The Washington Post carries an op-ed this morning by none other than the Macaca himself. Shekar Ramanuja (S.R.) Sidarth speaks:
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So What’cha What’cha What’cha Want? |
…on Aug. 11, my experience took a strange — and now famous — turn. On that day in Breaks Interstate Park, located on the Kentucky border, Allen acknowledged my presence for the first time in one of his stump speeches. I was singled out at a GOP picnic, identified as “macaca or whatever his name is” — despite the fact that Allen knew my name, as we had been traveling the same route for five days — and then “welcome[d] to America and the real world of Virginia.”Allen’s actions that day stood out because they were not representative of how I was treated while traveling around the state. Everywhere I went, though I was identifiably working on behalf of Allen’s opponent, people treated me with dignity, respect and kindness. I cannot recall one event where food was served and I was not invited to join in the meal. In southwest Virginia, hospitality toward me was at a high point. [Link]
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p>Heaping praise upon the state and people of Virginia? Hmmm. Sounds like something that a politician would do. Maybe he will run in 20 years. Also, at long last Sidarth reveals the one crucial piece of information that we’ve been waiting months to hear:
After Allen’s remarks, my heritage suddenly became a matter of widespread interest. I am proud to be a second-generation Indian American and a practicing Hindu. My parents were born and raised in India and immigrated here more than 25 years ago; I have known no home other than Northern Virginia. The hairstyle inflicted upon me by two friends late one night also became newsworthy; for the record, it was intended to be a mullet and has since grown out to nearly the appropriate length. [Link]
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p>And finally, Sidarth notes something about the “Real Virginia:”
The politics of division just don’t work anymore. Nothing made me happier on election night than finding out the results from Dickenson County, where Allen and I had our encounter. Webb won there, in what I can only hope was a vote to deal the race card out of American politics once and for all. [Link]
i mean does pavaka also mean anything else besides ‘karela’?…i am curious about how it got that name…
Tongue-in-cheek, naturally! My boyfriend is from Jersey, and my head has yet to explode.
Given the nature of Allen’s comments, the reaction, and the election results…what do you think the future holds? Is there an expectation that East Indian and South Asian cultures in the U.S. will link up with African-Americans to move the Democratic Party away from centrist politics to more progressive stances?
Up until now, these cultures (especially 2nd gen, college educated) were largely silent on issues of civil rights and race as long as they were enjoying a prosperous lifestyle. Yes?
Is this likely to change not that macaca has been dismissively applied to anyone without a caucasoid appearance?
…macaca.
…brown.
…black.
…saffron.
Amitabh – I thought the exact same thing about the southern hospitality about food – it’s very desi! Why shouldn’t Sidarth acknowledge those who were kind to him, why does it have to be about playing politics or “betraying” the side? A lot of southerners are very nice, and very desi in many ways (including in their prejudices – so many desi aunties and uncles I know in the States make not-so-kind remarks about those of different skin colours too). At least Sidarth is being honest, and realizes he became a symbol for something, and that the macaca incident helped in the larger cause of fighting prejudice even though it wasn’t such a big part of his campaign experience at the end of the day, instead of trying to play the injured hero.
And come on – he’s only a kid! Still in college.
Isn’t it pronounced more like paavakya??
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Anyone who actually enjoys eating karelas is a pervert and a perpetrator of a heinous, unnatural act — like refusing to acknowledge that Angelina Jolie is insanely foxy, or believing that “throwing Gujjus down the well” is acceptable conduct for civilised people.
Jai beta,
Either karela aur Safi but it might give you the cancer or the gas like karela tablets so gal katham! Eat your karela and you’ll poop jellybeans.
xoxo, Mum
mmmmmmmmm…karela. Miss it so much!
I wish that race were not an issue in the races this year but Corker used it to great effect in his Tennessee race against Harold Ford. It’s a shame, but race is always going to play some part in political races. And if it’s not race it will be religion, or class status, whatever. Politics is a game of division.
When did this become unacceptable?
In the WORLD there is a problem and that problem is the gujju
🙂
Maurice,
I read Tennessee is only ~20% African American, and Ford got about 48 of the vote, so a lot of people did vote for him for whom race didn’t matter. And of those who were under 30 who were swayed by that “playboy” ad, I think that number was much lower.
And as a tangent,
I really think race as we think about it is losing its power as the generations change, but classism remains a big problem. I think, for example, a place like the UTexas system need to up there level of Latino representation (just to pick one example) otherwise there’s going to be a permanent underclass in places like South Texas that is poor, and happens to be Latino. But on the level of individuals I think its going to matter much less your race and more your class. In Latin America, from what I know, a person’s color tells you something about their lives, but their class tells you much more. I think we are headed for a similiar scenario here.
And that includes possibly a break-down in social services, infrastructure, health care, public education. I think this is a worrying trend that takes us away from the European model of government and more to the Latin American model, or the Indian model for that matter. Places in the Third World are often those that, if you have money you can buy the things a functioning society needs, but in European countries its more taken for granted that those services are provided to all.
I think we are worryingly headed for a different model and the reduction in our middle class portends this.
And I’d like to apologize to Nina P for that arguement a long time ago on race and class!
also I think the crystal meth epidemic in the rural US is part of a reaction to this gradual decline in the social support network
Last one,
So as a corrolary to the AA debate we had, the current racial disparities (in education and then after) may convert into class disparities with a racial legacy behind them. Some of us here will be in the upper class by then, and some will be in what the Third World might be called the middle class. We won’t be shitted upon but we’re not going to be up on that Mansion on the Hill either (a song by the poor white hero Hank Williams Sr.)
I hope no one is insulted, or offended even. Maff keejia
Check, check & check…cats out of the bag!
Heinous, I tell you, heinous. In the name of everything that is holy about Amitabh Bachchan, thank Big B I am safe on this side of the Atlantic, safe from the increasingly-obvious American desi tendency towards unbridled debauched depravity and monomaniacal obsessions with macacas and whatnot.
I think some of you laydeez just have a thing about knobbly vegetables. There’s probably something Freudian about that. Not quite sure what.
Z’bad.
That Allen is a A-hole! I’m glad he lost, the stupid jerk!
yes the abcd sluts and pimps have finally found their identity… they did flirt with mujahid for a while…
maratha:
what is a classy guy like you doing in a joint like this?
Sahej, you are absolutely right about the way America is heading…so make sure you (and your future kids) get the kind of education that will be vital to ensuring a comfortable life in the decades to come (the education by itself will not ensure a comfy life but it will be a necessary precondition). As for preventing the scenario you describe, I’m not sure it can be done, realistically. Lastly, keep your ties to India(and I say this as a 2nd gen)…you never know when you may want/need to move back there one day…the global scene will be pretty different in three decades.
Amitabh,
Bas sadaai theeno kam ne, naam jaapna, vend chukna, kirat karna. Hor kush, raab thou.
(five rivers never far from the heart)
Gotta say, I’m a little bit of a ‘south of B-more’ snob. That part of MD just feels like a different state altogether.
meenbeen how so?
“Nothing made me happier on election night than finding out the results from Dickenson County, where Allen and I had our encounter. Webb won there”
That’s awesome. I went to school in southwest Virginia before working in northern Virginia, and I was really worried that Allen was judging voters in the area correctly in thinking that the politics of insider vs. outsider would work there.
I totally agree with hairy_d that “there’s been too much emphasis on the ‘macaca’ bit – were it an expletive in the vein of ‘nigger’. which probably explains why it is bandied around with such candor. the macaca bit – the bite doesnt come close to (i presume) the rage of a black man accumulated over generations – …, and i have received racial slurs of all kind and straight armed mock salutes in and around northam – but … what really stings is the idle allusion that somehow i do not belong here, or my knowledge and experiences are secondary to those who ‘look’ like they know more.”
We can all argue back and forth over whether Allen was intentionally making a specific racial slur, but we KNOW that he was trying to point out the one brown guy in the crowd as an outsider, someone who wasn’t a “real” American, someone who didn’t belong in Virginia. That pissed me off much more than the nonsensical “macaca.”
What about the male hoochies ? People always forget about us.
I was just joking in my previous post, just in case that needed any clarification.
I hate to break it to folks, but if you’re south of Charm City, you’re south of the Mason-Dixon. Welcome to the Dirty. Now please start pronouncing your “ar”s as “ur”s. Thanks.
Also, did anyone else notice what a horrible job Mesire Sidarth’s friends did giving him a mullet? And here I went and gave myself a mohawk on some macacca solidarity ish…