While Gandhiji was all about the Swadeshi movement, and it’s not uncommon to find ‘Be Indian,Buy Indian’ on the backs of Trucks in India…so, if a white american does the same thing, it’s condemned as racism and when Indians do it,that’s considered patriotism?
So by the same coin,Indian reaction against Pepsi and Coca Cola in Indian market can be considered as ‘Hate Crimes’ and racism as well.Seems like white Americans do not have the right of discriminating against foreign influence, while the same thing in India is considered patriotism.

Tamil,
That’s a nice straw-man argument. Comparing apples with oranges or shall we say watermelons.
How many white Americans drive trucks in India or heck even sell goods on the streets in India that have to suffer direct consequences as the Indian motel owners in the US? On the other hand, more than 50% of hotel and motel owners in the US are of South Asian origin and the “American Owned” sign is a direct in-your-face attestment to that. Hence it is racist whichever way you spin it.

Also for the record, the Be Indian Buy Indian slogan is as outdated as the Indian Constitution. It was a nice nursery school rhyme from our socialist days. I would rather we not display jingoistic slogans and let free market take its course. The Pepsi and Coke controversies do have racial elements as do the attacks on KFCs and McDonalds anytime anyone wants to protest Western ideas. No one is saying Americans have cornered the market on racism and we dont hesitate to point it out when we Indians indulge in such behavior.

let me clear the debate.
I have been in florida too long and this sign only says,”American Owned: We do have an accent like our Patel competitors(southern accent),
we like to end sentences with prepositions,
we will provide the same crappy service or maybe even crappier,
we will definitely spit in your food,
a big ol’ trucker will be your neighbour and play dutty movies all night long and
we will even charge you more than the Patels because we have to buy gas guzzling american cars and not those nifty little toyota camrys like our competitors.”

Shek,
Dude, I understand your frustration, but that was unnecessary.

[...] was a discussion on the motel post, where I expressed my reservations against mixing (jingoistic) patriotism and business, [...]

“While Gandhiji was all about the Swadeshi movement, and it’s not uncommon to find ‘Be Indian,Buy Indian’ on the backs of Trucks in India…so, if a white american does the same thing, it’s condemned as racism and when Indians do it,that’s considered patriotism?”

The only problem I see with this is that Gandhiji was talking about FOREIGN products and specifically British products in an economic boycott to effect political change.

Whereas here it seems to be against people within our country - resident aliens.

That is why this is different than “Buy American”. Buy American means regardless of the race of the America, but unfortunately the intent of this is different.

I am a proud American. I am even a proud white person but I have always thought to be a proud American I need to accept people of all origins. The problem is that people of other origins discriminate against whites and also often still have loyalty to their country of origin rather than to America.

Would I go to one of these hotels ? No. But someday I might have to think about if there is a need because fate has made me white to be loyal to whites. As government gives an increasing amount of boons to other ethnic groups and as ethnic groups group together and ask for even more special benefits from government it might be for my own protection I might need to support only my own race. That would be a sad day indeed but perhaps that day is near.

What this “American Owned” thing does remind me of is of immigrants supporting products that come from their country of origin and supporting places owned by people of their ethnic group. That would be exactly the same as “American Owned”. But that is exactly what this one website encourages Immigrants of Pakistani origin to do.

http://www.yespakistan.com/for.....istani.asp

Kirk,
Thanks for your comments. Let me reiterate again, I have zero problems with someone advertising their patriotism but the method these people chose cries racism. If they had a flag or a board saying “God bless the USA”, “Support our troops”, etc that is being patriotic.

I forgot to mention this earlier but motels are the only street-side businesses that use “American Owned” to advertise their “whiteness”. I’ve never every seen another street-side business use this trick.

I mean think about it how many convenience stores, gas stations, restaurants, grocery stores, car dealerships have you seen that display the specific words “American Owned” to advertise themselves? Zero.

The funny thing about this motel was they did not have a flag of the United States on their premises!!! So much for their claim of being patriotic.

Oh, I agree with you.

But what about the reverse? What about signs and places that immigrants set up to let whites know they aren’t welcome?

Santosh, I re-read one of your comments. I have to take back what I said about agreeing with you a bit.

I see a difference between “American Owned” and “Buy American”.

The first is a thinly veiled means to discriminate against hotels owned by legal residents of the United States.

But Buy American is just behaving patriotic and supporting your community. The people who you would be supporting would not only be whites but all other ethnicities of Americans.

Just like Be Indian, Buy Indian is perfectly understandable and acceptable when Indians in India do this. Support your neighbors. Support your community. Nothing wrong with that.

I am all in favor jingoistic slogans when directed outside of the country. The only problem is that the company must be sincere. I would not tolerate false patriotism.

I try to buy American cars whenever possible. My last car wasn’t and I really felt guilty about it but it was after studying all the cars out there it had the highest safety rating in the type of car I was looking at. Safety must come first. Still I made sure that my car was at least built in the USA.

I still feel guilty though. I would have paid a little more for an American car with the same safety rating but that car just didn’t exist.

I broke an eighty or so year tradition by buying a foreign car. My parents always owned American Cars. My grandparents always owned American Cars. Heck their parents always owned American Cars.

Well actually my sister bought a foreign car before me so I guess I can blame her for breaking the tradition.

But I guess I have to say does this say something about me or about the state of the US auto industry.

If US auto makers start making more cars that are very high rated for safety like some of these foreign cars are, I would be overjoyed to start buying American again.

Kirk,
You and me can agree to disagree on that one. I would buy the best car in the market for the money I’m paying and chances are, in this day and age, it’s a Japanese car. Besides if you do enough research on cars, you would probably discover that cars like Honda are actually assembled in the US and Ford and GM in Canada and Mexico. What I’m trying to say is there are no cars that are truly “Made in U.S.A”.

This article in time addresses the same issue

Runa,
Thanks for the update. Nice to know some of the topics we cover on here are worthy enough of their Time in the sun (pun fully intended)

Is it just me or am I seeing a sudden splurge of racist activity in the world. I am not saying that brown folk are the only people targeted, but there seems to be a sudden increase in hate.

Any theories?

My theory is this kind of stuff always existed but lately people have become more aware of this crap. Combine that with Al Gore’s invention and blogs and you hear more about it these days.