Sunday, February 22, 2015

Race and Privilege as an Indian-American

Today I am not writing about epilepsy.  I need to share something that has broad implications for the entire society. 

Instead, I am reposting an essay called “Race and Privilege as an Indian-American” that one of my high school friends wrote and posted on Facebook.  He lives in Birmingham, Alabama and wrote in response to the beating of an elderly Indian gentleman in Madison, Alabama. 

I have also included a link to the news story (http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/police-use-force-always-black-white/)  by the PBS NewsHour.  At the 9:10 minute mark of the story, the man being interviewed, a former police officer, says that the incident is not a racial issue.  I do not agree.  You can watch/listen to the news report and interview and see what you think.

I welcome any comments.


Race & Privilege as an Indian-American
by Anoop Mishra


A Hindu was gravely injured by a police officer in Madison, Alabama last week and Indians are rightfully pretty upset. Solutions have ranged from “Hindu 101” training for all police officers to community dialogue with the Indian-American community.  And that’s fine.

But my initial thought was this: this is pretty good evidence of why Black History Month should require engagement from a much broader community. February 2015 aside, we have gone through two years of celebrating various 50-year milestones of the Civil Rights era, culminating in the historic Selma March ceremony next month.

I get the feeling that we spend more time waxing nostalgic about the past than actually building on it. And I think that would drive people like Gandhi and King crazy. Because if there’s anything that they would want us to avoid, it’s “wheelhouse justice” – if the issue’s in my wheelhouse, I’m going to speak up; otherwise, good luck with all that.

For the last two generations, the Indian-American community in the U.S. has had a pretty simple strategy: keep your head down, study/work hard, and be rewarded financially. Because economic prosperity = economic power = “hey, we don’t need to march!” The major advantage we have enjoyed is immigration law that effectively has guaranteed a highly disproportionate number of educated and high-skilled Indians even get into the U.S.  

But at some point, we need to understand that it’s not just about economic clout or financial security or staying true to Indian heritage while assimilating into American culture. It’s about engaging actively in Interconnectedness with our whole community, all ethnicities and groups. Intellectually we affirm King’s idea that “an injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” but emotionally it’s not so easy to make the connection between Eric Garner’s death in New York and Sureshbhai Patel’s treatment in Alabama.

So what happened to Mr. Patel, a 57-year old Indian grandfather in Madison, AL, struck a nerve. After the Trayvon Martin tragedy, President Obama remarked, “if I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon.” Almost all of my generation of Indian-Americans currently have or have had a relative like Mr. Patel – speaks little English, is new to the U.S., wears extra layers of clothing because sub-70 degree weather is effectively an Arctic blast, and loves to take morning walks.  
I do not pretend to know all the details or the motives or have the solutions to this. But I know that what happened was an injustice. And I also have a sincere hope that in seeking a remedy, we move beyond wheelhouse justice – what’s best for our Hindu community – and engage in a search for broader framework of justice, one which recognizes our interdependence with other groups, whether African-American, Muslim, Gay/Lesbian, Hispanic or another.

This means first and foremost greater introspection. After 9/11, when Muslims were being targeted, there was certainly sympathy and an outpouring of support among many. When seven individuals were killed at a Sikh Temple in Wisconsin in 2012, the same was true. However, there was also another message that many Indian-Americans were conveying, usually indirectly but sometimes point blank: “Don’t worry, I’m not Muslim.” The intent was self-preservation, not bigotry, but the effect was the same. Rather than unite against unfair targeting, the preferred approach was to deflect the hostility onto another even more vulnerable group. 

So we need to re-think “privilege” – white privilege is a phrase that’s polarizing and I’m not arguing for or against it. But I have no doubt that privilege transcends skin color or race. Especially in hearing Mr. Patel’s story, it’s pretty clear that I have benefited from privilege. Yes, I’m a Hindu in the Bible Belt, a liberal in a Red state, and brown in a predominantly white community.  However, I was raised in the US, my English is really good, my Southern is actually stronger than a lot of Americans' Southern, and my education/marital status/outlook/socioeconomic status is pretty much in line with the Comfort Zone for most people. I do not have the history of slavery and Jim Crow associated with my skin color. I also do not wear a turban or a burqa.

I have found that I can often (not always) "compensate" for my brown skin with my language skills, clothing, and background to at least signal "Hey - it's cool, I'm just like you!" But what happens if that’s not part of your toolkit?  Mr. Patel didn’t benefit from the privilege of ease with English or a Southern accent; he didn’t have the luxury of simply smiling and exercising the cultural trump card to play in these situations – a hearty “Roll Tide!”

So at least in my mind, there are some ways in which I benefit that really have nothing to do with the “content of my character” – and that’s privilege. That’s why it’s critical to know that as Indian Americans or as brown people, we are not the same and are not perceived to be the same. Our commonalities can extend across race and color as much as differences can be found within race and color.

So my hope is that we realize that when King said, “we are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one destiny, affects all indirectly” – he genuinely did mean all.

Being the nerd that many of you know me to be, I think back to a great book that I read in college, "Showdown at Gucci Gulch" for a Political Science class. The book chronicled why the 1986 Tax Reform Bill passed even though just about everyone hated it. The premise was that all of the opposing parties were so disjointed and unable to unify in their opposition that the bill passed. Toward the end of the book, the authors noted that if someone had simply held up a sign that said "everyone who wants to kill this bill, come over here" - the bill would have been crushed.

Empowerment, oppression and minority rights are complex issues and I certainly don't think that every issue is the same or can be addressed with a broad brush solution - but I keep looking for the sign that says "everyone who wants to eliminate bigotry, come over here." At some point, if we as minorities can break down the barriers among our own groups, I would be stunned if progress across all didn't come quicker. 



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