I have a slightly different take on Bobby Jindal from some of my co-bloggers here at the Mutiny: I know, if I lived in Louisiana, that I wouldn’t vote for him. I just disagree with him too strongly on the social issues — intelligent design and abortion rights, for starters — to let my sense of ethnic loyalty get the better of me.
But I can’t help but be somewhat torn when I see photos like this:
The rest of the very interesting New York Times profile explains what this represents: Jindal is slowly winning over the rural white voters in northern Louisiana, staunch Republicans (can anyone say David Duke?) who couldn’t bring themselves to vote for him when he ran for governor four years ago. He’s also learning how to avoid giving the impression that he is an overachieving policy wonk (which he undoubtedly is), so as to better connect with ordinary Louisianans.
For me, Jindal’s growing success at this (again, encapsulated in the photo above) taps into an anxiety I myself have had as a child of immigrants — who became the first (and only) person in my extended family to earn a Ph.D. Even if your tastes and cultural values are profoundly “Americanized,” as mine are, there remains a sense that you don’t quite “fit,” which tends to be exacerbated (for me, especially) every time some a-hole on South Street (in Philly) mutters something about “there goes Bin Laden” when I walk down the street. Part of the anxiety comes from the ignorance and xenophobia of some Americans, but a good part of it comes from myself, an internalized sense of remaining not-quite-pukka despite everything.
If Jindal wins, his victory will suggest to me he’s somehow overcome both sides of the immigrant’s anxiety syndrome: the part that comes from others’ mistrust, and also the part that comes from himself — his own sense of being something different, something other than a “normal” American, or in this case, a representative Louisianan. If he wins, I won’t cheer, but I will, I expect, quietly feel a certain sense of pride at his accomplishment despite my strong disagreement with his kind of politics. Not just because he’s a fellow desi — it’s actually more complex than that. Rather, the pride will be because he’s a fellow desi who’s evidently achieved, after a struggle, something I’ve long aspired to do: shake that dude’s hand.
If Bobby Jindal, who is of upper caste khatri punjabi ancestry, is elected Governor of Louisiana as seems likely, he will become the skinniest and blackest governor in american history. Only Governor Deval Patrick approaches Jindal in darkness of skin color.
hi prema.
Jindal converting to Catholicism isn’t as good for his political chances as you might think. LA is one of the last states in the US where the Catholic / Protestant divide still matters. Which is why the supposedly (but not really) anti-Protestant remarks Jindal made were blown up so huge. If Jindal converted to Southern Baptism, that would be more easily seen as opportunism.
do you have any studies on this? louisiana is 30% catholic and 50% protestant, though i assume white catholics outnumber white protestants. but blanco is a catholic, breaux was a catholic, both senators are catholic. it seems that catholics are doin’ ok so far.
what’s the name of this senator? & do you think it would be different if they were married to black women as opposed to immigrant/immigrant-descended asian/hispanic women?
i assume so.
Whycome nobody’s talking about Nikki Haley in this context? She is a successful “outmarried” Republican politician in South Carolina who claims to be Sikh but has a crescent moon beside a palm tree as her logo on the rear windshield of her car, not a Khanda. And she works for her mom’s company which is called Exotica International. In South Carolina!
hi prema.
wow, razib, you’ve got a very radar for premaisms.
On short notice, just this national Review article
Philip Jenkins … predicts: “I hate to say it but . . . in Louisiana, that large territory located just south of the United States, these ads could be much more effective than someone living elsewhere might suspect…. What prevents appropriate anger about the Jindal ads is that most Americans don’t realize how uniquely bitter religious relations still are in Louisiana, and why such rhetoric is so poisonous.â€
Though Bill Cohen, Maine Republican ex-Senator (1979-97) who was Clinton’s second term Secretary of Defence (1997-2001) was (and is) married to Janet Langhart, an African-American model and TV personality, from 1996 on – during his last year as Senator and throughout his tenure at Defense. She was known as the ‘First lady of the Pentagon’. Cohen’s father was Russian Jewish but his mother was Irish-Protestant, and he himself is Unitarian. So bully for them both.
First – outstanding post by Amardeep…encapsulates my thoughts exactly.
Much of the outrage directed towards Jindal by Indians is that he is politically conservative and catholic, and thus not a true representative of we Indians. Some of the attacks I have read and heard are fairly visceral – there’s an Uncle Tom vibe about them. For Indians to lob such attacks is a concession that we’re all alike (rather than diverse in many different ways) and that America at large should have certain expectations about us, whether it be political, cultural, or religious. This is absolutely absurd and self defeating. It also ignores the fact that whatever success he achieves will inevitably bring about positive for the entire Indian community via the exposure he gains as he campaigns and if he wins. And what if he wins, what does that mean? That an Indian likely supplanted some other right wing nut who would have been white.
I might give his Indian attackers the benefit of the doubt and venture to guess that they’re just fearful that his beliefs will be attributed to all Indians amongst the general Louisiana populace(a highly unlikely proposition, that even it if occurred, wouldn’t even be truly detrimental to Indians). But, in all reality, I think their intolerance of his ideology trumps their ability to recognize any positive consequences his win would bring about.
Identity politics at it’s finest. Sad.
ikram, jenkins is a specialist in anti-catholicism, so i don’t dismiss it. but it seems empirically the case is weaker. but, the key is white catholics have been winning, jindal is sui generis.
Though Bill Cohen, Maine Republican ex-Senator (1979-97) who was Clinton’s second term Secretary of Defence (1997-2001) was (and is) married to Janet Langhart, an African-American model and TV personality, from 1996 on – during his last year as Senator and throughout his tenure at Defense. She was known as the ‘First lady of the Pentagon’. Cohen’s father was Russian Jewish but his mother was Irish-Protestant, and he himself is Unitarian. So bully for them both.
i know about cohen, but new england isn’t the deep south. mass. it elected a black senator in the sixties, but it is also one of the whitest regions of the countries.
what’s the name of this senator?
Phil Gramm.
Gramm also ran for President, and switched from Democrat to Republican.
Identity politics at it’s finest. Sad.
hm. the last sentence doesn’t seem to make sense in light of the rest of your comment. a lot of the opposition to jindal is based on his beliefs, not his immutable identity as a brown man. it shows the power of politics, individual interest and ideology at the expense of racial fellow feeling.
Whycome nobody’s talking about Nikki Haley in this context? She is a successful “outmarried” Republican politician in South Carolina who claims to be Sikh but has a crescent moon beside a palm tree as her logo on the rear windshield of her car, not a Khanda. And she works for her mom’s company which is called Exotica International. In South Carolina!
she’s a minor politician and physically she seems she might be able to pass for white. jindal might be governor of one of 50 states and he’s a good ole kala fellow.
the skinnyness is f*king disturbing btw. he needs more gumbo and jumbalaya.
Makes him look like he’s still 16 or 17 tops. Where’s his South Asian genetic predisposition to adiposity? 🙂
I think you’re misreading it. I think people are accusing him of opportunism–of using a fake southern accent, of (according to Razib in #17) espousing creationism despite his scientific education, etc. I think people doubt his sincerity, his motives for adopting these positions–not the fact that he has adopted them. I should really just speak for myself, though.
re: “who is a desi?” i will offer this: i think one could argue that there are many sufficient but no necessary condition for desiness.
is a white protestant american of english ancestry a desi? no. is a white american member of ISKON desi? i think so. is a brown american protestant desi? yes. is a white protestant raised in india, and of indian nationality, a desi? i think so. is a brown protestant adoptee a desi? i think so. and so on. SM is filled with all sorts so i don’t think an exclusive and narrow definition will do.
one thing to remember, jindal is a politican. i think all comments about sincerity need to be normalized 😉
This is ironic in contract with the rest of you comment which was calling for his opponents to put aside their “outrage” and embrace a fellow desi no matter how opposed they may be to his views. You seem to be saying you have to be “down with the brown” no matter if you think his views are ridiculous … the very definition of identity politics.
The palm and crescent is from the South Carolina state flag.
Word.
. Wow, I had no idea. I thought she’d just photoshopped Omar Khayyam out of the image to make it more palatable to her constituents. South Carolina? Really? I thought they were all about Ol’ Dixie, the Stars and Bars…Thanks!
sistafriend said:
Roberts is the worst of the old ultra-reactionary wing of British Conservatism. He not only justifies the Amritsar massacre, he writes apologia for the brutality used against Boer women, children and men during the Boer war, and, by-the-by, denigrates the Irish freedom struggle as only a bitter old Colonialist red in face at his neutering ever could. He is a grade A racist, and the fact that he is part of the American administration’s coterie and has the ear Bush is frankly terrifying and demented. Christopher Hitchens is a fan of his too, apparently. You can read more about this repulsive man in a review of his work by the British journalist Johaan Hari. It was originally published in the American magazine ‘The New Republic’, which requires subscription, but can be read in full here.
Let me just reiterate that I am not anti Jindal just because he converted(though converts at a later age tend to be too religious for my taste). Or because he changed his name. Or because he is Republican(I got many Republican friends). Maybe its a combination of all these factors plus his pandering to rednecks with his Jena 6 comment when he never made any effort to speak on bhalf of the people wrong in earlier incidents in that area.
I dont think he changed his name casually. I read that he really hated his name and that was one of the reasons why he changted. For a kid to change his name legally indicates some intense feelings. Other Indians who go by Western names never changed it legally.
At the same time, I dont mind his success because he hasnt been worse to minorities in Louisiana than a white Democrat like Blanco or Landrieu. Those White Democrats did nothing for Jena 6. I think he is a go getter and Louisiana definitely needs some smart leaders who are not too corrupt for a change.
As far as his being too religious, who cares at the state level. Lousiana can afford to tolerate his ideology if he can improve the state in other ways.
It was originally published in the American magazine ‘The New Republic’, which requires subscription, but can be read in full here.
almost all new republic articles can be read for free if you look up the title on google and click the link from there or view the cache. you might need to create a free registered account for the first option.
For a kid to change his name legally indicates some intense feelings.
i thought he is still legally piyush.
Razib — White catholic democrats do fine. LA politics has 3 groups. White prots (dem turning rep, like all white prot southerners), white Catholic democrats, black democrats. The “jungle primary” allows the first two groups to compete while making sure blacks don’t win statewide office. White catholics democrats win in the run off (round 2 vote) if they get enough statewide support from blacks, or if their opponent is a black democrat (in which case the white prots vote for the catholic democrat). Jindal is a non-white non-black Republican Catholic! He defies all categories.
Last gubernatorial election, enough white prots treated voted for Blanco over Jindal, suggesting they did not see him as “white” enough (why else vote for a more liberal Catholic woman?). But the whites in the wealthy suburban district he represents (Kenner) do see him as one of their own. That’s a rural-urban divide among white protestants. This time around, the picture above suggests things could be different.
Anyway, all of this could be wrong. My LA knowledge is thin and a mostly pre-Katrina. A real LA guy (Maitri?) can probably correct the mistakes above, or just tell me I’m full of shit.
A real LA guy (Maitri?)
guy? why oh why don’t brownz have more genderfiable names!
Guy is gender neutral. A gal like you should know that.
Jindal is a non-white non-black Republican Catholic! He defies all categories.
i don’t know the dynamics of louisiana politics well enough, but the ? i have is this: does a southern baptist jindal do better than a catholic jindal? on the one hand jindal is very right-wing and protestant, so he would solidify an appeal to right-wing protestatns if a baptist. on the other hand, being right-wing and catholic means he can offer the right-wingery to the white protestant segment and catholicism to the more moderate (though still conservative) cajun democrats. now only if he wore a ‘fro he could appeal to blacks too!
Sigh.
Is it possible to feel unexpectedly positive towards a candidate whose views you don’t agree with, because you are so turned off by the contentions put forth by their detractors?
Yes. Yes, it is.
I read somewhere that he got teased about his name when he was in 2nd Grade. Kids were going “Pee uuu” so he came home one day and said that his name was Bobby. He refused to answer to any other name from that day. I don’t think politics had anything to do with it. I am surprised at overwhelming democrat leaning of Indian Americans. I tend to vote republican because I am fiscally conservative. Big Government has not worked anywhere, and visions of socialized health care gives me nightmares of my childhood when I had to stand in line for hours to see a doctor in a CGHS dispensary in India, and then again stand for hours to get my prescription filled while the pharmacist thought he was doing me an extreme favor by just doing his job. No country has got rich by increasing taxes. I would prefer he would keep his religion at home, but that’s better than his hand in my pocketbook
Great commet–that pretty much sums up my view as well!
Agreed. My mother had to endure something similar. She had to be schedule for a hip replacement, and then waited 5 or 6 months for the first available appointment.
And that was in… wait a minute… Oh, yeah! That was right here in America!
D’oh!
You mean, Indian Americans on this blog/thread. I know plenty of brown who are in the Grand Ol’ Party. I met a lot of them when I briefly lived in Dallas.
As for us, when we started, we had more people who identified as conservatives/republicans who read us, but they don’t comment anymore. I’ve tried to keep it a non-partisan space, for many reasons, but I’m an Independent. That leaves the responsibility for political diversity in the bunker entirely to Vinod, the libertarian-loving cheese who stands alone, who posts relatively infrequently. Which means that the majority of the bloggers in the bunker would actually agree with Amardeep (see: first sentence of post). 🙂
What makes me want to rip my hair out, follicle by follicle is when we’re accused of being “left-wing” AND “conservative” by different entities, usually simultaneously. I wouldn’t want to be a part of this space if it identified with just one political party (or religion, or country, or language, or region, or…).
depends on what you define as “overwhelming.” i wouldn’t be surprised if brown americans are as democratic as jewish americans, on the order of 60-80% (depending on if you include leaners or not). but that still leaves 20-40%, and they are underrepresented on this weblog for a variety of reasons.
Why not infer from that that SM is pretty healthy, politically….
Please — let’s not talk about representation on the blog. For a lot of reasons, it’s not a great place to comment if you’re a Republican, a Pakistani patriot, a Pardesi Gori or a variety of what is (in America) heterodox desi views. Who care? As long as the blog doesn’t pretend to be all things to all people (Ahem…).
I do. 🙂
I just wish they did.
Ikram, I think that’s unfair, but I’m too tired to get in to it with you.
We try to be respectful and inclusive. But enough with the threadjack, no one needs more negativity, this is neither the time nor place…let’s not and say we did…or…[insert cliche here].
ANNA @ 82 – what contentions of his detractors put you off?
Razib wrote: does a southern baptist jindal do better than a catholic jindal?
My view — Yes. I think a S.Baptist Jindal would have beaten Blanco last time around. Which would have made Jindal governor during the (inevitable) Katrina disaster and aftermath. Which would have sullied the reputation of supposedly-competent scrawny young brown whippersnappers everywhere.
So let’s say one Hail Mary for Bobby Jindal tonight.
Now that’s classy.
Nala, that’s part of your answer. I know, I owe you the rest. It’s been a really long, difficult day or I’d write a whole post about what’s on my mind! It’s certainly more serious than cooties on cookies, I’ll tell you that much.
Ikram,
Louisiana (especially South Louisiana) has one of the densest and largest population of Catholics in US. Those cajuns often are also mixed race.
In Louisiana politics, it helps Jindal to be a Catholic.
Because in North Louisiana, which is Protestant, his being a Protestant will not trump he being a non-White.
Other parts of South, your analysis works.
Jindal is a race baiter himself, ask anyone from Louisiana, he targets African Americans.
Nala, did you mean my comment at 78 or 82? I’m confused.
. I met a lot of them when I briefly lived in Dallas.
Were they doctors?
Well, if he’s unfair to AfAms, then that would contradict some of that “white-washed piyush” palaver and indicate that he’s about as desi as a lot of our parents.
NO! Not one of them! Engineers, consultants, nurses, everything else.
NO! Not one of them! Engineers, consultants, nurses, everything.
Must’ve been rich? although I don’t get the nurses bit.
Oops, yeah, I meant 78.
Well, if he’s unfair to AfAms, then that would contradict some of that “white-washed piyush” palaver and indicate that he’s about as desi as a lot of our parents.
ZINGGGGG!!!
ROFL.. well said..
who cares if he’s white washed or beige coated or catholic? there are good reasons to dislike him, namely – every one of his positions, which is just an unquestioning embrace of bush’s agenda so he can establish his credentials as a party line toeing loyalist. that and the creationist idiocy and race politics he practices all make me want to throw up. and that would be the case if he was named sam brownback or ramakrishnan subramaniam.