Jeopardy champ Arthur Chu won his ninth straight game last night, but not without controversy, reports ABC.
The insurance company employee and aspiring actor had a $10,000 lead going into Final Jeopardy.
Instead of wagering $401 dollars or more to ensure victory, he played for the tie and risked only $400.
It’s the latest strategy that long time Jeopardy viewers have vilified him for “ruining the game.”
Some have used racist epithets on social media to describe Chu.
He told Emil Guillermo in his blog for AALDEF , “”I was taken aback. Every single tweet was really harsh and there were a lot of them. I’m not going to say it’s entirely a racial thing, but come on, there’s a racial component to it.”
Yet many, including all-time Jeopardy champ Ken Jennings, have rallied around Chu and defended his tactics. His most vocal supporters have been Asian Americans.
“”I don’t think I’m exactly typical of Asian Americans. I might live up to certain stereotypes but I don’t think of myself as representative of the community. But it’s really cool to see the positive response that’s come out of the Asian American community.”
You can read the entire interview with Guillermo and his interesting commentary about the whole episode on AALDEF.
