On our shiny new news tab, someone posted a link to a Rush Limbaugh transcript, where Rushbo uses “slumdog” as something akin to an ethnic slur:
CALLER: Perseverance. America, you have to persevere, you have to be patient. … What really irks me is with corporate America, people saying, “Rush, can I get my job back? Are you going to be able to get my job back from something that’s been outsourced and the corporations are going all over, out of the country.” Why don’t these people invest in America, invest in corporate America, become stockholders. The CEOs and the boards of directors pay lip service to their shareholders. Invest in America and invest in yourself by investing in corporate America. Wouldn’t that help?
RUSH: It might. No question about it. But the whole thing about outsourcing, even President Obama slipped up. I love this, ’cause the teleprompter, that teleprompter sometimes sneaks things in there that are not in Obama’s best interests to say, but the teleprompter nevertheless makes him say them. Obama got a call during his virtual town meeting about outsourcing jobs, he said, “Look, those jobs aren’t coming back.” There’s a reason they aren’t coming back. They’re outsourced for a reason, an economic reason, and they’re not coming back. If you’re sitting out waiting for a job that’s now being done by a slumdog in India, and you’re waiting for that job to be canceled, for the slumdog to be thrown out of work, and you to get the job, it ain’t going to happen. It’s not the way economics works. Even Obama’s teleprompter got him to admit that. (link)
The odd thing is, I agree roughly with what Rush Limbaugh is saying about some outsourced jobs. He has Obama all wrong, of course (see an excerpt of Obama’s Virtual Town Hall Meeting below). The real problem here is the contemptuous way he’s throwing around the word “slumdog.” But then, contempt is Rush Limbaugh’s only working emotion.
I’m not going to start a letter-writing campaign or a boycott, or anything; there’s no point tilting at this particular “Windbagmill.” But it still needs to be said: Rush, for your information, many of the jobs that have been outsourced in recent years involve high levels of skill and training. The people who do them are not “slumdogs”; they are professionals.
Here is what President Obama actually had to say about outsourcing in his Virtual Town Hall Meeting a few weeks ago:
Now, a lot of the outsourcing that was referred to in the question really has to do with the fact that our economy — if it’s dependent on low-wage, low-skill labor, it’s very hard to hang on to those jobs because there’s always a country out there that pays lower wages than the U.S. And so we’ve got to go after the high-skill, high-wage jobs of the future. That’s why it’s so important to train our folks more effectively and that’s why it’s so important for us to find new industries — building solar panels or wind turbines or the new biofuel — that involve these higher-value, higher-skill, higher-paying jobs.
So I guess the answer to the question is, not all of these jobs are going to come back. And it probably wouldn’t be good for our economy for a bunch of these jobs to come back because, frankly, there’s no way that people could be getting paid a living wage on some of these jobs — at least in order to be competitive in an international setting.
So what we’ve got to do is create new jobs that can’t be outsourced. And that’s why energy is so promising. We’ve been talking about what’s called a smart grid, and some of you may have heard of this. The basic idea is, is that we’re still using an electricity grid that dates back 100, 150 years ago. Well, think about all the gizmos you guys are carrying — (laughter) –all the phones and the BlackBerrys and the this and the that. You’re plugging in all kinds of stuff in your house. We’ve got an entirely new set of technologies, huge demands in terms of energy, but we’ve got a grid that’s completely outdated. (link)
What I like about this approach is that it balances economic realities with a positive, constructive message. What might be more concerning is Obama’s conflation of the loss of manufacturing jobs with jobs in IT and finance. The movement in manufacturing jobs probably shouldn’t be thought of as “outsourcing,” in my view (this may be a debatable point).
Rush’s message is, “Some slumdog in a loincloth in India is taking your job, but quit Whining, you lousy Whiners.” He mocks both Americans and Indians. Obama’s message is, “Maybe some jobs aren’t coming back. Let’s create new ones, which are better.” No scapegoating, no hate. Still: is the difference here one of content, or of tone?
Kuta and Kutiya are both widely used slang in India – dog and b*tch.
But the more common slangs are non-repeatable in respectable company. Far worse than slumdog fo sho.
Slumdog was a term coined by Danny Boyle and Simon Beaufoy; it was never really part of the common vernacular before
In fact, it is a very common vernacular term, which is used in many forms:
Gali ka kota: Dog of the narrow lanes (often term used for neighborhood urchins, as cop and gameshow host refer in slumdog millionaire)
Dhobi ka kota: A friendly dog of a wisherman who does laundry at the washing ghats (a person of no fixed home, and allegiance)
I am not much bothered about Rush using it, he is making his point, and using a popular reference to tag it
Na ghar ka, na ghat ka. I remember that!
Are you from UP?
Rush Limbaugh is a despicable liar. A few insults here and there don’t make much of a difference. Remember this is the piece of trash that makes fun of Parkinson’s disease victims and the poor.
yes, rush is truly admired only by people who already believe the “truths” he espouses.
Agreed. Also, Obama is an Arab race traitor.
Na ghar ka, na ghat ka. I remember that!
Yes, the complete idiom is: dhobi ka kota na ghar ka, na ghat ka
A friendly dog that follows the washerman put has no real home.
I am from Sakotithanda, near the Meerut Railway Crossing.
Nothing is wrong with being Arab (duh like anyone has to qualify that), but Obama is not Arab. I guess if I converted to Islam and changed my name to an arab one then I would be considered “arab” too?
That being said, it always amazed me how Islam was able to gain a foothold in Africa. Traditional African cultures and Arab-centric Islam seem like the antithesis of each other, but whatever, somehow it happened that large swathes of African people took to Islam and it stuck.
Not that that’s a bad thing. No value judgement. Just an observation.
I meant: A friendly dog that follows the washerman but has no real home
BTW, Rush has some real personality problems but here he is just using a popular tag
of course not, he is a decent family man.
American politicians are taking the template from stories from the Old Testament (Torah) and creating their global policies around all that. Hence the constant Jews against Arabs theme and White Western Christians against everyone. Then they try to claim this is fulfillment of prophecy, when really what happened is they all read the same book and decided to make their policies look like fulfillment of prophecy.
Manju,
I am flabbergasted that Rush Limbaugh’s transparent hypocrisy has escaped the close attention you seem to pay to his radio commentary.
Take immigration for example: Rush Limbaugh jilts his beloved free-market principles the moment he starts talking about immigration from south of our border. Suddenly, Limbaugh is all for prohibitive regulation (immigration quotas, English-only laws, a wall separating United States from Mexico, e.t.c.) to upset the natural course of supply (hardworking Mexicans) meeting demand (physically taxing jobs). This would ensure affirmative action for native workers while compromising business’ profits (how un-Limbaugh!).
But, upholding free-market principles in the above case might be moot if indeed these immigrants were subverting America’s security, or if they were sponging on welfare, or vitiating American culture – the sort of characterization that Limbaugh has worked hard at impressing upon us; as have his acolytes. Evidence – both anecdotal and scientific – however, stands in vehement opposition to their unsubstantiated accusations.
Maybe, Limbaugh is more favorable to outsourcing because he finds it a win-win scenario wherein business’ profits are boosted while preempting emigration. We can only imagine how his core audience will take, for example, his endorsement of more H1Bs. Also, correct me if I am wrong, but hasn’t Limbaugh often defended outsourcing by simultaneously disparaging Indians relieving the Americans of lowly jobs, and thus leaving the latter with superior work more suitable to their innate caliber? This latest choice of moniker by Limbaugh attests to his proclivity for gratuitous offense.
I’d respect Limbaugh, much less complain, if he were repeatedly coming across offensive while constantly telling bitter truths. But, Limbaugh when not slyly misleading is often outright lying. As for when he is making sense: Supremacy of free markets, individual initiative, liberty, or American exceptionalism; who is disagreeing? It’s just that most of us aren’t as dogmatic about it as he is. Laissez-faire, for example, might work if we were living in an ideal world, but that’s simply not the case.
We all need to forgive Rush….. After all a college dropout who, according to his mother “FLUNKED EVERYTHING”…. isn’t expected to have a BIG IQ instead of a BIG MOUTH. Staying thousands of miles away from one of the fastedst growing economies, how can he even fathom the intellectuals that he calls “SLUMDOGS”. Empty vessels make the most noise.The simple economics of globalisation is :- Why pay an idiot 100$/hr in US, when u can get 4 intellectuals in India for the same amount.
exactly. maybe we should see how rush feels about outsourcing when clearchannel gets varun gandhi to do his job for just one tenth the price at $40 million.
In this situation Slumdog is clearly insulting..just taken from a popular Film about a particular type of person and generally labelled on IT people. Could have mad the point quite valid without that bird…Safed Kutta!
Now, now highly skilled and trained Indian “professional” don’t get yourselves in a tizzy. Anil Kapoor said the word slumdog is not offensive. After all there are worse names. If Indians who actually live in the slums are silly to be offended when referred to as slumdogs, well then highly skilled and trained Indian professionals are silly to be offended too when they are referred to as slumdogs. If you scroll down the article on the Times Online website listed in post#33 it says so right there. Anyway here it is:
“…On Thursday, about 40 Mumbai slum dwellers, organised by another social activist, held up banners reading “Poverty for Sale” and “I am not a dog” outside the home of Anil Kapoor, one of the film’s stars.
Amitabh Bachchan, the veteran Bollywood star, also caused a stir the week before last when he accused the film in his blog of portraying India as a “third-world, dirty, underbelly developing nation”.
Mr Bachchan has since apologised to Mr Boyle, but was conspicuously absent from the film’s star-studded premiere in Mumbai on Thursday night.
Mr Kapoor, who grew up in a Mumbai slum, has denied that “slumdog” is offensive, saying that children from the slums are called many worse things in India. Simon Beaufoy, the screenwriter, said last week: “I just made up the word. I liked the idea. I didn’t mean to offend anyone.“
(FYI Kapoor did not grow up in a slum)
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article5597745.ece
Rush should apologize. He has no right to say anything like this on public radio. Being a public figure carries a lot of responsibility in the multi-cultural environment.
It shows he is an irresponsible, insensitive and racist.. His popularity is a fluke, and only white trashes like to listen him for self-praise.
The Africans needed to trade with the Italians and have access to the silk-road to make any money. The Arabs had a monopoly on that trade and in many cases they would refuse to trade with you if you were not Muslim. That plus intellectual and cultural influences from universities, rich princes like Mansa Musa rolling around “making it rain,” and periodic “off with their heads” episodes and it was only a matter of time.
How about turning it around? 🙂 Even slumdogs in India can do the job you are waiting for after going through some degree/diploma. So, well…more power to them!
“Traditional African cultures and Arab-centric Islam seem like the antithesis of each other, but whatever, somehow it happened that large swathes of African people took to Islam and it stuck.”
Through history, masses of people have not often just “taken” to Islam. Islam takes to them. I’m not anti-Muslim, btw. Have them in my ancestry and I have read the Koran. As far as Africans taking to Islamic values, a major Islamic value was the massive slave trade the Arabs (to be fair, mostly Ottoman Turks after the 17th century) ran and which is mainly how Africans first contacted with Islam. A black African was among Mohammed’s first followers. Anyway, if one converted to Islam, one could not lawfully be taken into slavery but rather had to pay taxes to the Moslem rulers, or that’s my understanding. West Africans hold Islam more lightly than east Africans–most of the ones I know in this country now attend AfricanAmerican churches. Even black, east African Moslems are very rarely fanatics for the sake of religion. Very rarely to almost never.
And Obama never was, is not, and never will be, an Arab, even by east African definition. Religions you can assume or discard. Ethnicity is less compromisable.
“Anil Kapoor was born in a chawl in Tilak Nagar, Mumbai, India, to a film producer Surinder Kapoor and Nirmal Kapoor. He attended Our Lady of Perpetual Succour High School, Chembur.[1] Coming from a film-oriented family, Kapoor’s elder brother, Boney Kapoor, is a producer while younger brother Sanjay Kapoor is also a well known actor.”
It is possible Anil Kapoor lived in a large mansion surrounded by slums, but it’s doubtful the son of a prominent film producer lived in the slums.
Oh well, we can always chant 4 change.
Manju wrote:
Lol. Dude, you need your frickin head examined. That is seriously twisted thinking.
Thamizan wrote:
It is interesting to observe how ideological brainwashing perverts human minds. Manju thinks Limbaugh is a hero fighting against american racism and Thamizan thinks Limbaugh is praising indian IT workers by calling them slumdogs.
Does that mean that you are not a “smart, tenacious, and innovative” indian, aka slumdog? How did you manage to escape India but the smart and innovative indians are still stuck in slums? Please explain. That contradicts everything your hero Rush Limbaugh stands for.
Uncle Thomas, Change your handle and stop personal attacks or you will be banned per our comment policy. Thanks.
This Rush guy seems to be the equivalent of a clown with a loud mouth. So one need not take offense to his name calling, which he needs to do to earn his keep and also to keep his job, in this terrible recession. Being the clown he is, he can get away calling even Obama some names. But I strictly warn him to desist from calling Islamists any names because they will issue fatwahs for his head without his torso ofcourse!
A quick lurker anecdote. While waiting for the Q train in Brooklyn Monday night, I overheard an African American high school age boy observe to his friend that it seemed like there were a lot of ‘slumdogs’ around these days. I looked around, and of the 10 or so people waiting in my vicinity, 3 were south Asian both casually and professionally dressed. The term was used without heat, almost smugly– to me it seemed the kid felt kind of proud to use an au courant expression in the proper context. It didn’t strike me that he was a fan of Limbaugh– too young 😉
@katie: These stupid ugandans don’t surprise me either.
Rush Limbaugh and his dittoheads are stupid Ugandans?
There is a seriously sick dog on the loose. If you find him please let me know. This dog goes by the name “Rush Limbawoo bawoo.”
BTW bawoo bawoo is equivalent to woof woof:)
A chawl in Bombay is not a slum. It is a pakka concrete construction unlike a slum tenement made with walls maybe but corrugated metal or even thatched roofing. A chawl is a very large multi-storey apartment made of 100s of studio style tenements with a built in bath and communal lavatories. They vary very greatly in quality. The ones in places like Dadar or Mahim are clean and well maintained. The ones farther South in the Girgaum, Kalbadevi, Buleshwar etc., can be less appealing. Some are positively ramshackle. I have lived in a chawl in Dadar for a few weeks many years ago, and found it comfortable. Anil Kapoor’s father may have been a producer but would have lived from movie to movie maybe barely making ends meet. Not at all surprising, as not everyone in the movie business makes a boatload of money. There was a time when aspiring actors would spend the first few years in a chawl before hitting the high nktes. Jeetendra in fact lived in one and made acquaintance with the late great V. Shantaram thru a neighbour. Jeetu speaks fluent Marathi, although born a raised in Punjab (he too is a kapoor) and for many years (as late as 1995) would unfailingly land up for the Ganpati Puja at his old dwellings. The movie industry is huge and there are numberless people – the so called junior artistes (extras and assistant) who get along without any hype. I have known at least one who has lived in a roadside shack. Down South a v. famous creative artiste in the movies lived on the streets and earned his daily bread singing for the crowds at Marina Beach. Hunger, deprivation isn’t something unknown to the film makers of India. many of them have experienced it.
The New York Post publishes a CARTOON with a chimpanzee and two police officers, one asking the other about who will make the stimulus plan now (or something to that effect) and the Al Sharpton and the NAACP is all over later that day. Limbaugh CLEARLY insults Indians and three days later there is still no noise. So why does it matter? Why does anything Limbaugh, or any other ignorant idiot, says matter? It’s not like we are going to raise issue with it anyway (the George Allen “macaca” story being an anomaly – and that too was not the result of Indians raising issue); it detracts too much from our individual goals of progress and assimilation here in the US. We don’t care about the progression of our people as whole. Seriously, when is the last time you have been purely proud about the success of a fellow Indian or Indian American without feeling that slight bit of jealousy? If it doesn’t have to do with us individually, WE JUST DON’T CARE. I’m to see sites such as this one shedding light on such issues, but honestly until we reexamine our willingness to be as passive as needed just for the sake of assimilation, these people will think they can say or do anything and get away with it. And they are right.
Of course, you know I meant “I’m happy to see sites such as this one…”
The problem is that this is hypocritical. Those that were offended should be offended by both the movie and Rush Limbaugh. To have it any other way means that it is only wrong when someone you don’t like says it. True prejudice and racism is universal.
neoavatara.com/blog
Now, it is true that many indian workers are slumdogs. They go to training factories to learn a few technologies, such as oracle. In general, they are very poorly educated. I believe this is because of the indian racist society that still has the caste system, still leaves girls out in the desert to die, and encourages people to live in utter filth. Look at the pictures of india. Rather than spendint their time on It the indians should spend time building sewer systems and non-slumdog housing.
I hope this is helpful!
Wow Bill – what a well researched comment, you bitter redneck tool.
Most Indian IT companies have an Engineering degree as an entry level requirement. Over the years I have worked with many Americans working on “Oracle” with graduate degrees in philosophy/biochemistry and many with no degrees at all. When it comes to engineering graduates, the Americans beat the Indians in quality, but that is mostly because their courses are better structured and the Univs take a hefty fee. Most Americans with engg degrees don’t enter the business software field anyway, which is what Indian IT companies deal with aka its our bitch now.