Dragon Hoops

Racism is a theme explored in special detail by Gene Yang. Himself an American son of a Taiwanese immigrant, his literary persona, Mr. Yang is mistaken for Alex Zhao’s father by fans at the game, since Alex, an exchange student, is the only Chinese player on the team. Although Yang doesn’t mind, and, in fact, is flattered by the mistake, since Alex plays exceptionally well, small moments like these reveal the extent to which racial stereotypes pervade American life.

Because Yang’s novel, as a narrative nonfiction graphic novel, occupies such a unique generic category, its story arc speaks powerfully to the complicated ways in which racism has developed. Essentially, Yang can tell the story of basketball’s history while also demonstrating the effects of racism in the way in which it is manifest on and off the court in the present day.

As to the book’s first of these two objectives, Yang explains how the famous Globetrotters adopted the “Harlem” moniker to highlight their African American roots. Despite the Globetrotters’ success, African Americans came to prominence within the sport of basketball only in fits and starts. A particularly jarring panel features Yang’s narrative that explains: “At the turn of the twentieth century, many ‘scientists’ proclaimed that blacks simply weren’t as fit for athletics as whites” (113). The corresponding illustration shows four bald, mustached men wearing identical suits and ties, with speech bubbles that read, “They have inferior muscle strength!” “Inferior reasoning power!” “A lack of competitive spirit!” “Small lungs and heavy bones!” (113). Thus, the author makes little attempt to disguise the modern understanding that such prejudice had no basis in science or the ways in which “science” is influenced by cultural attitudes. Nor does Yang—not one to oversimplify complex topics—suggest that racism has disappeared.

In the present day, Yang, who is committed to delivering a heavily self-aware novel, does not shy away from presenting the Black Lives Matter movement as it was manifest in Oakland after the Ferguson decision (88). Simultaneous to this decision, the Dragons are pitted against the predominantly white squad, the De La Salle Spartans. Yang’s authorial decision to narrate the difficulties that African Americans faced in the early days of basketball within the same chapter in which his titular Dragons play the nearly all-white squad suggests that, despite the progress that has been made, America still has far to go in achieving real equality.

Yang uses the theme of racism to illustrate the immigrant experience, to which the phenomenon is closely related. The challenges of assimilation for immigrants are represented primarily through the experiences of Qianjun (“Alex”) Zhao and Jeevin Sandhu. Neither character is a stereotypical basketball player, and each experiences racism. Alex is told to “Go back to Beijing” (323), while Jeevin Sandhu is referred to as “San-douchebag” (and told “F*** you, Indian” (323). Lest Yang the author suggest that Mr. Yang alone is unnerved by these comments, he shows even the players acknowledging that the Castro Valley team is notoriously “the worst” (321). The racist remarks such as “F****** Arab” (278) suffered by Jeevin, a Punjabi student who practices the Sikh faith, are also rooted in false assumptions about his ethnicity. Yang, therefore, makes a special attempt to use his knowledge to educate. His attention to such wide-ranging topics as the history and nature of Sikhism (Chapter 8) and the changing political climate and anti-Western sentiment of Communist China (Chapter 10) produces effective and entertaining attempts to educate his young adult and adult readers alike. Education, Yang suggests, is a way to combat racist tendencies that his work demonstrates persist in the present day. The nuanced and illuminating way in which Yang shows both the history and modern effects of racism while also empowering his readers to fight against it makes Dragon Hoops his most ambitious graphic novel to date.