INDIA ABROAD March 31, 2017 6 SECOND OPINION
INDIAABROAD.COM
Power in Being the ‘Other’
Indian-Americans’ courageous activism can counteract hate crimes
hree days after the
Kansas shooting that
took Srinivas
Kuchibhotla’s life,
Harnish Patel was shot
dead outside his home
in South Carolina, and, days
later, a Sikh man was shot and
wounded in his driveway
outside Seattle.
The murderous bigotry
directed at these men thrust
Indian-Americans from all
corners of the country into a
state of fear. This collective
outcry from a community
usually hesitant to participate in
politicized discussions should be
noted as a major shift. Millions
of Indians have begun to
question the security and safety
of their families and children.
After appealing to the Trump
administration for answers or
plans that address these targeted
attacks, Indians expressed
outrage at the silence they were
met with. They vocalized
confusion and disappointment
with the limited media coverage
of the crimes and wondered, for
the first time, if they themselves
were even
welcome in
America—a
country built on
the great
immigrant story.
As immigrants,
we have faced
threats to our
safety in the past,
but many of us
chose to speak
only when the
threat extended to
our Indian compatriots. When
Trump began campaigning on a
dangerous platform of building
walls and banning Muslims, now
masked as an immigration
executive order, we retreated in
discomfort and failed to vocalize
disapproval. We removed
ourselves from political debates
and discussions on race, religion
and ethnicity, pretending that
we had nothing in common with
the affected communities. We
convinced ourselves that
Trump’s nativist rhetoric could
not affect us and that we were
somehow better than the people
he was trying to remove from
this country. Patterns of
exclusion and xenophobic
rhetoric bred a fear of
immigrants and mobilized
hateful, populist nationalism
directed outward at other groups
that were deemed, somehow, as
inferior.
Indian-Americans should
consider the
xenophobic
attacks against our
communities in
this wider context.
Those who
identify as
“Other,” are
stronger if they
find solidarity in
protecting
American values.
It is simply not enough to define
abuse only in terms of our
immediate surroundings;
Muslim-American activists have
linked attacks on Muslims to
discrimination against Indians,
Sikhs, Blacks and Latinos in the
United States. Solutions during
these uncertain times require us
to be forthcoming in
condemning injustices that
include ethnic and racial
minorities that do not fit the
“model minority” stereotype.
As the story goes, many
Asians came to America with
little resources, adhered to the
law, and pulled themselves into
positions of success by way of
education and hard work. In
America, these exemplary
economic and social
accomplishments earned Asians
the monolithic label of “model
minority” citizens. Since the
Asian-American Movement of
the late 1960s, advocates and
activists have urged Asian-
Americans to resist and
challenge the status of exemplar.
The class-based positioning of
minority groups in comparison
with one another emphasizes a
racial hierarchy. Relative
positioning shapes the
opportunities and difficulties
minority groups face, ultimately
reinforcing the power of
majority groups.
The Indian-American
community must continually
explore why this shift occurred
and how we position ourselves
in the racial hierarchy. By
shaping our perspectives to
consider the issues other
minority groups contend with,
we can find a shared identity
without sacrificing individual
strengths and develop strategies
towards unified resistance.
Freedom of expression in the
land of opportunity was reason
enough to bring many Indians to
America. Facing discrimination
because of racial, cultural and
religious differences, it was
never easy for Indians to build a
new life in a foreign country.
They fought inequality when the
Immigration Act of 1917, a bill
restricting immigrants and
prompting a turn towards
nativism, legalized
discrimination. It was not until
the Luce-Cellar Act of 1946 that
Indians could participate in
American democracy and gain
formal rights such as citizenship,
property ownership and voting.
The Indian claim to America is
a story of struggle and in some
ways similar to the difficulties
that blacks, Muslims, Latinos
and other minority groups face.
More than we may recognize,
the fight for liberty, equality and
freedom connects us all. Rather
than demarcating who falls
within the Indian-American
sphere of concern, we must be
sensitive to the struggles of
other minorities and recognize
the responsibility to address
wider injustices.
Perhaps the emotional appeal
of recent shootings that
transpired surpassed a threshold
of tolerance for many Indian-Americans. The courageous
activism of other immigrant
groups paved a path for debate
perhaps encouraging us to be
less fearful and more willing to
speak our minds. I hope we see
these tragedies as a chance to
redeem ourselves by working
against an atmosphere of hate.
Bhavini Patel graduated from the
University of Pittsburgh with a Bachelor of
Philosophy in International and Area
Studies.
T
Injustice has
cut a wide path
through nation
that once held
promise
By Bhavini Patel
Above, members of the greater Kansas City community gather for a peace march around the Ball Conference Center before heading inside for a prayer vigil held
for the victims of the Austins Bar shooting on Feb. 26, in Olathe, Kansas. Below, several children lead the peace march around the Center.
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