Why Can’t They All Be Like Us?

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whacamole.jpgIt’s like playing Whac-A-Mole: Every time you think this “model minority” BS is swept away for good, in comes yet another set of generalizations based on wishful thinking and selective observation, deployed by some so-called expert who sets him/herself up to make claims about the community as a whole.

This time it’s Manjeet Kripalani, the Bombay bureau chief of Business Week and currently a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. Kripalani, who first came to the US in the 1980s, has a piece today in the Los Angeles Times that a tipster kindly brings to our attention on the news tab. Behold the brilliant lede:

THE 2.2 MILLION Indian Americans in the U.S. constitute a model minority, highly educated and well paid. And now, following in the footsteps of earlier immigrant groups such as the Irish, the Jews and the Cubans, Indian Americans are emerging as an influential force in Washington.

I’m not going to rehash the whole critique of the concept of a “model minority.” At this point, either you get it or you don’t. Instead, I simply want to point out that by writing entirely in generalizations, some conveniently free of backing evidence and others normative and therefore unprovable, the sister not only has carried out very shoddy journalism, but also — thanks to the L.A. Times editors — been set up as an expert voice rather than a reporter investigating an issue.Among the generalizations:

This group loves its adopted land; it also cares deeply about the country of its heritage. …

As professionals — mostly doctors and engineers — they spent their first decades working hard and ensuring Ivy League educations for their children. (More than 60% of Indian Americans have college degrees.) Now they are established, law-abiding and wealthy…

Do you recognize yourself? If so, bully for you and for Kripalani. But if this airbrushed, aspirational narrative doesn’t sit all that well, you might be comforted to know that it’s coming from someone who was the deputy press secretary to Steve Forbes‘ presidential campaign back in 1996. How much you want those kinds of voices speaking unchallenged for you is something you need to decide for yourself.

115 thoughts on “Why Can’t They All Be Like Us?”

  1. siddharth’s pov is formulated so as reflect the angst of the sm readership – those who squirm at the thought that they are related in perception or by accident of birth to the folks being applauded by kripalani, folks who’ve assimilated well by seemingly bending over for the man.

    Not at all. My POV is formulated by its own devices, not to “reflect” some other group of people. I speak for myself. I’m not trying to reflect the alleged angst of the SM readership. I don’t even know who our readers are — just the commenters, who are a small though valued portion — and the fact there are so many people out there reading us whom I know absolutely nothing about is a big part of what makes me enjoy doing this.

    On the topic at hand, I refer you back to my comment #39, which no one seems to have responded to. That’s my best encapsulation of my POV on this topic so far.

  2. My suggestion to you is to conduct yourself whatever way you see fit, and let people from other communities do the same.

    I can understand the various viewpoints about model minorities, but I’m troubled by the POV in your post, Siddhartha. It suggests that people take a Darwinina approach to relationships between people and communities. In a foreign policy context, this correlates to a Realist way of thinking, and in India for example, this sort of approach results in the increasing divisions along communal, caste, and religious lines that you see in Indian politics today. It may be that democracies are capable of managing this sort of thing, but not easily, and too often with violence playing a role. I’d rather see an approach that encourages cooperation and communal values; an approach that also understands that these beliefs, values, and traditions will necessarily be in flux. Acting in “whatever way you see fit” seems to me selfish, short-sighted, and ultimately self-defeating. Thanks

  3. Not at all. My POV is formulated by its own devices, not to “reflect” some other group of people.
    I speak for myself. I’m not trying to reflect the alleged angst of the SM readership.
    I refer you back to my comment #39,

    i did review #39 and dont disagree with the nut of it – “dont tell me what i am and how i am supposed to behave”. my add-on around angst was in reference to your position on the imposed ‘aspirational narrative – and how that reflects the popular thought on this forum (the alternadesis)

    regarding my comment on appealing to a readership – we dont really live in a bubble – would you still blog if noone responded, or there were no refreshes? clearly you feel you have a point to make and need to make yourself heard. if there is a need that’s being assuaged here, then you’re going to post more and more often on topics to build on that readership. the relationship is symbiotic. thus – though your thoughts are your own – they are chained to your identity and the people who know and interact to you. anonymity shall set you free.

    my point. not sure any more. besides i’m hungry and have to make an omelet – mushrooms, feta and sweet yellow peppers – on a montreal bagel – mmm mmm mmm … i can taste it now.

  4. would you still blog if noone responded, or there were no refreshes? clearly you feel you have a point to make and need to make yourself heard. if there is a need that’s being assuaged here, then you’re going to post more and more often on topics to build on that readership. the relationship is symbiotic. thus – though your thoughts are your own – they are chained to your identity and the people who know and interact to you. anonymity shall set you free.

    I appreciate you clarifying your point, hairy, but I still disagree. The only “need” that I perceive here (and let me clear that I am speaking only for myself and not for any of the other contributors here) is to keep a conversation going by posting frequently and offering angles that have a good chance of provoking an interesting conversation…

  5. I heard a Desi named Amar Bose started a consumer product company called Bose Audio systems which sets the Gold standard for all Noise cancellation techniques.

    Totally Random, Agreed about Bose. Its definately a consumer product (although with highly niche market. count me as a customer too 🙂 ) But I was talking about the “tech” that I am familiar with, and that is on the Telecom or the internet technology.

  6. Wow, I think I missed most of this conversation.. No offense, but most of the comments challenging the model minority myth are a little patronizing, y’all. This is not just about folks with affluent/educated parents not being able to deviate from the “model” and consequently feeling bad (I understand there were other arguments, also), this “myth” totally obfuscates not only the SES diversity of the community, but also ignores that these skewed statistics are the direct result of U.S. immigration policies. [and of course, as was mentioned, actively propagates anti-Black, and in California, anti-Latino, racism] I don’t want to belabor this a bit, but for those who would identify with the 2nd gen, “parents came on 1960s/70s tech visas,” educated & relatively affluent background, I think Vijay Prashad does a fairly good job of breaking the “myth” down in The Karma of Brown Folk.

    As someone with a more mixed up SES upbringing, by the time I got to college I was wildly disappointed with the community consciousness of my desi peers. Like Cicatrix mentioned, everyone assumed anyone desi was affluent with doctor/engineer parents. I had grown up in a really poor, ethnically diverse, city in the Bay Area, and all my friends who had immigrated in the 80s/90s or had parents who were truckers, taxi-wallahs, farmworkers, etc., didn’t go to college. The idea of someone having to work to pay their way through school, or having grown up with family members who were undocumented, or living with 10 people in a small space was something my college peers associated with [poor] Latino families. Just because they didn’t grow up with this experience – and generally grew up in really affluent “white” neighborhoods -, they assumed that this reality didn’t exist. I was pretty shocked and disaffected.

    And unrelated:

    On one side is the moderates and on the other side is the conservatives sikh’s. The moderates are the one with tables and chairs in the temples and the conservatives are the ones where none.

    Clueless, these “moderates” were “excommunicated” from the larger Sikh community. This wasn’t because of tables and chairs in the gurdwaras (not temples, thank you), this was because SOME people were sitting at chairs/tables and others were sitting on the ground. The reason behind the controversy was that, at langar, everyone is required to be at the same level (physically) as a representation of a casteless community in which everyone is valued and considered to be equal. So long as there is uniformity in accommodation, there is a lot of flexibility.

    WTF? Outside? It’s 60 degrees on the left coast and i cannot find my Prada scarf.

    Haha, it was 27 degrees outside 2 nights ago. I have never wanted to be on the east coast for winter, but apparently NYC/Boston with their 60/70 degree days are the place to be!

  7. siddhartha #39:

    I got a problem.Why? First, because you refer to yourself as a minority. Minority is, in part, a state of mind.

    I define myself as a minority of one. And I consider myself to be a model citizen (education/money/social standing etc).

    you define yourself by reference to a majority.

    I consider America to be a collection of minorities of one.

    If you call your ethnic group a model minority, then I got a problem

    I don’t have a problem with individuals of any group calling themselves anything. Just as I consider myself a unit of one, I considers others’ right to surrender their individuality to an ethnic/caste/race/linguistic group identity. None of my business. Does not affect me in any way.

    Do you have a problem with Jews calling themselves “The chosen people”? I don’t. Similiarly I don’t care if desis call themselves a model minority.

    However, if anyone wants me to fit into their mold of how a model minority should be (because I’m desi), he/she will get a bloody nose.

    M. Nam

  10. BidiSmoker,

    Very well said! I could not have put it down in a better fashion.

    Thanks!

    Regards,

  11. the author is talking about a specific subset of the Indian-American population, not Asian Americans or South Asians in general, so unless you have data to prove her wrong in her assertion that Indian-Americans on average are wealthier and more educated than the general population, I would day your criticism sounds like nothing more than sour grapes.

    Dumb and dishonest bullcrap. RTFA:

    “THE 2.2 MILLION Indian Americans in the U.S. constitute a model minority, highly educated and well paid.”

    What part of that led you to the conclusion that she “is talking about a specific subset of the Indian-American population”??

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