…by which I mean ignorance and racism; I have nothing against ancient warriors who had little to do with the lush paradise in which my parents were born. I’ve largely refrained from the “Scythian”-drama on SM, which has now pindered out to the point where it’s almost an inside joke: “But is she SCYTHIAN??”, etcetera ad nauseum.
Behold, the stunning nescience below, which inspired this unexpected post:
Well not all Punjabis are Scythians, but some are. I don’t look like the small, dark and gumpy looking people there. I’m totally a 6’4″ tall, 220 lbs. White Scythian, not just in complection, but in those jagged Iranic/Germanic Scythian features. U.S. Born, and a U.S. Marine too. Not some unkempt, short darkie, goofy looking son of a bitch like most of those Indian fuckers are. Don’t forget about the Pashtunic, Scythian, White Hun, Magog descendents who decided to stay on the Indian side during 1947. And changed their names to Singh. I got nothing in common with most Singhs, I’m all-American here. My blood’s totally of White Hun/Scythian and Greek lineage. I should change my name back to our original Scythic/Hun and Greek surnames, before my ancestors made the hair brained idea to stay on the Indian side. When they should have fought hard to preserve their Princely States, which do not belong to India or Pakistan. I got nothing in common with Desis in appearance and culture. They’re as bad as the Muslims! The problem is, is that most here are NOT Scythians, so they won’t understand, but it’s foolish to claim that all are Scythic, or none are Scythic. However some are. Also a lot of pure Scythians left India in 1947 and the time after that to come to America. Since their high civilization of their Princely States were robbed and dissolved by the Desis. No worries, though, we’re florishing well here. Just I’m against the current immigration of all these undesirables who don’t belong in America. The immigration rules of the 1950’s, 1960’s were excellent in America. But not anymore, today. With the way things are going, America’s gonna be another 3rd World cesspool if they don’t close the doors to immigration. But it’s all Commie New World Order and the Bibilical End Times now. So go figure. [for shame]
Hmmm. I wonder if he realizes that most of our darkie desi parents came here during that “excellent” era for immigration, i.e. 1965.
Look.
I’m all for being proud of one’s roots and heritage. I’m certainly not ashamed of my undesirable, small, dark and gumpy (??) past. I’m also proud of the fact that like this commenter, my sister is active duty Air Force; I’m a total cheerleader for our troops, but that doesn’t mean I’ll overlook the egregious. You see, there’s being proud and then there’s being pejorative. One can be the former without resorting to the latter. Shocking concept, I know.
If you are someone Gujjar, Sindhi, Kashmiri or whatever and you have some logical right to claim Scythian ancestry, then bully for you. I was always taught that Scythians were blood-drinking, pot-headed, parent-devouring cannibals who didn’t even have a written language, but whatever floats your quasi-supremacist boat. 😉 I keed, I keed.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that you Scythians are unique and special. Just like everyone else. You’re no better or worse. Just like everyone else. So why this fixation on differentiating yourself from us when you quite probably have some of our small, darkie genes too, even if they haven’t expressed themselves in your tall, broad-shouldered, Aryan phenotype? What is up with the proto-racism?
And if you are excessively proud of your purported background, why come to a site populated by inferior darkies to crow about it? People who own Ferraris are fine with obeying the speed limit/staying out of the extreme left lane, I’ve seen it myself. It’s the poser in the uber-modded ________ who has something to prove– and behaves deplorably.
Since I commenced this post because of a comment, let me end with one, too. This was Chachaji’s response to CinnamonRani, over on the Skin Color Matters thread:
I think discrimination based on skin color(or for that matter discrimination based on any visible markers of difference) is an innately human behavior. It takes a lot of conscious effort to see beyond the visible marker at an individual level. This requires training, sensitization, consciousness raising, and it has to happen all the time, in every generation. Although one makes distinctions precisely because one is human, it is also because one is human that one can become aware that one is doing so, and learn not to base significant decisions on these markers. People who claim they are not racists are often being not so much dishonest as ignorant of their own psychological processes. [link]
Better yet, have a cup of Possibly Scythian-descended Camille:
…Honestly, when people say this, I wonder if folks recognize that this is just another way of playing into ideas of white supremacy and a “white on top” racial hierarchy? PARTICULARLY when they start throwing in color (e.g. “Oh I’m much more like (fair-skinned) Aryans than (dark) south Indians.” It’s racist and stupid, through and through…[link].
What do you think? Be respectful, please. I’d love to have a discussion where we hash this out, for once and all, but that won’t happen if this thread gets shut down. Scythe away at each other accordingly. 😉
there are a lot of half-baked theories in the body-building world, even regarding specific exercises with different benefits for different racial groups, but there was very little regarding south asians as there isn’t exactly a horde of them stomping down the doors at Muscle & Fitness magazine.
well, i had a friend who did some literature searches on this. south asian samples exhibit a tendency toward hyperflexibility. these were drawn from pakistani british samples, but i think the generalization holds. i don’t know much about within south asian groups differences on this, but i don’t think the mean size difference correlates with any difference in body fat percentage. the genetics seems to suggest there was some recent selection for musculature related characters in africans, but that’s all i know.
😉
Well, I thought this whole subject was about that. As light as some Indians are, no one will ever think that they are polish or something
Yes, it’s just interesting how people’s race and ethnicity changes depending on the cultural/socioeconomic/geographic context. I’ve visited Ireland so many times and right now there’s an influx of Eastern Europeans – and they are considered to be darker…but to my eye they all look alike; There did seem to me more “pink” people in Ireland, and they would consider Aishwarya a beautiful darker person (at least according to my Irish friends) and then of course in India she is considered so light skin. There’s this interesting ethnography I read, “contesting cultures”, which studies mostly the South Asians in Southall England— and shows how people pick and choose which part of their “heritage” they will use as their identity depending on the context.
An example of this was a women’s organization, called something like Southall Black sisters. The organization was started by South Asians, who identified themselves according to socioeconomic and political structures in Southall and they called themselves “black”. I think Diletente has mentioned this.
Lighter isnt always considered better looking. Else albinos would be supermodels in every country.
http://www.bio.davidson.edu/Courses/Immunology/Students/Spring2003/Leese/albino.gif
The ancient greeks when they were great saw their own complexion, which they pegged as between that of the asiatics and the northern european barbarians, as the ideal. The arabs when they were dominant saw their complexion, darker than the greeks but lighter than africans, similarly. Chinese see golden skin as the ideal and white europeans are called “white ghosts”. And so on.
Desis, africans, filipinos, native americans etc being conquered and humiliated for so long by lighter-skinned races have little such racial pride left. In the distant past indians must have seen their dark skin as beautiful as revealed in the Puranas where the heroes and heroines such as Rama, Krishna, Draupadi etc are described as very dark-skinned and handsome/beautiful. Shyama sundara = black and beautiful, for example.
Right, I think if the Africans have conquered the rest of the world and made the rest lick their a**es, then we would be seeing a clamour for blackness creams now.
🙂
It’s not just Punjabis with faux-supremacists complexes. Tamil Brahmins for long were among the champions of Aryanism in India, and because they are, on average, slightly fairer than Tamil non-Brahmins, they took this as confirmation of their own privileged position. They also for long conflated darkness with sudra status: Brahmin kalai was/is equated with fairness.
Any possibility this ‘Scythian’ was joking/trolling? It just seems way over the top. Almost as though some knowledgeable non-desi person wrote it to get under the skin of desis.
If not…apart from the obvious and sad elements of such a post (if written in earnestness) isn’t it nearly impossible for so-called Scythian types to be unrelated to dark and grumpies? I look at my own family. My ‘Scythian’ brahmin granny is related to non-Scythian brahmin me, and I am related to decidedly East Asian looking cousins, not to mention a Scythian Sikh aunt, as well as a tribal non-brahmin great-aunt. Aren’t Indian families a frightful mishmash after so many thousands of years?
they actually had a lot of impressive cultural and military accomplishments, and they did have a presence in northern India, and probably did form some percent of some people’s ancestries
Right, and that makes the “desi scythians” bastards, who had their scythian ancestry fathered upon their black “desi” mothers! It is surprising what aspects of desiness people will take pride in. Some people think the Buddha was great. Other people take pride in the zero, aka “nil,” which was once thought to have first been conceptualized in India. Others yet think there is no dish in the world meaner than meen molee, and other people are proud to be “descended” from … Scythians!
It’s not just Punjabis with faux-supremacists complexes.
we can go on with this ad infinitum. i have read that bengalis all of a sudden took pride in their “mongoloid” ancestry after th russo-japanese war, when japan kicked russia’s ass.
No? 🙂
Oh lord.
I feel sorry for this person, with his big truck and his big guns and his obsession with being white. Man is he crying out for counselling.
For some reason this guy reminds me of Kimveer Gill of the Dawson College Shooting infamy?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimveer_Gill
Dude, that guy’s little photo album up there is is frickin hilarious. Maps of the so-called Sythian homeland interspaced with guns and pick up trucks. LOL
The guy looks as Greek as Gandhi. Sorry, but I seriously don’t see his whole affected martial swagger comes from. I seriously doubt this guy is in the Corps. He just isn’t he material. Mentally unstable, hyper-racist. If nothing else the Corps teaches you how alike every race is in terms of both physical and mental optimums. And lemmie tell you from experience. A small, darkie like me funamentally has the inherant stamina and warewithall to run circles around the bodybuilding junkies. There’s a reason Marines are usually small, thin but super-lithe, and the Army are 300 lb needle-jockeys who can’t run worth squat (I’m generalizing, I’m generalizing!)
Thin, short guys make far better soldiers than TALL_WHITE_GRECO-PERISAN_6FT-4IN jagdorks who play HE-Man pretend soldier on the internet, waving their Airsoft rifles around, screaming Bactrican epitaths on the bed of their F-150, while the REAL Marines, Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen fight it out in the real world.
What a ***kin dumbass. If I had Sythian blood in me, I’d be boiling at this piece of scum.
OORAH.
Okay this guy is crazy and dangerous!! This is what he wrote on his photo site, http://tallguy6ft4in.photosite.com/Album2/
He is talking about killing people!!
I agree with ShallowThinker. This is one seriously disturbed individual.No point in discussing someone who so obviously needs help.
Just letting you know. This webpage has been shown to my Sergeant and chain of command. Death threats like the ones he made are no laughing matter. They’re gonna track him down hopefully’ll send his ass to Pendleton.
He is obviously delusional and has no place in the military.
BUT I doubt this nutjob actually is a service member. More likely he’s trying to pump up his false internet-macho image by associating with real heros. That pisses me off even more that he would attempt sully our name by his self-proclaimed association with his kind.
OORAH.
kimveer gill clone!!!!
Sadly this is not the case at all. Most Chinese actresses are paler than average. Also these sun visors are very popular to prevent dark tanned faces.
Many Japanese people consider themselves to be seperate from other asian because they tend to be lighter, sometimes hairy and look more white.
It was quite a shock to read this post, Anna. I was in total ignorance of the subject matter, i.e. scythian vs non-scythian. I know, deep down, I would have preferred to have lived in ignorance. But now that I’ve been educated, I feel that I should leave a comment as well. Not only was I struck by the horrific attitude of this person, but racism raised it’s ugly head even in the comments that SM readers have added. I know it’s utopian to think that we can all get along. I totally agree with ‘chachaji’s’ post that rising above racism is something that we all need to work at, every minute of every day.
It’s sad, really. Little chidren don’t care about skin color or bank balance. It’s unfortunate that we cannot harness their open-mindedness for the rest of us who need it.
I think that nutjob scythian forgot to take his medication today, or he needs to get off it. His bloody website even mentions his height! how insecure is he!? On another note, the Scythians were “pot-heated.” And..excuse me while I take a toke…thank Siva’s holy chillum for it! We Desis should be proud of the sacred herb’s long association with Indian culture. Where do you think Bhangra came from? Bhang lassi anyone? The Soma in the Rig Veda was the fly agaric magic mushroom. Holi festival, sadhus, government run bhang shops. The world would be a better place if more people smoked, ate, and drank ganja. Even the marijuana in Jamaica was brought over by Indian indentured labourers. Up here in Canada I’d get into more trouble walking along the street with an open can of beer than if I was smoking a joint. I’ve even smoked with a cop. Try that with the NYPD. So Anothermarinedesi how does it feel killing and raping Afghanis and Iraqis and destroying their countries just so a bunch of rich white Christian men can get their hands on oil that doesn’t belong to them? You must feel so proud to be ‘merican.
Puliogre at #34 – stereotyping and dissing another group doesn’t make you look good or strengthen your argument. The Middle east has had a long civilizational history, which you have only to go to Cairo or Damascus or (once) Baghdad to see, and it certainly didn’t begin and end with the discovery of oil in the 1920s.
I agree with whoever pointed to the misplaced pride that North Indians tend to have in their light skin and what have you, when social development indicators and education levels are so much better in parts of the South.
When you’re a Jatt, You’re a Jatt all the way From your first cigarette To your last dyin’ day.
When you’re a Jatt, If the spit hits the fan, You got brothers around, You’re a family man!
You’re never alone, You’re never disconnected! You’re home with your own: When company’s expected, You’re well protected!
Then you are set With a capital J, Which you’ll never forget Till they cart you away. When you’re a Jatt, You stay a Jatt!
When you’re a Jatt, You’re the top cat in town, You’re the gold medal kid With the heavyweight crown!
When you’re a Jatt, You’re the swingin’est thing: Little boy, you’re a man; Little man, you’re a king!
The Jatts are in gear, Our cylinders are clickin’! The Sharks’ll steer clear ‘Cause ev’ry Dravidian’s a lousy chicken!
Here come the Jatts Like a bat out of hell. Someone gets in our way, Someone don’t feel so well!
Here come the Jatts: Little world, step aside! Better go underground, Better run, better hide!
We’re drawin’ the line, So keep your noses hidden! We’re hangin’ a sign, Says “Visitors forbidden” And we ain’t kiddin’!
Here come the Jatts, Yeah! And we’re gonna beat Ev’ry last buggin’ gang On the whole buggin’ street! On the whole! Ever! Mother! Lovin’! Street! Yeah!
I love the sight of Scythians in the morning. As for the, er, Gumpy folks, I say to them, Run, Indians, Run! Before they get you. Cuz my momma always said lifeislikeaboxofdarkchoklates, just like your charcoal skin.
Karl Marx must be rolling in his grave at this unholy alliance of Communism and Christianity!
I’ve got “Scythianz” tatoo’ed on my garn.
~sCyThIaNz 4 LyFee~
~stay tru to yo rootz an’ ryde a horse to werk~
all funnies aside, there is actually a gang called the SacTown Scythianz. other than the usual posturing found in movie lines, under 18 clubs, and just outside Forever 21, they tag stop signs with an “Scy” and have all nighters in the Sac State library reading up on Nomadic Pastoral Societies of Classical Antiquity. they only marry Scythian girls, caste no bar, of course, because “scythian scyvilization predated the caste system.” the pimps of the lot apparently think that “Scy” doubles as shorthand for “saucy”.
Boston-reader, that’s a second gen Dodge Ram. This is a Dodge Durango. He may have a completely ret*rded viewpoint on race and history, but his taste in trucks isn’t half-bad.
You hate Freddie Mercury because he anonymously made blanket, virulently racist, misinformed, and arrogant comments, totally irrelevant to the topic of the post? Or do you really hate him because he was incredibly talented and less than forthcoming with his homosexuality, ethnic background and didn’t capitalize on every opportunity to remind anyone within earshot where his parents were born and what language he spoke at home?
While you think about that, I’ll be singing along to “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” at the top of my lungs.
NVM!!
The first rule of SacTown Scythianz is that you do not talk about SacTown Scythianz.
The second rule is you must, in an incessant and maundering fashion, extol the virtues of your dubious connections to “Nomadic Pastoral Societies of Classical Antiquity” you barely understand.
The third rule of SacTown Scythianz is that you do not talk about SacTown Scythianz.
I had a similar Wayne-head-banging moment when I saw that statement about the original Scyth lord, Freddie Mercury. But all was clarified from the Wikipedia link: Mercury possessed a notable overbite of his teeth that he had wanted to fix for many years.. Nobody likes this guy.
ANNA (#97): Thanks for your kind words. Just want to make clear, my ‘defense’ of Scythians (such as it was) was just out of historical interest and accuracy, not because I personally felt invested in it.
Razib (#100): I agree with all that.
Thanks for the correction, Drrrty Poonjabi.
Growing up, my dad had this truck (in blue) for contracting work. But I’ve fallen out of step, preferring the subway.
Since all my images have decided to die on me:
This was my link for #123.
Fixed. 🙂
oh. i know. nothing wrong with these people. i actually liked travel to the middle east.a nice place. but. you cant really take racial superiority from being from there. like “ooh. our race is better. look how well we have done”. im just responding to this guy on his own terms.
and these places didnt begin with oil. but. they declined long ago. nothing to do with race. a lot of complicated factors go into the rise and fall of regions.
Thank you, Ms. Time Machine!
Puliogre, who was making an argument for racial superiority based on Arab origin? I missed that. Still don’t see how the way to respond to that is with a put-down of an entire region. And FWIW, the non-oil (i.e. non-Gulf) Arab states have a significantly higher per capita GDP than we do in desh, so if you’re going to make an argument for ‘decline’ or imminent ‘barbarism’ you’ve got that to explain. Where they are fucked up is in their politics, and their authoritarian regimes.
I agree with that statement. I dont actually believe in wealth = racial superiority. was just trying to point out the ridiculousness of the scythian dudes arguement. wasnt that guy making an arguement of racial superiority cause he is decended from central asian/middle easterners/iranians/greeks, etc?
im saying that this guy says that india is a hole. look at how superior we iranians are. we will civilize you. seems an odd arguement given that this region isnt exactly a world beating place.
i think this izs part of the answer. i think the other bit is that in a lot of places, the moderates just had to shut up. you ended up with either authoritatian secularists, or just plain religious nutjobs running the show. not good in either case.
Guy: Yes I come from princely lands girl: So, you’re a prince? Guy: No, its just that the lands are very princely. girl: What the hell are you talking about? Guy: What I mean is that someone was once a prince and they had the same skin tone as me. girl: Yea and Im white and so is Tom Brady, does that make me from the superbowly lands, you tard?
Despite the horrifying sentiments in the first post, this is honestly one of the funniest discussions I’ve ever read on teh Intarwebs. Seriously.
A million comments! As was bound to happen, the discussion is alright reading.
I think the worst part of it is the number of people who say “oh you precious Scythians are actually savages (jatts, hindu slaves, or anything else)” or “south indian immigrants tend to be better educated” implying that this individual isn’t. This person is out of line, entirely, however bringing them down the same way they attempted to bring “all desis” down is sad. Attempting to simply say, “sorry you got the racial/cultural hierarchy wrong, let me pull you down” just propagates more of the same.
And as for the Scynthian…they should reconsider their propaganda and rhetoric–realize race is a construction and that membership in this random group doesn’t make you one thing or another, his/her actions do and right now they are relatively deplorable.
Help me out here a little, as I am a none Desi who enjoys reading this blog.
Was the original poster named “Scythian” who caused this mess a “Desi” by an sense of the word? Was he a South Asian, ashamed of his South Asian ancestry?
If he is, I do find it ironic that he is attempting to attach himself ethnically/racially to the peoples of the Middle East and Central Asia, as they are hardly the most popular folk in today’s “white-middle-America”. That, compounded with the fact that he does not seem to like Muslims much…
Also, do we know if this person is a troll of sorts? Do we know that the website with his supposed photographs to really be him, or somebody else just being used as a visual dupe?
Razib Wrote: “well, if you like ‘natural’ sweaters.”
True.
Iranians are not naturally hairless like South Asian folks!
“And as for the Scynthian…they should reconsider their propaganda and rhetoric–realize race is a construction and that membership in this random group doesn’t make you one thing or another”
Whether this “construction” makes you one “race” or another is open to debate, the debate being what is “race?” Nowadays, quotes are popular around the word race. However, they don’t put “race” in quotations when they’re looking for marrow donors. They are dead serious and know what they’re looking for. Neither race nor color is good nor bad, they just are. It means sharing a certain profile of genes more than, say, another “race.” It is often, though by no means always, visually evident. To say “race is a construction and that membershp in this random group doesn’t make you one thing or another” is gobbledy speak that is not saying one thing or another, just wiggling around the concept, because it makes one so uncomfortable when it really doesn’t have to. One shares more genes with members of one’s family, but that doesn’t mean that one denounces other families. As for the “Scythian”. The last time I heard about Scythians was at a museum exhibition called Scythian Gold. They were rather fierce folk who ranged through central Asia and resembled persons now living in, well, central Asia and southeastern Europe. Some scholars associate them with Celts, others with Macedonians, Ossetians, Persians, etc. Maybe they mixed with everybody. Maybe they roamed southward and some got into India. Why not? everybody else did. But why give them pride of place in your ancestral panapoly when there is such impressive ancestral history of more certain provenance? They would have been a very, very thin thread if they were there at all. I swear some people just sit at computers too long. Their brains start to spin out the craziest stuff.
“Iranians are some of the best looking people on earth.”
Thanks, AnotherMarineDesi.
For the record, for the reference to my weight-lifting with a Marine/classmate. There were two of them. One was the smaller/marathon-running variety/quite laid back. Great guy.
The sane marine died three years ago in Iraq–leaving behind a lot of friends. The gun-toting one now works as a serious dealer/collector of expensive, predominately nazi, military memorabilia.
You would actually be amazed the number of times I have witnessed that exact same exchange take place. I seriously cannot count them on my hands and feet. The irony being of course, that Turks are generally “whiter” than ethnic Persians, even in the case of Iranian Turks.
Its okay, and I am hardly offended. Especially when I consider the source!
http://www.onepeoplesproject.com/site/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=409&Itemid=27
Do you have proof that “AnotherMarineDesi” killed or raped anyone? If not, those are some terrible words. The deplorable actions of a few should not taint all. Please stay on topic.
i never heard about this Scythian stuff either. am i the only one thinking about dave chappelle’s blind black klansman?
Is this “scythian dude” for real?
It sounds like he/she/it has a hair up his/her a$$. Maybe the “$ythian idiot” needs a proper education and needs to learn morals. Or else he/she/it can don a white dunce cap, learn a hitler salute and goosestep, white mask (cowardly scoundrels), shaved head and white robe to join the loser group that shares those sick ideas mentioned in that nauseating “Aryan” post.
nah. those guys will think of him as a s@nd n…gger. he can only spout this stuff to people that will listen. i.e. other desis.
ha ha. LOVED that skit – esp. where he divorces his wife afterwards, because ‘she loved a n—-r.’
Amen to #148!