For the past week I have been absent from this website while on an anthropological excursion for SM (like anyone but my monkey assistants even noticed). Sometimes a blogger just needs to get out of their bunker and talk to the real people. The question I was seeking an answer to was a profound one. Do those states…you know, the ones up there near the Canadian border…do they even have any desis that live there? For my excursion I needed a field assistant. My brother (we will call him P to protect his real identity) has lived in Idaho for the past two years and served as a good travel companion.
From L.A. I flew to Portland, Oregon where I had a layover. While walking from one gate to the other I had my first desi sighting. It was a Sikh man with a long flowing beard and an unusually large turban who I spotted in the TSA security line. Upon closer inspection however, two things became clear. First, the man was white and not desi. Second, he was a TSA screener and not a passenger.
Four hours later (damn airline delays) I landed in Spokane, WA where I collected my possessions at baggage claim. I began to re-arrange some of my gear when a woman walked up to me holding a sign.
Woman: Excuse me but are you Mustafa?
Abhi: Heh. No, sorry.
Woman: I’m sorry but you are the only one that looked like he was…lost.
“Lost” of course was a very clever euphemism for “brown.” I didn’t mind though. The name “Mustafa” reminded me of a powerful figure with a glorious mane. For just a minute I forgot about my military short haircut and hummed a little Hakuna Matata as I waited on the curb for my brother to drive up.
Our first stop was Idaho Falls in southern Idaho. In racially homogeneous states it is difficult to tell if people are really looking at you differently or if it is your expectation that they will look at you differently that simply clouds your perception reality. Before I even walked through the door of the restaurant where we had dinner, I was subconsciously on the defensive. There are many of us who would never consider living in some cities or states based only upon our preconceived notions of what racial attitudes there must be like, regardless of the objective reality. Not at that restaurant nor at any other time during my trip was I made to feel uncomfortable. I was uneasy quite often though, mostly because of my own perceptions (and a seven day long beard that made me look menacing to myself).
The next day we reached the Grand Tetons National Park. This led to another observation. In our U.S. National Parks system, a system that brings in many visitors from every state, there isn’t much racial diversity. The overwhelming majority of visitors are white (a lot of them are retirees). Asian-Americans also represent pretty well, but not as much as one might expect. There are fewer Latino visitors than expected as well but African-American visitors are the rarest of all. National Parks are among the cheapest vacation options available to Americans. Pretty much anyone with gas money and a tent can have a good vacation with their family in one. Class and race should not be an issue and yet it is strikingly so. This is even more apparent on the popular and backcountry trails than near the visitor centers and scenic points. Why don’t more minorities visit our National Parks?
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The blogger and his brother in pursuit of a story for SM while searching for “brown” bears near the Grand Tetons. |
Next we went to Yellowstone National Park. I was keeping a running tab on how many desis we encountered during our trip. In five days I saw maybe fifteen and made a big deal about pointing out each family (to the annoyance of P). I didn’t see a single desi in the states of Idaho, Montana, or Wyoming outside of a National Park. In Butte, Montana I had P drive through the city slowly so that I could search for and take a picture of an Indian restaurant. Surely there must be a “Curry Palace” or something? There was none. I insisted that we stay in a desi owned motel but the odds were not in our favor. Doesn’t the AAHOA know that there is a lot of untapped territory up there?
And so I now wonder. Are there any SM readers that live in Idaho, Montana, or Wyoming? Should I have arranged a meet-up in one of those states last week? Would our meet-up have aroused suspicion?
My question remains largely unanswered. Are there any desis up there?
Side note: If anyone is interested in the non-anthropological aspects of my trip last week then I will have more pictures on my blog by late Tuesday.
Abhi!! What about Portland, Oregon meetup? I’ve been whining about the lack of one for ages!
Sorry, dude a four hour layover at the airport wasn’t long enough. Portland looked really cool from the sky though. Everyone says is the newest best place to live. Maybe we should have a SM meet-up/climb up Mt. Hood type exursion. 🙂
Why donÂ’t more minorities visit our National Parks?
I actually thought that visiting National Parks was a favorite desi activity. In particular a FOBy desi acitivity, second only to visiting Wal-Mart.
y, we do live & breath sir. funny about the “sikh,” sometimes when i’m not in oregon i see a brown turbaned dude, and i’m like, “oh, not one of those new agey converts?”
i’ve done the whole big sky thing
There are many of us who would never consider living in some cities or states based only upon our preconceived notions of what racial attitudes there must be like, regardless of the objective reality. Not at that restaurant nor at any other time during my trip was I made to feel uncomfortable. I was uneasy quite often though, mostly because of my own perceptions (and a seven day long beard that made me look menacing to myself).
abhi, just remember two things
1) these areas have large native american populations. if you were chinese or black you might have gotten more looks, but perhaps they thought you were off the rez? 🙂
2) there are new and large latino populations in some of these areas. e.g., the fruit country of southwestern idaho
Interesting… So based on your anthropological you are saying that you think the white tribe will win Survivor and the asian team will be second…?
😀 (& ducking)
Time for an LA meet up now that you are back!
It was a Sikh man with a long flowing beard and an unusually large turban who I spotted in the TSA security line. Upon closer inspection however, two things became clear. First, the man was white and not desi. Second, he was a TSA screener and not a passenger.
I am not kidding. The biggest subcontractor for Department of Homeland Security is an Arizona-based Sikh community. They are most white Sikhs and run security company. New York Times did a front page 2 years ago.
They are very successful in getting the contracts.
I thought you’d met someone at that wedding…
Dude, I like totally noticed. The prof is MIA too.
Anyway, desis in general just don’t do the outdoorsy thing. I know I get extra fobby when I first go into wilderness, but after a couple of hours, I’m right at home and I always think to myself it’s such a shame we dismiss camping and other nature excursions as a “white thing”.
Here’s what we all gotta do: get nekkid. Or as close to it as we can. From my experience, when most people of color go into the wilderness, they have no concept of what the natural life is like and they just look and feel so awkward and out of place in their spiffy urban gear. We gotta learn to let loose first, Thoreau style.
Anyway, desis in general just don’t do the outdoorsy thing.
i think that’s a total load of bullsh*t (speaking as a northwestern brown, we spend as much time outdoors as our white neighbors). the problem, in the USA, is that too many brown people live in places like new jersey, where the outdoors sux. and what’s all that crap about hinduism & nature?
shudder
I’ve never actually seen a picture of Thoreau, but I’m pretty sure that if I had, I wouldn’t want an image of him naked (or getting loose).
But my family did go camping a whole hell of a lot when I was a kid.
I beg to differ. I’ve seen a lot of desis in National and State Parks…mostly young crowd. From my personal experience, I know that most desi grad students visit atleast a couple of parks each year 🙂 I’ve been to well over a dozen national and state parks..and have met (rather seen) lots of desis…even in remote places like Glacier National Park, Montana and Grand Tetons.
Ok, so they need to get out of town for the weekend first. We don’t all live in Oregon.
I dunno.
True. The outdoors activities like beaches, hiking, camping, boating, mountain climbing etc are foreign to most desis. Whites tend to really love the outdoors. Good for them.
He was an ugly mofo actually. And I have lots of issues with his philosophy, but I just meant desis need to loosen up. Besides, you know aunties, uncles and fobs wouldn’t get naked anyway, and I think the rest of us are pretty hot.
As a grad student, I interacted with a lot of american students (both grad and undergrad). I was surprised to learn that most of them had been to very few cities and national parks etc. On the contrary, most of the desi grad students had ‘religiosuly’ visited the prominent national/state parks and major cities by the end of their grad studies. A few “patel points” that almost every FOB visits are: Niagara Falls, Grand Canyon, Great Smoky Mountains, New York, California, Florida
Anyway, desis in general just don’t do the outdoorsy thing.
I live in an area where there are 30,000+ people (Lefrak City, Jackson Heights, Queens) per Sq mi — 30,000 too many IMO. It’s not nice outdoors when I see other people. I wish there were forests and mountains here. {“scripts”}
Yeah, but those are touristy places, which is why I assume every fob visits them. Would desis get online and search specifically for, say, the last remaining freshwater lake in Southern California? Or a campsite in a north/northwest location with the expectation of finding the perfect place for the annual family camping trip?
shruti,
you are describing my parents, but none of their children. i have 3 siblings, and all of them exhibit the same interests in the outdoors as i do, as do our white peers. perhaps there is something about national brown culture i don’t understand or know about, but the the northwest brownz i know are not different. we live in a beautiful part of the country, and our soul is not blind to it. and yes, i do research the best camp sites around waldo lake (one of the purest lakes in the world).
I went on a nekkid hike once. I mean, I wasn’t nekkid, but it was a naked hiking trail in the middle the desert hiking down to a hot spring, and about 75% of the hikers were some kind of nekkid. It was weird, because I wasn’t warned before the hike. Aaaand I saw no desis except for the two girls that came with me.
I think I’ve been scarred because I haven’t been hiking since.
It’s late, I should not be posting now. Who knows what I’ll say this late…
From my personal experience, I feel that desis start with the well-known tourist destinations….mostly major cities, some major national parks (and some closeby state parks). After a while they realize that most of the cities are similar..not a whole lot to see. Once they get a feel for the “great american outdoors”, they plan week long trips to far off..and distant parks. You’ll usually find http://www.nps.gov in their bookmarks 🙂
Almost all my desi friends (most of whom have been in the US for 5-6 years) have had more camping/hiking trips than any other people I know (including white americans).
Abhi,
Some of us noticed, man, trust me 😉
“Hill-trekking” group excursions are quite popular back in India. I’d assumed that desis in the US would have continued the tradition (as some commenters here have just confirmed).
Some of these guys run the Sikhnet website too. They do a great job — nice people, down-to-earth, and as moderators of the discussion forum they’re “firm but fair” (no pun intended).
I think they’re based in New Mexico and are allied to the late Yogi Bhajan’s organisation.
Don’t know about other desis, but hiking is a big favourite in this family. We always manage to take at least one excursion when we’re on a holiday anywhere. Last year we were camping in Canada and the parents really loved it.(Unfortunately the freezing temperatures at night diminished the enjoyment greatly.) Anyway, being a Biology undergrad student hiking & camping is almost a must, especially if one is to specialise in the field of Ecology. Since the course began a year ago I’ve come to appreciate increasingly being close to nature.
Though, I have no idea why other desis don’t feel the same way. Really no clue, since Hinduism is pretty eco-friendly? (The same for why most desis don’t keep pets?)
Yup, you’re thinking of Akal Security. I’m not entirely sure how to feel about this: Sikhism and government security subcontracting may seem like strange bedfellows, but the two have some sort of precedent.
my family and i have been to yosemite.. sequoia…and yellowstone… did the picture/scenic/eating out of yogurt dabas aka: ‘picnic’ 🙂
i chuckled when i read that the anglosaxons are the more adventurous race… why? because when my brother goes snowboarding around the slopes of north america, he says he doesn’t see many others out there on the black diamond runways… or when we all go skiing, it’s sometimes looked upon as somewhat ‘non-indian’ by friends of ours… but, when he was close to breaking a clavicle and injured himself, i chided him and said ‘brown people belong on the ground, not on the slopes’ (all in jest, but indians aren’t the sporty type–heck look at the indian winter olympic team…)
we were only allowed to have vegetarian pets.. so we had birds..but according to my fathers theory, we shouldn’t bind a bird to the cage.. like binding it’s soul or karma…(don’t ask, his theory).. so we let our birds roam freely in the house… a bit messy at times..but all worthwhile in the end… good, fun, enjoyable and happy memories…
Yeah, I was taught as well not to keep birds in a cage. We don’t keep pets though ’cause my dad and my sister are allergic.
Interesting thread Abhi..
I first camped courtesy my husband and it was quite fun. We were in the Big Sur in California and the sights etc were divine. Till then, my idea of doing something outdoors was walking at the beach. We camped across the country last year and I am a changed woman now!
Nevertheless, some of our relatives think that we’re psycho since we ‘pay money to sleep outdoors’.
As for hiking…Sriram will vouch that the four of us were just about the only ‘desi’ hikers in great falls on sunday…
It all boils down to weather the Desi in question is a Wiper or a Washer. Camping can be tricky for the Washer; whilst Wipers address the (t)issue with panache. However, within every Washer, there lies a Wiper; but, like the sculptor chipping away at a block of granite to reveal the Angel, he has to persevere until he masters the art of wiping and his body and mind accepts it. Open minded, pluralistic, Washers can embrace wiping and take on the great outdoors with confidence and purpose. Peace
Yeah Abhi good to have you back.
Funny thing – I tend to do the same thing when I travel through small towns on the prairies. I do know that in almost every small town in Alberta, there is a Chinese restaurant run by the only Chinese family in the town. For desis I think the correlation is less with business/entrepeneurship and more to do with the engineering industry. As you travel north, there are few if any desis past Edmonton, until you hit the great tar sands of Fort McMurray, where armies of desi engineers extract black gold from the slimy mud (kinda like a modern day gold rush, na?) The same is true as you travel south – past the Oil city of Calgary. So in Alberta desi concerntration varies North/South.
British Columbia is another story. I drove to Vancouver last month and kept a running tab. As you travel West, the numbers decline until you hit the farming community of Golden and then increase further as you travel into the Okinagan (like a Canadian Napa), where Punjabi farmers have built up some of the richest orchards/vineyards in the country. Then on the way to Vancouver, we hit apna Surrey. So in BC its like a slope with a positive gradient as we move West.
There are, of course, the occasional anomalies – like the Malayalee family I found in Banff and the Punjabi motel owner in Kamloops where I spent the night on my way out West.
Ok lets see, in the last year i’ve been to probably a dozen national and state parks throught the US. An in all of them, ranging from the Alaska Seward Exit Glacier park, Napali Coast Trail in Kuaui, Muir Woods-California, Death Valley-California, Yosemite Valley-California, Antelope Island, Utah…there has always been some free range Desis wandering the paved and pre-layed trails and designated Scenic Overlooks. Desis love to visit and explore, hence part of the reason why they left the Indian sub-continent years ago…to explore new lands and new opportunity around the world.
The love of the outdoors, is essentially an innate desire that is easily suppressed by other modern-world motivations we take up.
OUtdoors is more than just hiking, camping in our national parks….its everything under the sun and moon- from doing nothing laying on the beach, or just pondering whiile strolling in the desert, or surfing 5-6ft rollers off the coast Oahu, reading a book in Central Park, or canoing thru mosquito infested creeks in Texas. Eveyones perception of doing ‘outdoorsy’ activities is based on their level of comfort and expreience with their surroundings.
Depending which surveys/studies you read, it’s generally cities in Boulder-Denver & suburbs that rank consistantly tops in best places to live. And to think you didn’t even detour down here to say hi…hmph.
Speaking of Desis visiting National parks and monuments- Niagara Falls by far has turned into a sort of a religious pigrimage for Desis. Every Desi and their families in Midwest and East coast have visited Niagara atleast once. It can be included among Banaras, Kedarnath, Badrinath as a “must visit” for all the senior citizens who visit their kids in US and Canada ( speaking from a Sanatana Dharma or Hindu point of view :-)). There are cheap desi dhabas every corner selling vegetarian fares with sawdust thickened gravies. Desi tourists outnumber other tourists 6:4.
There is a tendency among desis (mostly 2-geners) to specifically ask the question – “Why don’t desis go for camping etc” ..’cos they perceive it to be inherently a ‘whitie thing’. FOBs don’t have this pre-concieved notion..and therefore they happily camp around at different places…without ever thinking that they’re doing something which is meant for members higher up in the food-chain (read: whites).
Abhi/brown_fob,
Now, this might be getting a little scientistic, but I think it is reasonable to assume that there are cultural phenomena at work. The joy of the great outdoors is probably much more a part of the mainstream culture (yo Sierra Club, yo Thoreau) than it is of urban cultures, but I don’t think Hinduism as such is part of the reason. I don’t think desis are flocking to the great outdoors because of any intrinsic naturistic instinct in their belief system. It is not like we are rushing to see the trees because Krishna died under the peepal tree or because people keep getting married to trees in some remote village somewhere sometimes somehow or things of that sort. I remember reading something about babies preferring photographs of the savannah over photographs of urban settings(?), and I totally think that this stuff is hard-wired. And even if it is cultural, it is probably more about some grad student who was making 600 bucks a month and paying 350 bucks for rent, and deciding to do a vacation in the national parks when she was a student, than it is about Krishna and the peepal tree.
Anyways, for the the Bay Areans out here, check out da hikes of da luvmonkey (who happens to be desi btw — no conclusions from that, please). Some nice hikes they were.
^^ Desi Dude From Austin, that second quote was mine, not brown_fob‘s…
I had an awkward/similar experience yesterday on a flight from san diego to dc. on the way into boarding the plan, some dude behind me asked me randomly if I wanted to move up and sit next to my mother. I nervously looked around searching for my mother, breaking out into a cold sweat thinking that by some horrible stroke of bad luck my mother was also on this plane and now I’d have to explain why I was hung over from a weekend long binge when I told her I was going to SD for, uh, work. I looked ahead, only to see an old woman in a salwaar kameez. Yah, dude, okay, I get it…I’m indian, she’s indian…very good.
You are right, Meena. I was talking to brown_fob just because of the general flavor of his comments. And you definitely might have a point about desis, religion and pets.
There is a tendency among desis (mostly 2-geners) to specifically ask the question – “Why don’t desis go for camping etc” ..’cos they perceive it to be inherently a ‘whitie thing’.
is this true??? i’m not hooked in the “brown” american culture, so are you trying to say that the great outdoors is perceived to be a “white thing” by normative 2nd gen culture?
if so, brown american culture sucks.
yes, black and latino americans underutilize the national park system. but they are not affluent. there are cultural stereotypes which i’ve heard mooted (e.g., “black folk just don’t like the outdoors”), but these two groups do not have an economic profile that is similar to upper-middle-class whites. outdoor sports and travel is not always the cheapest. what excuse do we have? we want to stay out of the sun so we’ll be fair?
youve been outdoors too much. now we can never get you married off to a nice indian boy. FOR SHAME! FOR SHAME! you will be GASP 26 and unmarried! YOU WILL BRING SHAME ON YOUR FAMILY!
sorry about the vehemance of the last comment. mebee itz my northwestern biases coming through. i don’t think anything has disturbed me about the brown sub-culture more than this assertion that outdoor recreation is a “white thing.” i think all amerians need to experience nature more, i think it would make us a happier and more fullfilled nation.
LOL Cliff… I’m heading to niagara falls with family in a couple of hours… figured it’s time for a tirth yatra… i’ll keep an eye out for the cheap roadside dhabas and avoid the gravies!
and as per indians and camping, i’ve observed that the ones who don’t go camping mostly have either a fear of the outdoors or like to be more ‘comfortable’ during a vacation (ie lets get a hotel/motel/inn, why sleep on the floor)… but it doesn’t mean they don’t like nature or hiking etc, they just want a personal bathroom and a bed at the end of the day. there are plenty of ‘white’ people that would think the same.
i don’t go camping as often as i’d like… but i have never seen it as a ‘white’ thing, it’s just that pretty much all of my girl friends are too scared of bugs and i don’t want to get stuck with the boys only.
sorry about the vehemance of the last comment. mebee itz my northwestern biases coming through. I kind of laughed it off. Did not Gogol Ganguli himself spend many, many joyful weekends in the woods with his gf and parents?
. now we can never get you married off to a nice indian boy
didn’t know indians were so into gay marriage. i don’t swing that way FYI.
oh…i didnt mean you. i just meant a hypothetical indian girl. I think desis wouldnt mind a gay marriage, as long as it is with a nice indian boy of the same caste.
wilderness is for monkeys. i dont understand why anyone would go into the jungle and be eaten alive by mosquitoes, deerflies, blackflies, ticks etc etc. and then there’s lyme diseases, rocky mountain fever, west nile, mad baboon virus etc.
find me a shaded corner and pour me a cold lassi any day.
Words to live by.
Brown_fob, You are correct in that it is more common to see “FOBs” in the national parks than second generation. This has been my experience as well.
Ain’t that the truth!
I lived in Boulder for two years. That was enough 🙂
We still haven’t had an SM reader from one of those states leave a comment.
i dont understand why anyone would go into the jungle and be eaten alive by mosquitoes, deerflies, blackflies, ticks etc etc. and then there’s lyme diseases, rocky mountain fever, west nile, mad baboon virus etc.
bingo. the western (US) that is aren’t nearly as nasty as this. where do you go camping? the bayous of louisiana?
“bingo. the western (US) that is aren’t nearly as nasty as this. where do you go camping? the bayous of louisiana?”
In Louisiana, we needn’t go camping for all this; it’ll get to you just sitting on the porch.
are you kidding? i value my fair complexion and smooooth skin. it is my pride and joy. kiss kiss.
wildlife shmidlife. my only contact to the wild is this redwinged blackbird that buzzes me when i go under its nest on my way to wendy’s. dirty rascal that. total loafer. it should be shot.
I think being out in the wild would become more mainstream if more bollywood songs were picturized out there. I know, I know….it sounds dumb but it can be true. Remember what Yash Chopra did for Switzerland?
That being said, I was very impressed to see Anil Kapoor and Namrata Shirodkar get jiggy at the Bryce Canyon National Park. Check it out.
Next time I drive across the country and go to the Rockies..I am taking my chiffon sari, hoping that some other brown folk notice me.