Ben & Jerry's: No Fortune Cookies In Lin-sanity Ice Cream

“Taste the Lin-sanity” is the name of a special ice cream flavor that Ben & Jerry’s has created to recognize / jump on the bandwagon for Jeremy Lin. The 23-year-old basketball player has been closely watched since he came off the New York Knicks’ bench and started playing at a level others had not expected. Lin played for Harvard University’s team while a student there and Ben & Jerry’s is making “Taste the Lin-sanity” available only for a limited time at its Harvard Square shop in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

One of the original ingredients in “Taste the Lin-sanity” was fortune cookie pieces. These were removed after customers accused Ben & Jerry’s of “ethnic profiling,” according to The San Francisco Chronicle. “Taste the Lin-sanity” now includes vanilla frozen yogurt, lychee honey swirls and, on the side, a fresh waffle cookie. Lychees are a fruit indigenous to Southern China though “so far, no one seems to have taken offense at that slightly subtler ethnic reference,” notes The Atlantic Wire.

Ben & Jerry’s says that the fortune cookie pieces were taken out because they got “soggy.” As Ryan Midden, Ben & Jerry’s general manager for Boston and Cambridge, said to the Boston Globe, “There seemed to be a bit of an initial backlash about it, but we obviously weren’t looking to offend anybody and the majority of the feedback about it has been positive.”

Fortune cookies were invented in the US ; though routinely served in Chinese restaurants in the US, they are not part of Chinese cuisine (indeed, fortune cookies with messages in English are now exported to Hong Kong and China). In mid-February, the MSG Network showed Lin’s face above a fortune cookie with the message “The Knicks’ good fortune” below. Andrew Kang, senior staff attorney at the Asian-American Institute in Chicago, told USA Today that it is a “tough call” about whether MSG should be faulted for the graphic. Kang points out that, for many people, food is the “only point of contact, or awareness, with the Asian-American community.”

MSG’s use of the fortune cookie in its graphic underscores how limited many people’s understanding of Asian Americans is. Ben & Jerry’s would have done well to take heed of the concerns about the MSG graphic and of a much-publicized ESPN racist headline that led to the firing of an ESPN headline writer and a 30-day suspension for anchor Max Bretos (whose wife is Asian) for using the same racist phrase on the air on February 15.

Lin has gained media attention not only for his playing and for being the first Asian American player to become an “overnight NBA sensation.” Popular media outlets would do well to sit down and review the history of racism and discrimination against Asians and Asian Americans in the US. Do we all remember Vincent Chin? Regret Executive Order 9066, not to mention the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882?

Related Care2 Coverage

Why Jeremy Lin Matters: Asian Male Image in the Media

70 Years Ago Japanese-American Removal and Internments Began

My Grandparents Were ‘Illegal Alien Invaders’

Photo by Jay Santiago

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

New G.

10:50PM PST on Feb 29, 2012

Thank you.

February 29
send a green star

EcoWorrier M.

3:37PM PST on Feb 29, 2012

THANKS FOR SHARING!

colleen p.

5:18AM PST on Feb 29, 2012

would everyone rather an icecream that takes like asian pear with little gummy dogs in it?

Jennifer C.

4:20PM PST on Feb 28, 2012

February 28
send a green star

Carole R.

1:59PM PST on Feb 28, 2012

Everybody is so hyper-sensitive these days. I'm sure Ben and Jerry didn't mean anything mean by their actions.

John S.

6:36AM PST on Feb 28, 2012

Thanks, think most people are missing the point, Ben and Jerry's make a lot of money selling expensive ice cream while claiming to be socially responsible - but once again the company is in trouble for being crass in an attempt to make money.

CAT B.

4:00AM PST on Feb 28, 2012

Some people see racism is EVERYTHING....and now it's Ben & Jerry's ice cream with fortune cookies. What's next?

Stefanie D.

11:16PM PST on Feb 27, 2012

like Jeremy Lin, as an 'East-Asian' (whatever color that is...) American,... I am similarly a 'hyphenated' Chinese-Born-Canadian... i never get a nice categorical color label like gold, honey, or amber, like white (Ivory) folks do, or black (Ebony) folks do... i get that 'oh-you-are-from-over-there-but-born-here' label... no welcoming inclusive label to allow me to be a Golden Canadian... or Amber American, or Honey (anywhere on either Northern, Central, or Southern Americas)... Mexican...
maybe... starting now, well into the 21st Century, we could start doing so??? please?

February 27
send a green star

Ann S.

10:31PM PST on Feb 27, 2012

Thanks for keeping us educated about these issues. The Asian population has long been a silent, productive presence in America, yet that doesn't seem to change the derogatory stereotyping or prejudice. IMO, the men face different manifestations of racism than the women. Hopefully times are changing quickly, but there are still some environments where older men think they can objectify and bully an attractive young Asian woman into situations attempting to make her feel obligated to them (and woe be it if she rejects being manipulated or even associating with these types). I think these dinosaurs are a dying breed, but that may just be wishful thinking on my part.

Lynn C.

9:06PM PST on Feb 27, 2012