For decades, the NAACP has said it kept the outdated "colored" as part of its name because it was committed to representing people of all colors, not just blacks. Here, then, is its chance to demonstrate that commitment.
You see, the sudden success of one man has pulled the covers back and revealed a minority that was possibly being denied a fair shake all along - Asian-American basketball players.
Look, I'm as sick of hearing about Jeremy Lin of the New York Knickerbockers as you are, but the dude can play ball. Period. The scary thing is that he almost didn't get a chance to play, at least not on what his former college coach called "the biggest stage," for one simple reason - he's Asian-American.
Tommy Amaker, Harvard University's basketball coach who inherited Lin when he took over the team in 2007, and coached him for three years, said he isn't surprised by Lin's success.
"If he weren't Asian-American, he would have been discovered long ago," Amaker declared a couple of days ago when I talked to him by phone. "This kid didn't just fall out of the sky. He can play and create.
"Anytime you're trying to make it at the pinnacle of any profession, you're going to need some things to align for you. Some circumstances aligned for him - the Knicks' system and style of play fit him like a glove - and he took advantage of them. Boy, did he take advantage of them.
"Now he's doing them on a much bigger stage and in a different stratosphere, but we've seen him do a lot of those things."
The rest of us almost didn't get to see him, either because of a prejudicial skepticism of Asian-American pro basketball players - have there been others? - or because he played in the Ivy League, where grads are more noted for running the country and corporations than for running fast break offenses.
If Lin was indeed a victim of discrimination, all I can say is, "Welcome to the club, Home slice." Colleges and universities, especially those in the South, were for decades loath to put a black quarterback on the field until their ability made it impossible or professionally suicidal for the coaches to keep them off it.
Amaker said Lin had a cult following even at Harvard and when the team traveled, so his Asian-American fans should view the insults and racially insensitive jokes - yeah, you, Jason Whitlock and ESPN - as a rite of passage into full acceptance into American society. They should be heartened by the adage - or was it a Dean Martin song? - "You're Nobody 'til Somebody Hates You."
Trust me, J., ESPN wouldn't be writing lame, insulting headlines if you were still riding the pine for the Knicks or simply demonstrating your jump-shooting prowess at the local Y.
Racial cluelessness
So rare, apparently, are Asian-American professional athletes that the writer of a particularly bad ESPN headline, even after he was fired, insisted he didn't know he'd done anything offensive.
Holy mackerel. Whether Lin's sin was being perceived as too smart or DWA - Dribbling While Asian - he was lightly regarded for no discernible reason other than his ethnicity.
Despite scoring copious amounts of points and leading his high school team to a state championship, few colleges offered him a scholarship. Yet Amaker credited him with turning around the Harvard program, which doesn't give athletic scholarships. "We've been somewhat successful even without him the past two years, but he's the one who put us in a position to gain traction. I think he's been good for us. It (his success) is going to put more exposure on us and on the Ivy League."
Ties to Duke
Amaker knows about helping a program gain traction. As a player at Duke, he helped lead the school to the national championship game.
Lin, after a great career during which, Amaker noted, "he was often the best player on the court," even when Harvard played top-rated teams full of pro prospects, wasn't drafted into the NBA.
Outrageous. If the NAACP is too busy to champion the cause of Asian-American or Ivy League ball players, somebody get the NAAAAAH (National Association for the Advancement of Agile Asian-American Hoopsters) on the line.
We'll even let them borrow "We Shall Overcome." No, on second thought, we'll give it to you.
