Nikki Haley, Bobby Jindal and on-and-off relationships with Indian American identity
Haley, the former governor of South Carolina and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, was born Nimrata Randhawa to Indian immigrants from Punjab and goes by the childhood nickname “Nikki." She’s private about her Sikh background and emphasizes her conversion to Christianity. She even listed her race as “white” on a 2001 voter registration card.
But on Monday, the first night of the RNC, she invoked her Indian identity and claimed that “America is not racist,” although later in the same speech, she contradicted herself by pointing out that her family had faced discrimination during her childhood.
South Asian American experts who are familiar with Haley, Bobby Jindal, the former Louisiana governor and 2016 Republican presidential hopeful, and other conservative Indian American politicians note that some of them seem to have an on-and-off relationship with their Indian identity, mostly appearing to distance themselves from it but also using it to their advantage when it serves them.
“They painstakingly mask their identities when it is convenient to get votes,” Lakshmi Sridaran, executive director of the racial justice nonprofit South Asian Americans Leading Together, said of Haley and Jindal (who left office in 2016)
Sridaran said that when politicians like Haley speak about their own identities, it usually leads to perpetuation of the idea that immigrants and people of color just need to work hard to overcome systemic injustices.
“Jindal and Haley have done a great job highlighting their South Asian roots when it is convenient to appeal to an immigrant narrative and simultaneously gaslight the very existence of racism,” ..............
The idealization of whiteness has been pervasive in Indian communities long before there was a significant South Asian population in the U.S., according to Yamazaki. Casteism and colonialism in India are two driving forces that have shaped the benefits associated with being proximate to whiteness, and many high-caste, light-skinned South Asians have taken advantage of this.
“There is a long history of South and East Asians identifying with whiteness in order to get American benefits/safety/security like U.S. citizenship,” Yamazai said.
And the instinct to assimilate and shed cultural identity is often rewarded by white people in power.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-a...ntity-n1238266
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There is a lot of incentive on immigrants to become "Americanized" .
Some of it is pretty benign, like changing hard to pronounce names to something a little more Anglicized.
That is probably the reason Piyush Jindal became "Bobby".
Sometimes, there is a stigma some immigrants are keen to avoid. I had an acquaintance in college whose family was from Iran. But she was very keen to let you know she was Persian, not Iranian.
christiefan915 (05-03-2021), Guno צְבִי (05-03-2021)
Haley could not succeed in the Repub party with her real name. She knew that, so she anglicized it. It is not difficult to understand. It is actually obvious.
Guno צְבִי (05-03-2021)
christiefan915 (05-03-2021)
Guno צְבִי (05-03-2021)
TRUMP WILL TAKE FORTY STATES...UNLESS THE SAME IDIOTS WHO BROUGHT US THE 2020 DUNCE-O-CRAT IOWA CLUSTERFUCK CONTINUE THEIR SEDITIOUS ACTIVITIES...THEN HE WILL WIN EVEN MORE ..UNLESS THE RED CHINESE AND DNC COLLUDE, USE A PANDEMIC, AND THEN THE DEMOCRATS VIOLATE ARTICLE II OF THE CONSTITUTION, TO FACILLITATE MILLIONS OF ILLEGAL, UNVETTED, MAIL IN BALLOTS IN THE DARK OF NIGHT..
De Oppresso Liber
christiefan915 (05-03-2021), evince (05-03-2021)
TRUMP WILL TAKE FORTY STATES...UNLESS THE SAME IDIOTS WHO BROUGHT US THE 2020 DUNCE-O-CRAT IOWA CLUSTERFUCK CONTINUE THEIR SEDITIOUS ACTIVITIES...THEN HE WILL WIN EVEN MORE ..UNLESS THE RED CHINESE AND DNC COLLUDE, USE A PANDEMIC, AND THEN THE DEMOCRATS VIOLATE ARTICLE II OF THE CONSTITUTION, TO FACILLITATE MILLIONS OF ILLEGAL, UNVETTED, MAIL IN BALLOTS IN THE DARK OF NIGHT..
De Oppresso Liber
BeBestBiden (05-03-2021)
THE RACISM IN AMERICA IS CLEARLY FROM THE LEFT...AND THE WORLD KNOWS IT...
TRUMP WILL TAKE FORTY STATES...UNLESS THE SAME IDIOTS WHO BROUGHT US THE 2020 DUNCE-O-CRAT IOWA CLUSTERFUCK CONTINUE THEIR SEDITIOUS ACTIVITIES...THEN HE WILL WIN EVEN MORE ..UNLESS THE RED CHINESE AND DNC COLLUDE, USE A PANDEMIC, AND THEN THE DEMOCRATS VIOLATE ARTICLE II OF THE CONSTITUTION, TO FACILLITATE MILLIONS OF ILLEGAL, UNVETTED, MAIL IN BALLOTS IN THE DARK OF NIGHT..
De Oppresso Liber
TRUMP WILL TAKE FORTY STATES...UNLESS THE SAME IDIOTS WHO BROUGHT US THE 2020 DUNCE-O-CRAT IOWA CLUSTERFUCK CONTINUE THEIR SEDITIOUS ACTIVITIES...THEN HE WILL WIN EVEN MORE ..UNLESS THE RED CHINESE AND DNC COLLUDE, USE A PANDEMIC, AND THEN THE DEMOCRATS VIOLATE ARTICLE II OF THE CONSTITUTION, TO FACILLITATE MILLIONS OF ILLEGAL, UNVETTED, MAIL IN BALLOTS IN THE DARK OF NIGHT..
De Oppresso Liber
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