3. TIL when Yao Ming played his first game in Miami, the Heat promoted the game by ...

TIL when Yao Ming played his first game in Miami, the Heat promoted the game by passing out 8,000 fortune cookies. Yao wasn't offended because he had never seen a fortune cookie, and assumed it was an American invention

Well... I guess you could perceive every minor gesture like this as some sort of proof of abhorrent, evil manifestation of ignorant racism.

But... I've seen FAR MORE disturbing, heart-breaking, and faith-in- humanity crushing/shattering incidents of racism that go far beyond this fortune cookie incident.

Essentially the fact that Yao Ming is playing in the NBA, is undeniably quite a unique novelty in the history of the NBA. There just haven't been many such Chinese born/raised NBA players.

From the perspective of North America, the fortune-cookie is simply a fun, and time honored tradition when enjoying Asian inspired cuisine.

My girlfriend and I LOVE the fortune cookie at the end of a restaurant meal, and it's really been IMPRINTED into our minds, as being highly symbolic of the fun/interesting aspects of Asian culture.

So I think (and I could be wrong here...) but passing around these fortune cookies, was merely a way of embracing/enjoying some good natured fun, at the amazing idea that people from China are now beginning to join North America's most elite and professional sports team.

Again, I really don't get the sense that those cookies were passed around to say: "We hate China, and Chinese players".

Instead it was quite the opposite: it was just a kind of fun celebration of the moment.

For example, in the same way, if I (a Canadian) was a super-star athlete that excelled in some top sport in China, and on my first day of play I saw the entire Chinese crowd exciting by the novelty of such a pale-white-boy like me joining the Chinese team, and everyone celebrating by passing around mini-bottles of Canadian Maple Syrup, and serving up poutine-fries in the confection stands...

Whelp... I gotta say I would be honored and happy, and that type of good natured fun, and acknowledgement of my joining the team by an entire crowd, would be pretty intense and exciting to see!

Even though that's a Canadian stereotype, I still would NOT be offended. Quite the opposite in fact.

So... in the same way, I highly doubt the cookies were part of some evil, racist, conspiracy.

Again... it was just good natured fun, and excitement at the novelty of the situation.

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