Anand Deva, a Sydney-based doctor, is in the middle of a major racial controversy after performing a blackface spoof of the Jackson Five on an Australian show ‘Hey Hey its Saturday’. [TOI]
This story seems to have garnered worldwide attention as Harry Connick Jr was one of the judges on the show and ended up protesting the performance and rating it a zero. The offender, Dr. Deva expressed surprise over the controversy and made a rather weak argument trying to justify it.
“I am an Indian, and five of the six of …

Prof. Ravi Shankar is a published poet, and a faculty member at the Central Connecticut State University. On July 10th this year, he was arrested on false charges, and detained for more than 30 hrs in a NY detention facility while being hurled with racial epithets. His record only had an unpaid speeding ticket, but he was being arrested as he ‘fit’ the description of a 140 pound caucasian male, while being a 200 pound, East Indian male.
After being produced before a magistrate after 30 hrs of detention and being …

The latest in the “foot in mouth” chronicles starring  Texas Rep Betty Brown:
Rep. Betty Brown suggested that Asian Americans might want to adopt names that are “easier for Americans to deal with” when they want to vote so their names will match what is on registration rolls (link: via angryasianman.com)
To be fair, the hon. representative was definitely *not* addressing Indian names because as every school kid in America knows – Indians are not Asian ! ( ASIDE: This was one of the biggest culture shocks for me when I moved …

This reminds me of this old post of mine, which noted an increasing trend in American pop culture to throw around the word slumdog with anything associated to India.
I stand by my words, there is absolutely nothing wrong with being called a slumdog. However, when those words are used repeatedly to refer to an entire ethnic group, it becomes tiresome and stereotypical.
Here is what Limpbaugh said:
“They’re outsourced for a reason, an economic reason, and they’re not coming back. If you’re sitting out waiting for a job that’s now being done …

Four Hindi speaking residents in the Bay area were attacked in what appears to be a racially motivated crime. [NBC]
The victims appear to be random selected ….
Police said four victims had left a bar and were walking to their car in a parking lot in the 200 block of Castro Street when they were approached by two female suspects.
The two female suspects allegedly approached a female victim and began punching and slapping her.
…. but the attack appears to be planned and coordinated.
When the victim’s husband intervened, a …

… a terrorist. [link]
What can brown do for you?
Call you a terrorist if you’re brown and wear a turban.
UPS: The new face of terrorism – elderly unclesimg: via turnto23.com
Happy 2009. The good news is it’s a brand new year. The bad news is that apparently bigots from years past are still alive and delivering packages.
Ever received a package and try to pronounce your very South Asian sounding name to the delivery guy? Well, chances are they screwed up the spelling or even better, labeled you a terrorist.
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — …

“The Macaca Effect” as I understand it, refers to the George Allen Macaca controversy and the possibility that were it not for that slip, Allen could be 2008 GOP Presidential nominee instead of John McCain. [Wash. Post]
Since we’re on the topic of H1B visas today and the backlash in certain quarters, which often borders on the xenophobic, I present thee with this article which discusses something called “the macaca effect”, with a different connotation.
The writer of this article claims it’s a common term in the IT industry (quoting her):
And the …

All is not well in Disneyland – the place that is supposed to be the “happiest on earth”. Sukbir Channa, a 24 year old Sikh of Indian origin, has filed a lawsuit against Disney alleging that Disney refused to renew his employment because of his turban and facial hair, both of which are mandated by his religion ( tip: Chickpea via email) (link)
Mickey hates turbans?img: via Blog Smith Media
The details of the suit indicate that Channa – an accomplished trumpet player- was told that he did not have the …

Dunkin Donuts, my favorite coffee brand, pulled a Rachel Ray ad because right wing blogger, Michelle Malkin, felt that the scarf resembled a kaffiyeh and that “The kaffiyeh, for the clueless, is the traditional scarf of Arab men that has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad,” [CNN] (tip Runa via email)
Letter protesting the withdrawal of an ad because of an ethnic scarfI sent mine, did you?img: via Über Desi @ Flickr.comEnough is enough. This kind of fear mongering has gone on for too long and went too far this time. …

Two black British cheerleaders in an interview to “The SUN” were quoted as saying that they were stopped from going on stage at an IPL pre-match show by a staff member from pre-match show organisers Wizcraft International Entertainment. The staff members allegedly told the two girls: “people here don’t want to see dark people“. The two cheerleaders also allege he used the “N” word was and told them people “only wanted beautiful white girls“. [TOI]
Cheerleaders face racial abuseimg: via Courier Mail Australia
Coming on the heels of the Shilpa Shetty-Big Brother …

Harbhajan Singh’s three match suspension was the last proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. India’s tour was fraught with controversies. Not one but close to half a dozen ridiculous umpiring decisions by Australian and West Indian umpires cost India the second match. [link]
Then Harbhajan Singh was suspended for allegedly calling Andrew Symonds a “monkey”. While if true, Harbhajan deserves punishment the ban, what is mind boggling is that in a “he said she said” case the ICC has predictably decided to side with the Australian’s version of the story …

If you’ve been following the Malaysian Macaca Mutiny (1,2,3,4) with any degree of interest, you’ve got to love the way these protesters are making the Malaysian government look bad.

Mottai* Malaysian Macacasimg: via TOI Online

The Malaysian government and law enforcement has employed tear gas and water cannons, slapped their leaders with murder charges which magically disappeared and tried linking them to terrorist groups.
In the face of overwhelming systematic oppression, all these Malaysian desis have done is peacefully protest on the streets holding pictures of Gandhi. Perhaps their counterparts (protesters) in India …

This tactic is a tried and tested technique and has worked well in certain Western nations.
1. Arrest individuals of ethnic minorities
2. Nations or groups related to #1 protest
3. To prevent a foreign relations disaster, pick out a world renowned terrorist group
4. Accuse #1 of having links with #3
5. #2 backs off.
Malaysia has now played that card well and India has backed off. [link]
Could these charges be true? Certainly within the realm of possiblity. The timing and accusations seems too convenient though.
Thoughts? Opinion?

After managing to watch all those episodes of ‘Scrubs’ and ‘Family Guy’ on my DVR when I finally managed to get to those episodes of ‘Everybody Hates Chris’. As I was forwarding the commercials, I saw a South Asian kid on this new show – Aliens in America, starting October 1st on CW.
The first place to look at was youtube and this is what I found.

Propagating ever known stereotype, this show rubs me the wrong way. Well that was until I figured that I was not alone. [ 1,2,3]
Ooh BTW …

Living in a college town always has its own set of problems. Most times you are much safer than living in the middle of nowhere because students, faculty and the population in general are aware of the unique issues that foriegn students face when they come to a new country.
But apparently this is not the case in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The first time Ankur Tangirala was attacked, he shook his head, called his attacker a “psycho” and walked away.
The second time, he was kicked in the stomach and knocked to the …

This was the Lake Tahoe I knew.
A week ago, when I was talking to a close friend, I described California as one of the more multicultural places in the West. My theory was that people from all over the world moved there a long time ago and it really was one of the more homogeneous melting pots.
Today I am made to eat my words.
Prather said the man was walking on the beach with his fiancée and her cousin, who also are of East Indian heritage, when the Silvas shouted …

Singh Gorvinda one of the injured. Image from Spiegel online.
Browsing our news tab yesterday, I came across a chilling article about Indian tourists who had been attacked in Saxony, Germany. A group of desis who had been invited to a festival were literally hunted by about 50 people, who chased them into a pizzeria, where the hapless tourists tried to barricade the doors with tables. The police had to show up and stop the attack.
That could have very well been me. Towards the end of last year, I …

Actually the title for that post was misleading. There were a lot of things wrong with this photo as you will read later in this post. The “overexposed” picture, incidentally, was snapped from a moving trolley and, being a casual photographer, one rank below amateur, I’m darn proud of how it turned out

The sign for the motel said “American Owned”
As Patrix pointed out, there was a footnote to the sign for the motel that proclaimed they were “American Owned”. What’s wrong with a little bit of patriotism? We …

Usually, these days, any reports on the fallout of the Shilpa Shetty-Big Brother controversy make my eyes glaze (v, intr) over but this one has potential – a “Best of ………” collection of the racist comments made that fateful season Shilpa Shetty was featured on the show including some unseen footage.

For those of you who have not had a chance to update yourself on the blogosphere, MSNBC/ Newsweek has an article on Koreans bracing themselves for a backlash.
While researching the article, the authors decided to use a comment from Sepia Mutiny to illustrate their lede’s point about nasty bigots in the blogosphere. I would not be writing this post if not for the sense of malice I felt as I read the first paragraph of that article.
but to the bigots in the blogosphere it was his origins in Korea that …