Category Archives: Issues

A Different Model Indian Minority

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Towards a better, browner future

Not exactly Desi, but interestingly close. Marginal Revolution points us at a NYT article that examines the case of the only county in the nation where the median income for Blacks exceeds that of Whites (51K vs. 46K respectively). The other thing that makes it interesting? It’s residents aren’t traditionally African-American but rather, West Indian.

Despite the economic progress among blacks in Queens, income gaps still endure within the borough’s black community, where immigrants, mostly from the Caribbean, are generally doing better than American-born blacks.

An earlier Malcom Gladwell article looked into some of these disparaties and observed –

…The implication of West Indian success is that racism does not really exist at all–at least, not in the form that we have assumed it does. The implication is that the key factor in understanding racial prejudice is not the behavior and attitudes of whites but the behavior and attitudes of blacks–not white discrimination but black culture. It implies that when the conservatives in Congress say the responsibility for ending urban poverty lies not with collective action but with the poor themselves they are right.

And, as Alex at Marginal Revolution notes, Gladwell tries hard (and somewhat unsuccessfully) to argue against the most obvious implication – put simply that Culture rather than Race is the primary determinant of success.

So what’s the Desi angle here?

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A suitable boy or girl

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Although Vikram Seth has been out of the closet as bisexual for some time now, I had not been aware of his sexual orientation until he gave a lengthy interview to Outlook India on the subject. His more visible profile on the topic of his sexuality is related to his public support for the anti-Section 377 movement, the movement for the decriminalization of homosexuality in India.

The interview is fascinating, both in terms of what it reveals about Vikram Seth and in terms of what it reveals about India. My favorite part involves the interviewer grappling with the very idea of bisexuality.

I’m not sure I quite understand what bisexual means?

What do you mean you don’t understand? Supposing I have a physical attraction at some time or in a certain place to a particular woman, and another time to a particular man …I suppose if you don’t like the word, you could say I am gay and straight.

But if you can be straight, and life is so difficult as a gay, isn’t it simpler to just be straight?

Of course not. You have your feelings. You can’t just suppress or contort your feelings, either your emotional or sexual feelings. And why on earth should you, just to appease someone else’s unthought-through prejudices. [Link]

Ah yes, such a desi question. But beta, if you are attracted to vomen, then vhy do you need to be the gay? She follows that little gem up by asking “This is something that people often snigger about: has boarding school anything to do with you being gay?” which was the icing on the cliche cake.

While I cringed to read her asking these questions, I was still glad she did. Even if she knows better, I imagine these are questions that your average person on the street is thinking of, so it’s far better to give Seth a chance to respond than to leave them unsaid. Continue reading →

Misogyny kills

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There are times when I feel desperately ashamed of my community/communities (Desi/Punjabi/Sikh). I realize this is just one side of the story we’re hearing, and that we shouldn’t jump to conclusions, but it is all too believable and makes my blood run cold.

This is the story of 27 year old Navjeet Siddhu from Southall, who committed suicide by jumping in front of a 100mph Heathrow Express train. Not only did she jump, but she jumped carrying her two children.

She suffered from depression, which began when she gave birth to a daughter rather than a son. Her condition became worse after her husband, Manjit, who left her to return to his native India, said that he would come back home only if he did not have to do any household chores. [Link]

Navjeet Siddhu and her daughter Simran died instantly. Her son, Aman Raj, died in the hospital 2 hours later. To add to the carnage, Navjeet’s mother, 56 year old Satwant Kaur Sodhi, committed suicide at the same spot six months later.

Navjeet Siddhu died back in August of 2005, but the inquest into the incident is just now being held, hence the news attention. The husband comes off as hideously callous in news stories:

The court was told how Mr Sidhu, who arrived six minutes after the incident at Southall station, walked past the bodies of his wife and five-year-old daughter, Simran, to pick up the body of his 23-month-old son, Aman Raj, and take him to hospital. [Link]

It’s possible that his actions had a rational explanation – that Aman Raj was the only one who looked like he would survive – it’s hard to tell without having his side of the story. We really shouldn’t prejudge her husband based on such flimsy evidence. However, even if this account is a media fiction, this sort of thing is far too common and that makes it easier to believe that it might have happened.

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Burnt Cork and Grease Paint

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bamboozled.jpegThere’s a powerful scene in “Bamboozled,” Spike Lee’s most difficult and underappreciated movie, in which the street-actor characters played by Savion Glover and Tommy Davidson, having been recruited into a scheme that involves staging a deliberately outrageous, racist pilot for a TV show, find themselves in the dressing room applying blackface. The camera lingers as the cork burns and the grease paint is prepared, and pulls back to show us the characters as they see themselves in the mirror, watching their natural brown hues turn to a shiny, oily black.

Blackface was both insult and injury. Used by white actors, it offered literal cover for the most offensive caricature; used by black actors, it represented a negation of oneself that was demanded to earn a living as a performer, and worse, the prerequisite of dehumanization in order to represent those portrayed as one’s own community, one’s own self. More than any law or repressive policy, it sent the message that black people were simply not human.

kate_1.jpgOver the weekend, I was shown a tube of grease paint of a make used back in the blackface heyday. A small, banal object, yet one invested with so much and so troubling a meaning. Well it turns out that just a couple of days earlier, the British daily The Independent ran this front-page image in honor of its “Africa issue” with half of the day’s revenues to help fight AIDS on the continent. The depiction is of Kate Moss, the decidedly non-black British fashion model and alleged onetime cocaine/heroin fiend, not only blackened but Blackened — bigger lips, thicker brows, fleshier cheeks. “NOT A FASHION STATEMENT,” the headline blares, while an inset on the sidebar promises a poster of the image inside.

Here’s a British term: BOLLOCKS! That’s also the view of Sunny from Asians in Media and Pickled Politics, our sister-from-another-mother site from across the pond, who puts it succinctly:

Could they not find a black model to represent Africa?

A particularly typical example of liberal guilt “we-feel-sorry-for-you” racism. You see they would have liked to to put a black model on the front but she just would not have sold as many copies. So they used a druggie.

It would have been better for the Indy to not even bother.

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Mixed Messages, Part II: Living the Mix

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Early this month, we ran the first instalment of a conversation that DesiDancer and I are holding on the mixed-race experience: being half-desi in relation to desi cultures and communities, and being of mixed race in America today. In the first instalment, titled “Gettin’ Down with the Brown,” we discussed our relationship to desi-ness — the terms of our engagement with our South Asian cultural background, and the issues we’ve encountered in the process.

Today, in “Living the Mix,” we discuss the role of mixed-race identity in general, and mixed-desiness in particular, in shaping our experiences in American society. And as promised, the conversation reflects our take on the many fascinating comments and private messages that we received after the first post. And that’s where we begin:

Siddhartha: So, it’s been a couple of weeks since we posted our first Mixed Messages item. What did you think about the responses?

DesiDancer: I donÂ’t know what I expected, but I was really pleasantly surprised by the outpouring of honest and emotional comments, both on and off-thread.

Siddhartha: So was I. There were some themes that I expected, others less so. It seemed that lots of non-mixed folks shared quite a few of the experiences and concerns.

DesiDancer: I guess the assumption I had made from our previous conversation — that feeling somewhat outside the desi community, while being “in” it — was symptomatic to being mixed. Yet I think a lot of non-mixed people echoed the same sentiment. I never really gave it much thought, but I was interested to make that discovery as the thread evolved. Things like how we’re perceived in different situations, how things like “but you don’t look Indian” can be backhanded compliments, how people mentioned feeling uncomfortable in “desi” gatherings… I realized that it’s not just a mixed issue, and I think it raised some good similarities that maybe we’ve never explored, individually or as a Mutiny.

Siddhartha: And it may have been interesting as well in reverse: i.e., that some non-mixed folks realized that they have these same issues in common with mixed people. I was really touched by the commenter who said it inspired him to get in touch with his mixed cousins whom he had previously sort of neglected. Continue reading →

Affecting the Desi Community

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Here at Sepia Mutiny, we often get into long debates in the comment thread of Indian-American versus the South Asian American. With elections right around the corner and all the focus on ‘issue based politicizing,’ the conversations often revolve around people who identify as Indian-American tend to care more about South Asian foreign policy and less about their lives here in America as an ‘American’ first, and vice versa for people that identify as South Asian American.

So the real question I see is as ‘Americans’, whether South Asian or Indian/Bangladeshi/Pakistani/Sri Lankan – American, are our issues domestically really that different? Should we be asking ‘what issues are desis interested in’ when we really should be asking ‘what issues affect the the desi community?’

Let me present you the information, and you make the educated judgement for yourself…The following numbers are based on the national demographics profile recently released by key APIA research organizations.

  • Education: We know the model minority sterotypes — desis are ‘supposed’ to be the most educated. The truth is 23% of Bangladeshis have less than a high school degree, higher than national average of 20%. Pakistani (19%), Asian Indian (15%), and Sri Lankan (14%). On the other hand, as far as college education is concerned, 61% of Asian Indians have a bachelors or advanced degree, 42% of Pakistanis and 45% of Bangladeshis.

  • Poverty: One doesn’t think that poverty affects the desi community — looking simply at the median household income we see that it is higher than the national and higher than non-Hispanic whites at $45,576 for Pakistanis, $52,392 for Sri Lankans, and $61,322 for Asian Indians. Bangladeshis we see fall the lowest at $37,074. When delving further we see that 15% of Bangladeshis and Asian Indians have 3 or more workers per family. Pakistani at 14%, Sri Lankan at 12% — the national number is 12%. But when comparing these numbers to the percentage of people below poverty level we see that all South Asians have a higher percentage than whites (8%): Bangladeshi 23%, Pakistani 18%, Sri Lankan 10%, and Asian Indian 10%. Seeing such ‘high’ numbers of poverty in our community, it’s sad to see that public assistance for this community is far less: 4% of Bangladeshi, 2% Pakistani, 2% Asian Indian and 1% Sri Lankan.

  • Housing: Though nationally, 66% of Americans own homes, and 72% of whites own homes, the numbers for South Asian Americans is less than this. 25% of Bangladeshis, 40% of Pakistanis, 47% of Asian Indians, and 50% of Sri Lankans. Unfortunately, the overcrowded housing issue is far worse — 6% nationally live in over crowded housing, 2% of Whites, where as 43% of Bangladeshis, 31% of Pakistani, 21% of Sri Lankans, and 18% of Asian Indians.

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American Babel

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Back in the day, I had an Italian co-worker who had the oh-so-Italian name “Enzo” coupled with the deadly, oh-so-Italian accent. The amazing thing about Enzo was that it didn’t matter one bit what was actually coming out of his mouth – the ladies in the office always had the same swooning reaction, “oh Enzo, say ‘operating system’ again. It sounds so sexy.”

Blech.

Despite having a pretty American accent myself (with an occasional touch of TX), I knew enough about how the world worked to know that one day, just once, I’d love to hear women swoon at the Indian accent. And on that day, my proverbial ship would finally come in and perhaps a few perceived ethnic slights would be righted. But, as Russell Peters once quipped, the primary thing the Indian accent is good for is cutting the tension.“The primary thing the Indian accent is good for is cutting the tension.”

The lesson? Enzo’s Italian accent evoked the exotic beauty, power and grace of a Ferrari the same way DesiTalk brought forth the rugged manliness of Apu.

So, the following commercial didn’t really move my meter much. TV Junkie that I am, I’ve usually got the boob tube on in the background while working. And, as a result, I probably get more than my fair share of 30second pop culture. So like many of you, I’ve come across a series of TV commercials for L’Oreal Cosmetics starring none other than our own Aishwarya Rai… Continue reading →

We Are Perfect (Thanks to Our Humility)

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Here we go again:

They have funny accents, occasionally dress in strange outfits, and some wear turbans and grow beards, yet Indians have been able to overcome stereotypes to become the U.S.’s most successful immigrant group.

Another season, another self-congratulatory article about desis as a model minority. At least this piece — by “BusinessWeek.com columnist and accomplished businessman” Vivek Wadhwa — drops the M-bomb from the outset. It’s titled “Are Indians the Model Immigrants?” and after the self-exoticizing intro (funny accents! strange outfits! turbans!), goes through the usual recital of achievements: median household income, hotel ownership, doctors and academics (sans supporting data), Indra Nooyi. All of which leads to this burning question:

Census data show that 81.8% of Indian immigrants arrived in the U.S. after 1980. They received no special treatment or support and faced the same discrimination and hardship that any immigrant group does. Yet, they learned to thrive in American society. Why are Indians such a model immigrant group?

I’ll let you read the article to find out the incredibly profound answers, which Wadhwa offers “in the absence of scientific research” (i.e., by pulling out of his butt) and “as an Indian immigrant” who has “had the chance to live the American dream.” You’ll learn, for instance, that such uniquely Indian traits as education, family values, humility, and “determination to overcome obstacles” account for the community’s great fortune. But let’s jump to Wadhwa’s 12th and final explanation:

12. Integration and acceptance. The Pew Global Attitudes Project, which conducts worldwide public opinion surveys, has shown that Indians predominantly hold favorable opinions of the U.S. When Indians immigrate to the U.S, they usually come to share the American dream and work hard to integrate.

Indians have achieved more overall business success in less time in the U.S. than any other recent immigrant group. They have shown what can be achieved by integrating themselves into U.S. society and taking advantage of all the opportunities the country offers.

Again, this last claim (more success in less time) is devoid of any supporting data, let alone its assumptions about the meaning of “success,” but hey, fuzzy math is only one of the characteristics of the “model minority” argument, which also trots out sociological traits that are somehow supposed to be specific to the group in question, and doggedly avoids any contrary evidence. But what makes the argument noxious isn’t so much the grab-my-nuts boosterism or even the total disregard for socio-economic difference within the community in question (dirty laundry for us to hash out in places like this blog), but the implied statements about other immigrant or ethnic groups, which, if they are not as “successful” as Indians are, must therefore be inherently lacking in the bootstraps department. After all, Indians “received no special treatment” and “faced the same discrimination and hardship that any immigrant group does,” yet “they learned to thrive in American society.”

Those who wish to engage these assertions on the issues might start with the fact that selective immigration policies aimed to brain-drain skilled professionals into the US is very much “special treatment” from the get-go. I’m sure that claim about Indians having faced the same discrimination as “any immigrant group” could use a little data-driven scrutiny too.

Still, Wadhwa has done us all a favor, by deploying the “model minority” argument in such candid fashion. We know these views are prevalent in some sections of the community; now we have a complete statement of the case and its underlying logic. You be the judge. All I can say is: Macaca, Please! Continue reading →

Desis in the (MD State) House

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Today is Election Day in many states across the nation, the primary elections to be exact. Though there are a few of desis running for office across the nation, there are FOUR running for office in Maryland (Thanks, IALI).

Kumar Barve (District 17) [WaPo Review] Age:43

First elected in 1990, and re-elected three times–in 1994,1998, and 2002, Delegate Kumar P. Barve, age 43, is the Majority Leader in Maryland’s state legislature and is the longest-serving elected official of Indian origin. He represents a district with a population of 110,000 in Montgomery County, Maryland.

Barve’s grandfather, Shankar L. Gokhale, was the President of Holkar College in Indore, India. Gokhale immigrated to the United States in 1911. Barve’s mother, Neera, was born in Schenectady, New York. His father, Prabhakar Barve, came to the U.S. in 1957 after studying architecture at the Hammersmith School of Building in London, England. Kumar P. Barve is the first person of Indian origin to be elected as a state legislator in United States history. [link]

Nina Basu (District 13) [WaPo Review] Age: 25

Basu, a financial analyst [and law student] who is waging her first campaign for state office, lists her top priorities as funding education, mass transit and public safety. Basu, who has served on the Long Reach Village Board since 2003, said her priorities – like those of the other candidates – require money to come to fruition. Seeking that money would be her primary role as a delegate, she said. [link]

Shukoor Ahmed (District 23A) [WaPo Review] Age:44

Ahmed moved to the United States from India at the age of 25 with, he said, only $500. He earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science and a master’s degree in public policy from American University and, in 2000, started his own company. He has had the political bug since he was young, Ahmed said, and worked on the Democratic presidential campaigns of Joe Lieberman and Bill Bradley. Ahmed said his passion is to “use technology to improve (government) services to citizens” – an area in which most legislators lack expertise, he noted. [link]

Saqib Ali (District 39) [WaPo Review] Age: 31

You might remember Ali from last month, and the story of the anti-islam demonstrator in his front yard.

Like Barve, he was recently endorsed by the Washington Post which stated “[p]olitical newcomer Saqib Ali has shown good command of issues and would bring new vigor to this district’s delegation.” He has also been endorsed by the Montgomery County Education Association. A software engineer, he has lived in Montgomery County since 1991 when he moved there to attend college. Ali has out raised all candidates. As the Post observes “challenger Saqib Ali has raised $63,000 for his campaign to be the Democratic nominee for the state House. That’s twice as much as the three incumbents in the district have raised, combined, in the past year. [link]

It’s great to see four desis running for office in Maryland. I’ve had to opportunity to meet with Barve in the past and I would have to say that it was his pioneering that paved the road for desis to run for political office the Maryland today. Good luck to the candidates and if you live in Maryland, don’t forget to vote!

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