cookie instead, since customers apparently complained the cookies got soggy.) For the record, the Toronto Star’s Cathal Kelly is offended that you’re offended, arguing that some of the controversy surrounding Lin, like that ESPN headline, has been more stupid than outright racist. If anything, though, Lin should be upset that Ben and Jerry’s reductionist approach to devising ice cream flavours led to something that seems pretty gross. After all, they were able to honour Stephen Colbert without resorting to, say, hot dog and beer–flavoured ice cream. Read the entire story [Boston Globe] »