I was hesitant when I heard 60 Minutes was doing an interview with Governor Bobby Jindal because frankly, I didn’t think I could take sixty minutes of the sing-songy voice we heard on Tuesday night. But Jindal’s segment is only 12 minutes long. So I watched. And was a little bit impressed. Don’t believe me? Here, watch for yourself.
Watch CBS Videos Online
I’m not sure if it’s because I’m juxtaposing this clip with his speech earlier this week, but I actually kind of liked watching it. The segment shows him as an ethical, straight-edge, god-fearing, son-of-immigrants, birthed-his-third-child-himself family man. I think it was smart of him to do this interview so soon after the disastrous performance earlier this week, but I’m just not sure enough people watched it to nullify the effect.
It was interesting how Jindal and his wife tried to downplay the Indian factor when approached with questions of race. When asked if he felt any racial tension while being raised in Baton Rouge, he said he didn’t feel any and “they accept you based on who you are.” When asked about if his family maintained any Indian traditions, the couple responded, “Not too many. We’ve been here for so many years. We were raised as Americans.”
Personally, I think that maintaining Indian traditions is completely American and you should not have to marginalize one for the other. We are all Americans with a hyphenated back story. But I also think the question was poorly asked and I wonder if the couple would have responded differently if it was a Desi reporter asking the question with more nuance. I also wonder how much of what they say to media is political posturing verses what they feel about identity behind closed doors.
Overall, I think it was a decent bio-fluff interview with no real hard hitting questions from 60 Minutes. We didn’t learn too many new Jindal facts, though Manish listed some here. But I think what this interview did for me was remind me that there’s a brown* guy in politics gunning for Obama’s seat in seven years. But from the other side. And my kind of brown*. And that is kind of… remarkable.
*I say brown. Republicans say beige. Can someone explain to me why he’s the “beige hope”, not “brown hope”?
It is natural human tendency to understand unresolved questions/issues that they have by discussing and probing the same with others (on a slightly socio-philosophical note)
Suki Dillon, very good insights.
It’s not garbage, though. It’s just a blogger who, as I said, seems like a genuinely devout Catholic and decent human being. And it’s not like they’re prejudiced or hateful towards non-Catholics, they’re just coming at it from a certain mind-set that, though motivated by nothing but good intentions, still ends up paving the road to hell.
And it’s not like it’s a rare mindset either. In fact from my own interactions I’d say it’s an opinion that an overwhelming majority of those Christians who go to church regularly subscribe to. That pew religion survey they cite where 8 out of 10 Hindus remain Hindu into adulthood is read with a tinge of negativity, as if something needs to be done about it. And what makes me even sadder is that the reaction to this mindset among Hindus is making us defensive and parochial too.
Obama ducked out on substantive bills on things like abortion. This was a minor resolution to recognize the importance of Diwali. There were only 66 abstentions, mostly from hardcore evangelical Congressmen. Is Louisiana politics so leery of his heritage that he’d need to go that far? I thought he was pretty popular as a technocrat.
3 · backbencher said
I laughed too when I heard that and I’m not even Indian. Jindal needs to realize that part of Obama’s appeal was his authenticity about who he was and where he came from.
He never changed the African name his father gave him, even though he hardly knew his father. He returned later on to his father’s country to discover who he was and again with his two children and wife. He is in touch with his kenyan relatives and they hosted him when he was still an unknown.
Jindal lacks this authenticity and he will never, ever, beat Obama with all that fake stuff.
The link to this picture speaks volumes about Obama’s comfort with his diverse background. It should be embraced and celebrated as part of America’s uniqueness, not hidden out of embarrassment.
http://nazret.com/blog/media/blogs/new/obama_in_africa.jpg
Even the fact that jindal converted to catholicism turns me off. Why did he do that? If your parents are hindu and if he was brought up as a hindu, he shouldn’t be ashamed of it. America is not a christian country (no matter what bill o’reilly says!)
10 · Suki Dillon said
AFrican cab drivers wouldn’t pick someone who looks like obama either!
I and my wife are as Indian, as Indian can get, except we are not residents of India at present. I have a son who is born in US and he is growing up here. He is in a suburban school, where he was the only Indian(till last year). I have no family friends who are Indians nearby, as we do not know any Indians in our area. There are some new immigrants in the area now, but we dont have much in common other than the color. I do try to raise him with some Indian culture. But to this day, he could never watch an Indian movie. The test of being an Indian is to watch a Bollywood movie!, according to my wife. I pass that test only when I am fully inebriated and my wife is way too angry. My son taught himself with the help of our neighbour to be a good western classical singer. I never have heard him attempting to sing one Indian tune for fun, eventhough my wife’s car is a shrine for Indian pop. He knows his parents roots are in India, but he does not behave like one. I have heard him debating about socio-economic and political issues in School. He does not mention India as much as I would like him to do. I try to make everything in India shining, on our dinner table discussions, he retorts with appropriate questions. My mom and he are so connected even with language/cultural/age related tensions, yet he feels so uncomfortable in India that we have stopped visiting in recent years. Although I suspect of racial tensions among his large(I feel that way) friends network, I have not heard any complaints from him about racial tensions. I lived my life the way I liked it and he lives his life not the way I want it when it comes to India. I do not have any problem with it. I am sure he is an Indian, but I feel uncomfortable to make a claim that he is Indian(by culture). I have no reason to criticize Bobby Jindal or his parents on his Indianness, because I have not defined completely what Indianness is to my son.
Maybe one of these days Jindal has to speak to that issue like Obama’s race speech. We are just speculating based on media analysis/reports. We don’t know anything abt the “whys” of his personal life and choices. It may very well be that he did this for calculated gains but in reality we don’t know what was on his mind.
He went by “Barry” for much of his youth. His journey of self-discovery eventually led him to start taking up “Barack” again later on.
I’d disagree. America is a very Christian country in terms of its social traditions. We get the day off on Christmas and our weekend is based around the Sabbath after all. Despite that we have a secular government that makes sure there is room for the rest of us too. We can be a country with a predominantly Christian identity that also has non-Christians in it. As long as well all respect each other there is nothing wrong with that.
Maybe it is to do with good manners – white culture places great premium on good manners. I find it easier to deal with older white people from small towns who have never seen a non white face than with the younger white person from a major metro. My experience with racisms has always been from the under 40 crowd rarely from the over 60 crowd. Also bastions of liberalism tend to be more violent than “white bread” localities – wonder why?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qn6rtKTU1rk
Jack McBrayer’s Response to Bobby Jindal.
pew religious landscape survey:
those who grew up in religion X, and religious status today religion – % non-converts – % converted to another group – % converted to no religion
hindu – 84% – 8% – 8% jewish – 76% – 9% – 14% orthodox – 73% – 21% – 7% mormon – 70% – 15% – 14% catholic – 68% – 18% – 14% buddhist – 50% – 22% – 28% unaffiliated – 46% – 54%
marriage of within someone of same religion
hindus – 90% mormons – 83% catholics – 78% jews -69% orthodox – 65 jehovah’s witness – 65% buddhist – 45% other – 33% unaffiliated – 41%
the new for hindus is somewhat skewed by the first generation immigrant profile of the community. e.g., data on interracial marriage, shows that:
92% of maried indian american men are married to indian americans 94% of married indian american women are married to indian americans
but, among the set of american born or raised indian americans, 57% of married indian american men are married to indian americans 54% of married indian american women are married to indian americans
@Land Beyond
I went through a similar phase when I was a little kid where I really did not like India or being Indian at all. After a while the pendulum swung the other way and all the kids making fun of me for being Indian actually put a giant chip on my shoulder where I tried my best to accentuate my Indianess as much as was socially acceptable .
That process of having the chip on my shoulder made me really curious about my heritage (it couldn’t really be as bad as they were saying could it?) so I looked into it and learned to appreciate it.
Once I had some genuine and legit pride in being Indian I no longer needed to cared about what others had to say because I had already defined myself and now knew enough about the history, religion, and philosophy to know that they were idiots.
But when you go through your youth being the token Indian guy, it kind of makes you want to suppress your Indianess a bit so that people will be able to recognize you as more than just your ethnicity. It’s a natural reaction.
Also bastions of liberalism tend to be more violent than “white bread” localities – wonder why?
if you control for race & region politics doesn’t explain much. i.e., southern whites tend to be involved in more violent than new england whites. these data go back to the 1840 census, when abolitionists loved playing up the social anomie of the south.
Is there anything that looks at what percentage of those couples are both ABD and what percentage are ABD+DBD?
104 · nm said
Why did he do it? He wanted to, that’s why, what’s your issue with that? Why does his conversion turn you off? What’s so wrong with being Indian and Christian? Do some of you realize how hurtful and offensive this gets?
What proof do any of us have that Jindal was ashamed of Hinduism? Is it impossible to imagine a scenario where Jindal changes his faith for reasons other than those which many of you are gleefully projecting on him? Project and conject. Project and conject. Are we at least aware that this is all we are engaging in?
103 · Yoga Fire said
Some Christians try and convert ME, because I don’t belong to the same denomination they do. Interestingly enough, that happened in Kerala, as well, when the Portuguese showed up and were pissed that we were already Christian and NOT interested in becoming Catholic, like they were. Not every Christian is out to change you, or thinks Hinduism is something wrong or “shameful”. I go to church regularly and I don’t subscribe to those views; neither do my family and friends. I wish the Christians with whom you interacted were more enlightened people.
103 · Yoga Fire said
I think it’s far more disturbing that a politician “ducked out” on abortion, than Diwali. You’re right, it’s a more substantive issue. So why is it okay to avoid it? I love Diwali, but to me, reproductive rights are much more of a concern than, as you phrased it, a minor resolution about holidays.
romeo agreed. Except that it is a gender neutral name. And for all those chaps who go on about bollywood and desi traditions, watch a famous Raj Kapoor movie and then get back to me.
The animus generated by Jindal is crazy. Although I cant vote for him I do think that desis will get behind him if he stands for election. However, remember he is the first major desi pollie – it took the black community 25 years after JJ to get it right. so there is hope.
I think the kind of relationship Jindal and his wife choose to have vis-a-vis their indian origin is a personal decision and it is too complex a matter for glib discussion. Above all, I think what Barack Obama’s story showed us is that forging an identity is a deeply personal journey for most of us and there is no right or wrong path to take.
His adopted name Bobby does not even seem “un-desi” to me. A lot of DBD parents I know take some care in selecting names that Americans will find easier to pronounce. So in that sense many of you may have slightly americanized names. In any case, when I think of a little boy called Piyush growing up in Louisiana – i really don’t have the heart to condemn his desire to be called Bobby.
Given that he converted to Catholicism in high school I don’t think we can ascribe political motives to that decision. And in my mind “Catholics” and “Indian” totally go together. Maybe its because of all the years I spent in a Catholic school (i’m DBD), or maybe its because my mum’s mallu and we had lots of close family friends who were catholic. And if some people view it as being less indian than being hindu, muslim or sikh – it can only attest to their narrow experience of India.
I don’t think it would make any difference to his fortunes if he went by the name Piyush. But I do think he would not be in his current position if he was hindu. And that is not a reflection on Bobby Jindal. It is a reflection of the fact that this country is not ready for a non-christian political leader, much less a Hindu one.
Interestingly, there are rumours afloat that he is a secret muslim.
112 · Yoga Fire said
Bingo, this has been one of the reason the ‘confused’ term made it’s way into ABCD. Kids growing up in India had no trouble feeling ‘accepted’ or ‘normal’. It is easy to assume a Jindal childhood of feeling excluded thus doing everything to feel accepted. He could have completed his journey by marrying a white woman.
Stop making excuses for the guy. “He has to tone down the brown to appeal to his constituency”. Please! The guy is clearly not proud of his heritage and has no interest in being recognized as one, so why do we keep talking about him and trying to claim him?
108 · Yoga Fire said
From Barrack to Barry is still kind of close and I doubt he “officially” went to a court house and changed his name. However, as grew up, he made that journey (literally) of self discovery and never looked back after that.
What was Jindal’s previous name and when was it officially changed?
And another thing: Obama was raised by his white, Irish mother and white, Irish grand-parents. If he, like Jindal, claimed to be totally “americanized”, it would in fact make sense because his parents and grand-parents were American!
However, Jindal’s parents weren’t born in America. They grew up in India and it’s simply impossible to believe that he was not surrounded by Indian culture and Indian traditions.
There’s just something very unsettling about a 37 year old man being so uncomfortable with who he is. Is he ashamed of his parents country? I’m sure he probably still has relatives in India. Is he going to hide them from public view?
I watched this interview with 4 of my friends and as soon as he rejected his indian culture, we all booed him simultaneously (& again, we’re not indian, but we were all turned off by the blatant dishonesty and in a way, by his rejection of who his parents were).
Maybe it is to do with good manners – white culture places great premium on good manners. I find it easier to deal with older white people from small towns who have never seen a non white face than with the younger white person from a major metro.
Who knows. My little sis has a different outlook on our small town than me. As Razib said, there are so many factors that come into play on whether or not racist attacks come your way. People can hate you because you are poor and unsuccessful and include ethnic taunts b/c of that; people can hate you and be jealous of you b/c you are rich and successful and include ethnic taunts b/c of that. You could be surrounded by people who are jerks; you can be surrounded by people who are angels. Who knows… Just there is a lot of variation in desi experiences, including Jindal’s experiences, whether he grew up in La or NYC.
118 · DesiInNJ said
But…he didn’t. He married a Desi woman. And yet, Jindal is SO ashamed of being brown, right everyone? That’s why he chose a Desi partner with whom to have brown children. Makes perfect sense.
As someone noted above, it’s natural and for a public figure even more so. It does hurt, and its done to me too, but c’est la vie. I guess it hurts because it’s one of the most important things in the world for human beings and we can spend our lives trying to figure out who we are or how to reach that comfort level. So naturally we would want to talk about it too. Anyway, I agree with you and Suki, but also with the other side. People go to ridiculous lenghts sometimes, like dismissing arguments made by hindus just because they happen to be beefeaters. I’m glad you pounce on stuff like that when it relates to Jindal. But I remember thinking to myself that Obama had a lot of courage, and part of that opinion was based on the fact that he decided to stick with his weird name (admittedly not as weird as Piyush which I would change in a heartbeat). So ultimately to me it is about courage. And you have to be able to make it, keeping your principles intact (most of the time). Imo, Bobby’s name change and stuff is fine and in the true Punjabi enterprising, practical spirit. But he really crossed over to the dark side in trying to appeal to the conservative base and deserves knocks for that.
“Is it impossible to imagine a scenario where Jindal changes his faith for reasons other than those which many of you are gleefully projecting on him?”
Case in point. People don’t just change their faith just for the sake of change. He was obviously ashamed of his heritage and wanted to be accepted by white southerners, and so he converted. Stop making lame excuses for the guy.
Also, no one cares what his name is. He can be named Piyush Pratap Singh or Subash Chandra Jindal and I’d still think he was a coward.
I agree with that totally.
I don’t completely agree with that. There are many desi folks in office as many of Abhi’s posts refer. I think the issue that you hinting at is if there is a “glass ceiling” in politics based on race or religion.
122 · A N N A said
I’ve already said that I don’t consider most of those people unenlightened. Quite a few of them were very nice and very tolerant. They just tended to assume that being Christian, they had nothing to learn from people who were not. If you come from the standpoint that the Bible is the inerrant word of God himself (which many, but not all Christians believe) then why would you?
I didn’t say they were. That’s why I went through great pains to insert words like like “a majority of” and “among those who are devout and attend church regularly” specifically so that people wouldn’t read what I’m saying and use it as a broad brush to apply to everybody in the group. I wasn’t saying “all Christians think this way.” I was saying “there are people who think this way.” There is a difference and you can’t deny that there are a lot of them out there. The fact that they’ve tried to convert you too in your own life suggests that this sort of thing is just a facet of the culture we live in (and it’s probably more benign in America than it is elsewhere.) Knowing that there is (a not insignificant) number of people out there who think this way, can you blame somebody for worrying that those people, if allowed to run around unanswered, might eventually start to muscle in on the spaces for the rest of us to engage in mutually beneficial inter-faith dialogue?
I just wanted to make the point that substantive bills usually have more political heat that comes with them than minor resolutions do is all. Abortion issues especially.
122 · A N N A said
120 · nm said
Wow, those are some “Look! Look! I’m down with Indians, even though I’m not one!!!”-credentials you got there. You seem so eager to fit in, you’re bashing Jindal worse than actual Indian people are, but the thing is, you’d probably be accepted here even if you didn’t do that. Blatant dishonesty, rejection of his parents…you don’t know about any of this, but you’ll eagerly talk mad smack about it.
124 · Tushar said
I’ll stop making “lame excuses” when you stop pretending to be an expert on someone whom you don’t know.
129 · Bastante said
I like authenticity and so do a lot of other people. Plus, we are all immigrants in america and we just didn’t understand how an adult could so blatantly reject his culture. It really did leave a bad taste in our mouths.
nm,
You are conflating Indian with Hindu, did you see comments on this thread how Christians has been in India for a very long time.
I usually do not discuss kids of elected officals, but the irony would be interesting if the three kids Selia Elizabeth, Shaan Robert, and Slade Ryan changed their names in a future where being Indian is an asset.
127 · Yoga Fire said
No, not at all, and I’m sorry if my comment forced you to clarify an already clear, well-articulated and compassionate position. Wasn’t my intention. 🙂 I should have been as good about expressing myself as you were!
source:
yes to “many religious can lead to eternal life”
national – 70% evangelical – 57% mainline protestant – 83% black churches – 59% catholics – 39% mormons – 39% orthodox – 72% jehovah’s witness – 16% other christians – 83% jews – 82% muslims – 56% buddhists – 86% hindus – 89% other – 85%
typo: catholics = 79%, not 39.
132 · umber desi said
While that is true, Jindal’s version of Christianity isn’t from the same cloth as the Christianity practiced in India. I’d guess most Indian Christians would sooner vote for Advani than someone like Rick Santorum.
132 · umber desi said
No, I am not. I understand that many Goans are Catholics. I went to school with many of them in Kenya and they had portugese last names. The issue is the whole re-packaging of who he is: from changing his name to changing his religion, to talking about how much he loves alligator gumbo, etc, etc…
I’m not surprised he changed his religion in high school because that is where most of the racist taunting took place.
but the irony would be interesting if the three kids Selia Elizabeth, Shaan Robert, and Slade Ryan changed their names in a future where being Indian is an asset.
well, in sri lanka many elite christians converted to therevada buddhism in the 20th century. i believe that one of the cricket players on sri lanka’s national team was born raised muslim, but converted to buddhism. when in rome….
I think it is obvious the Republican party wants to rebuild and they figure Jindal is a worthy candidate. Jindal is an interesting person because he has a delicate balance of being a man of colour in American politics but downplaying the issue of “race”. I wonder though if the true “rednecks” in the USA would ever get beyondJindal’s racial background and support him? I think that’s the big question would whites in the American southern states support Jindal?
I wonder though if the true “rednecks” in the USA would ever get beyondJindal’s racial background and support him? I think that’s the big question would whites in the American southern states support Jindal?
? reality-based-community anyone?!?! he’s governor of louisiana, and he didn’t win it with the black vote.
139 · razib said
Changing name is one thing, but there is something egregious about changing faith to fit in.
but there is something egregious about changing faith to fit in.
well, the human race is really egregious then 🙂 30-40% of americans change their religion in their lifetime. what an egregious folk! it would be great to live in a country where people are locked into whatever religion they are born in.
Yeah, I know I’ve mentioned this here a million times in the past, but growing up in flyover in the 70s/80s, I didn’t really notice any racial tensions either. My theory is that small towns can sometimes be easier than cities with large desi populations. Small towns are small towns – there is only ever ‘one’ of anything, anyway.
I hate the Indian authenticity stuff. The funny thing is, people from India in the US assume their part of India is the authentic part – given that the country is so diverse culturally and geographically, it makes me laugh. I once mentioned in this blog, or maybe ultrabrown, that my father said he felt in some ways more comfortable in the US than when he traveled to other parts of India, in the sense that he knew English, but didn’t know other Indian languages but Hindi. Of course, someone accused my grew up in India father of being a self-hater. Uh, no, he was just being himself. And, he gets to define what that is, not someone else.
Peace, ya’ll (I have a friend who signs all emails Peace and I kind of like that, so I’m stealing it).
What’s so wrong with being Indian and Christian? Do some of you realize how hurtful and offensive this gets?
I think there is some jealousy toward desi christians. And I have noticed that there alot of negative comments on this website towards christians that if were said about sikhs or muslims the PC police would have a field day.
One thing I have noticed among south asians, middle easterns and arabs who happen to be christian is when they move to a western country is that they do a much job of intergrating and fitting in. Also they do not seem to try to shove there culture or cause problems in there new homeland that others do from there homeland from different religions.
143 · razib said
Most Americans that change faith do it for personal reasons, not to fit in. Jindal grew up in a mostly white christian world, so changing name and faith to fit in is a reasonable assumption. He grew up when David Duke of KKK won 40% of Votes for Governor of LA.
doubts evolution, which is a scientific fact. No! it’s a theory – lol.
What I mean is that he would not be a potential presidential candidate if he was Hindu. The problem is not that Piyush Jindal the Hindu chose to become Bobby Jindal the Catholic – that is a personal decision and there is no reason to view it with scepticism. The problem is that a Hindu person with similar qualifications would not be the “rising star” of either political party. Jindal will have to counter rumours that he is secretly Muslim, or Hindu, or both – much like Barack Obama did. Which of course begs the question : what is really so bad about being hindu or muslim in American presidential politics ?
133 · DesiInNJ said
I can see them now, working at a call center. Customer: Did you say you are in Baton Rouge? Selia: No Mrs. Reddy, I said Bangalore! My name is Shilpa. Shilpa Jindal. What is it I can be helping you with today?
I think there is some jealousy toward desi christians.
it’s natural of course. i’ve had plenty of really mocking stuff toward elephant-worshiping-hindus directed my way, and a baptist friend once started ranting at me about some crap he heard in church about how hindus were really simply worshiping satan, and this was a good friend!. these aren’t most christians, but if someone like me who looks hindu but can explain that they are an atheist gets a lot of that crap it must have been harder for sincere believing christians (as i’ve stated on this weblog before my quickest response to hindu mockery is really quick and offensive counter-attacks about the superstition of religion in general, so the conversation would shift radically). these aren’t most christians, but a substantial minority of are pretty dickish.