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Too damned thin-skinned!
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The venerable Time magazine has apologised and so has Joel Stein, for his column, 'My own private India' that upset scores of desis (as Indians in the US call themselves) and many Indians elsewhere, including India. The column is supposed to be a humourous piece that looks at how the town of Edison, with a high concentration of Indians, has changed. There was hardly any humour in the piece; it seemed more like a strained narrative. Second, it was in poor taste, particularly the bits about goddesses with many arms and gods with elephant heads. One would have thought that a writer like Stein would understand that Hindu gods and goddesses are metaphorical representations; that the Hindu religion, unlike the Abrahmic relgions, lacks a founder and is more a development of human consciousness. Surely gods with many arms and heads or with an elephant head is not something taken literally.
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And pizza parlours selling sweets and former theatres of R-rated movies showing the latest Bollywood flick is... well, isn't change the only constant. So what's he griping about? What about all the mom-and-pop stores making way for malls? But then, this is a column in which Stein laments a certain loss; it is his opinion and he is entitled to it just as we are to disagree. Yet, instead of leaving it that, Indians have gone overboard in demanding an apology from Time and Stein. Frankly, that sucks. Indians are too thin-skinned, taking umbrage at the slightest writings or statements. Steins writings are merely in poor taste, but that does not give anyone the right to demand (let alone receive) an apology.It is nothing but sheer hypocrisy, the kind at which we seem very good at, that every praise of an Indian community is lauded and hailed, but on reading the slighting negative piece, the knives are out. If it were a case of mere apology, it is understandable, but alas, Indians never hesitate to go beyond. Some Indian Americans threatened to boycott Time magazine if it did not apologise. One wishes Indians studied their history better; Time was one magazine that was supported the nationalist cause during the British rule and deserves more respect from Indians. Moreover, Stein laments is not very different from how Indians keep complaining about changes taking place back in the native towns they have left behind... This yearning for nostalgia is present in all humans. Again, true to style, a number of Indians have said Stein would never have written (and Time would never have carried) a similar piece on some other community or religion. So what's the complaint? That single factor should have been India's proudest: that we disagree but hey, write what you want because we can take a few knocks, it really doesn't matter. There is no point saying Jews or Muslims or the Italian-American or Irish-Americans would have reacted. That is their problem: why should Hindus or Indian-Americans (and they are not the same) emulate the worst behaviour available in the world (and we just did). This episode makes no one proud. Stein's piece was pathetic; Time carrying it was worse (but then as any scribe will tell you, columnists are usually free to write what they want unless it is libellous); but the reaction of Indian-Americans in getting outraged and in demanding an apology was the worst.
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More posts by Amberish K Diwanji:
I read Mr.Stein's article. First off, it's in no way humorous and used it as a pretext to underline his frustration or feelings. And he should have told it straight rather than using the humour column. It is for the comforts of USA that many Indians working there do. With that come a little bit of their beliefs, habits and Gods. What does he expect? To leave everything behind and come there! Is Mr. Stein not aware of what the European settlers did to the actual inhabitants of America and Australia? At least Indians did not kill or force them to see and worship their multi-dimensional Gods!
First of all, it's still dicey, the actual purpose of Mr. Stein's article, but something was off on it.
Yet, speaking of TIME, isn't it emotional blackmail that we OWE TIME?
The people who made TIME great made it great. Good for them, but that doesn't give them the right to 'own us'.
Now if someone kicks us, frankly i don't care if they put some big Indian movie star on their 'Most Influential List'. These stars are getting richer and richer and frankly, the masses have been "HAD'!
Where are these big stars who represent India to show support for their fans...? The elite help themselves. TIME helps the elite of India and that's about it for today. What do the masses who are legally there struggling to pay their bills owe to BIG TIME? That's plain emotional blackmail.
And if you say we all must be saintly and act like Mr. Gandhi (who is a saint, i agree), then let all blacks act like Martin Luther King, all whites act like Abraham Lincoln and all Jewish people act like Albert Einstein. Look, legends are great, but they won't work when you're struggling day to day, making an honest living. So stop your preachy ways, ok?
fyi: the TIME folk are all big millionaires, don't worry about 'em, including Mr. Joel Stein, who looks half his age (expensive spa yoga and Botox works for him) and acts even younger.
By Rocket_NonScience Jul 23, 2010 Is it just because TIME supported the independence movement that we need to stick by them when they diss us?
You must have a big bad crush on a Bollywood star and you are probably aiming for them to get in Time's most influential list, dude.
Many desis may cancel their TIME subscription, but many still feel a loyalty to TIME because it is the Oscars to the Indian community. Think about it: most influential people, Ms Rai and the Bachchans and many others like SRK to everyone dreams of making it there. There was intense hysteria when Ms Rai made it there.
One would think that Mr Stein’s reference about showing only Bollywood films in his beloved theatre (which, by the way, is not true; it also shows Hollywood films) would cause the entire Bollywood to boycott TIME, but alas no. The Bollywood stars are VERY aware of the article. But TIME IS BIG BIG BIG in India for international attention still. And all the Bollywood stars dream of making it to TIME’s most influential list (and, by the way, Joel Stein picks the 100 Least Most Influential — so he is very important to them too).
It’s highly ironic that one of the top stars who made it to Time’s 100’s Most Influential List — whose family urged their fans to boycott Mid-Day for the slur that tabloid produced on them (and many fans in NJ wrote to Mid-Day and boycotted it) — get the silent response when their desi NJ fans are dissed by TIME.
Do you really think most of the community in India is going to boycott TIME? No, it’s too BIG, like Wall Street for Bollywood… and even NJ fans who want their star to make it to the 100 Most Influential List (i.e. Ms. Rai’s) would have to think twice before this boycott.
By Amberish K Diwanji Jul 14, 2010 I am afraid I cannot respond to all the comments, much as I'd have liked to (at least to the interesting ones, whether negative or positive). I'd like to reiterate a point: I am not defending Stein's article, but his right to write it. I am a liberal and proud of that fact. Stein's article and comments are pathetic, but if we believe in democracy (and I do), let him have his say just as we exercise our right to ignore his nonsense. I have visited Edison, it has lots of Indians, and is likely to have even more. Sure Stein won't like it, but as long as no one is breaking any laws, he can keep his resentment in his writings!
Great blog.
How many people shall Indian Americans blame in USA for this? How about forcing an apology from the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Lou Dobbs, Glenn Beck to name a few right-wing conservatives who all have similar opinions about immigration and race in this country? Bottom line is, if we all want to stay in this country we all need to accept such people and live with it. Even president Obama had faced greater insults during his election campaign. Dressing American and Westernizing your name (say, from Piyush to Bobby, or Nimrata to Nikki) -- in today's political climate doesn't actually make you American enough to avoid being called a raghead. And this, my friends, is the Stark Reality.
PS: Why do Indian Americans and Indians support Nikki Haley and Bobby Jindal when they very well know they belong to the REPUBLICAN PARTY whose members are known for such conservative opinions on Race and Immigration? Yes, Indian Americans and Indians are hypocrites.
Be it hate crimes or provocative comments like the ones by Stein (Stain :-) ?), it all boils down to the inner hidden feelings when you see people from other countries come in large numbers and steal local jobs. It's all a direct or indirect manifestation of the hatred that develops when one cannot tolerate others sharing the same pie for existence. Well, it's not new, it happens in Australia, it even happens within India (Mumbai, for example) where people could not tolerate other fellow countrymen (even they were called migrants!) coming into their city and working. So let's not give that piece of work more attention that it deserves. (I think the author probably has made his money through this controversy.)
I wanted to present a fact: When Sharon Stone made a comment about China a couple of years back, Chinese companies pulled back their sponsorships and protested against that comment.
Moral of the story: If somebody is hurting you emotionally, only way to make them realize how it hurts is to hurt them on the wallet.
Hey, I got a question for the defender for Stein: Do you think Joel will be able to eat "brownies" after writing this article?
By Chandrashekar Jul 12, 2010 Your article is interesting in that it does the job that Stein wanted to do. Stein couched his offensive words in his so-called humor but you explicitly state that Indian immigrants (yes, I am one of them) should take any nonsensical opinion and not protest else we will be labelled thin skinned.
And in protesting against Stein's xenophobic diatribe (did you even read the article -- he understands how Arizonans feel about passing SB 1070), we are displaying the worst behavior in the world. I really don't know which world you live in, but obviously it is not the world of a brown-colored immigrant in the US.
I don't think you know or understand what the dot-buster gangs were about. Ask the families whose loved ones were killed by these gangs whether they are still willing to take "a few knocks", as you put it.
Maybe you should team up with your buddy Stein and try passing a similar law in NY/NJ. But please don't call me when they come for you.
By Geetanjali Jul 10, 2010 I'm an Indian and I didn't find this article even a bit offensive; more a reality check. Being born and bred in India i have seen the kind of stuff that happens in our society, country. The communal riots that take place in the name of multi-headed gods and the massacres that take place. We Indians are basically hypocrites, whether we agree or not. From Bollywood stars who fake it every now and then saying they have signed a huge Hollywood project to directors who pick Hollywood storylines to parents who take pride in saying their kids are US citizens or US returned, to Bunts (Shettys) who increase dowry rates if they are US educated, to even a slum kid imitating Michael Jackson. The truth is, we want to be just like them. It makes complete sense to me that Joel Steins is upset that his hometown has changed so much. So would anyone else be. Then why is this article so offensive to us that the so-called desis go to the extent of demanding an apology? It only shows to what extent we Indians can go to kill our very own dignity. Indians being Indians!
My initial reaction on reading Stein's article was that of confusion. Why is this man so blatantly racist? That is allowed only in India. But as the piece progressed, it actually developed into a very personal post which I did not end up disliking as much as you or any of the comments that followed. To me it felt as if he was narrating this to his friends and he relied on the fact that his friends would get what he was talking about and laugh at it instead of getting offended. I guess it takes a lot of effort on the reader's part to understand the intentions of a writer's comment. Similarly it takes a lot of skill to write something that unambiguously portrays one's thoughts or feelings to at least a significant majority, if not all of the readers.
Politically incorrect probably only works easily in stand-up comedy. Check out Russell Peters to see what I'm talking about. It is strange that the Indian-Americans don't take offence at his quips about Indians. Maybe it is because he's 'one of us'.
Yes, Mr. Progressive, of course you will choose to look the other way. After all, Mr. Stein was hitting out at the poorer and the weaker sections of the Indian immigrant population — the "merchants", the uneducated and all the people who do not necessarily belong to his elite cocktail-sipping class. And yes, surely indifference is only expected from cool intellectuals like you! Bravo, Mr. Diwanji!
A long time ago, I used to hear my older brother talk highly of you as a scholar. When I read this blog, I expected you to get some flakes as comments as a matter of usual knee-jerk reactions from some Indian-Americans and NRIs. Such reactions just as usually pass away without anything happening. A few months ago, Forbes magazine was similarly jumped on, and was threatened with subscription cancellations for a column about the naxals critical of the government policies. And before that there were some other publications and outfits. And before that.... This is a recurring phenomenon.
I read your responses to some of the comments, and was convinced that you are not only a scholar, but also a gentleman. Please carry on the good work that you are doing.
Mr. Diwanji,
I respect your opinions, and at the risk of blaming myself, do I think the Indian-American community could have acted with more peaceful dignity? Yes, sure. Did we react the worst? Yes. Point made.
But I'd like to know why even a person of your intelligence did not get Stein's obvious satire-jokes purposely stereotyped to show a larger picture. You call his article 'pathetic'. If you research Mr. Stein and see his first immigration article in TIME magazine (pro-Mexican in Arizona), you probably would come to the conclusion that he's using the satire of the racial hate that the Indian community once faced in Edison to show what's happening to the Mexican community in Arizona. The point is, he's NOT making fun of us Indians -- he's making fun of racists who are doing the SAME EXACT THING to Mexicans in Arizona (calling their Mexican country damn poor). The difference is night and day when you see this perspective, is it not?
Thanks. Sincerely, JC
"Why not? Hindu religion is far from perfect and if we don't start by criticising it, how can we improve?"
why do you shut up the voices of ayan hirsi, salman rushdie, the danish cartoonist, RSS, VHP, etc. don't they have a right to criticise islam or christianity? and what do you mean hinduism is not "perfect". do you mean to say that worshipping ganesha or laxmi is not correct?
fact is you and your ilk do not want hindus to come together as hindus. you want hindus to be divided all the time so that your christian backers can take advantage of us. the christian missionaries who ridicule hinduism openly are 1000% better than you. at least they are open. not like backstabbers like who hide under hindu names and then stab us in the back.
what do you mean by "unlike the Abrahamic religions, lacks a founder"? this is so negative. so, according to mr amberish, hinduism is inferior to fake religions like christianity or islam?
so the hindus are damned any way. when we protest we get castigated by these so-called "liberals". when we don't protest we get laughed at by the christian media for taking everything lying down.
do you know what, mr amberish, we are going to protest and this will become louder. we are not worried about time magazine. hinduism is under threat from morons like you.
Yes, Stein may have a right to his opinions and even to voice/write them under the US First Amendment. However, it's a question of sensitivity to others and some forward thinking into what the opinions may result in.
For Hindus (who are not necessarily all Indian Americans) the Swastika is as auspicious as the Star of David is to the Jews. Yet, we don't publicly show the Swastika because of its association with Hitler and the holocaust.
Stein needs to put his ego aside. His response on Twitter certainly wasn't an apology and as expected he didn't take the time to check if Gandhi was spelled correctly.
Failure or unwillingness to assimilate into the host country's culture is always an obstacle to successful immigration. While immigrating into concentrated localities can accelerate the adaptation to a new country, its language and laws in particular, prolonged and enlarged enclaves can become more like colonization. Such is the case in places like Miami FL, USA, where Cuban immigration has essentially become colonization complete with Spanish-language street signs.
My grandfather came to America to be an American. He learned the language and culture and never spoke Swedish again. If I were to move to India, I would do the same. Embracing the host country in every way is the best way to ensure your acceptance.
And no, Time is not pro-India. It may have been anti-British when they supported the Indian Independence struggle and that was not a favour to us. Time always wrote what Americans liked to hear, not facts and analyses, just what Bubba wanted. So don't you sit there and tell me that as an Indian I owe something to guys at Time. I don't and neither do you. (This is just a guess going by your looks and writing. If you were born here then I take it back.)
You keep saying to laugh it off. And then you say that you don't have children. I take it by this that you never lived in Edison during those terrible days of violence against Indians. And you also say that fourth estate does not change a reader's opinion. Do you have any idea how lynchings in the South worked? How Goebbels did his work for the "final solution"? It all starts with a "laughable" article and the inability of a few to laugh it off. And then suddenly we are being forced to wear signs. You may be willing to laugh it off and surrender but no Sir, not me. You have the right to your opinion, your surrender, and your life, but you don't have the right to ridicule me on my protest for dignity. Please stop saying to laugh it off. It's not funny to me and if we look past the funny phase it has now become downright offensive.
Joel Stein is a racist, xenophobic PIG. The last I checked, pigs were not kosher. If he were a little better aware of his own ancestry and history, he would not be spreading such hatred against an ethnic minority. By publishing his hate-filled article, the once respected Time magazine has slid down a slippery slope — not very different from one that some German magazines had slid down in the years leading up to the horrendous holocaust of the Jews in Europe. As a Jew who grew up in India, perhaps the only country in the world with the exception of Israel where Jews faced neither discrimination nor persecution, I am deeply offended by Joel Stein’s hate-filled article “My own private India” that Time magazine chose to publish. The columnists and editors of Time magazine need to learn the difference between good-natured satire and hate speech. Indian Americans have been in the recent past targets of racist attacks in the US. At times of economic hardship, minorities and immigrants are often made scapegoats and become targets of violent racist attacks. Inciting such hatred in the guise of humour is foolish at best and sinister at worst. Shame on Joel Stein! Shame on TIME magazine, a once respected news magazine that has reduced itself to a racist rag!
Who are you? We live here under fear whenever such sentiments are spread around. You look intelligent but your remarks are idiotic. You will have to learn from hate crimes against minorities in Australia, Europe and the US (in the 1980s). Why idiots like you comment without knowing the entire situation, I can't understand.
By Harvinder Singh Jul 8, 2010 I don't think his comment was in bad taste or pathetic or hypocritical. It is natural for anyone to feel amused at the ways of a strange foreign culture coming over and living in his town. I am an Indian living in Manila, Philippines, and I find the ways of Filipinos really strange and amusing while they are absolutely normal to them (and I am living in their town and not the other way round). I think we are just insecure, have an inferiority complex, and so we react to everything bad and feel proud at everything good that is said. We are jealous of American success and we know in our hearts that had it not been for our own weaknesses and shortcomings, we'd have been in their place.
Do you have kids studying in US schools? Term "Dot Headed" is racially derogatory and after this article it is going to be popular in US schools and our kids will have to go through all this.
Amberish K Diwanji says:
No i don't though i have a niece studying in school in Canada. Dot headed may be derogatory, but 2010 is not the 1980s. No article by itself can change opinion, thought it can be a part of a trend. Stein's piece was pretty poor, doubt if it will have an impact. And whether he likes it or not, Edison is fast becomging Little India (just like there are Chinatowns and Little Italy in various US cities); he may complain but in a few years, Americans will be flocking there for biryani! He was observing a trend which, as he says, he was uncomfy with; but he did not say stop it, he did not say Indians should go back (though he did wonder why all Indians go to Edison -- they don't; nowadays they are going to Texas). Just that asking for an apology shows Indians as unable to laugh it off or laugh at themselves!
Very well written. We just don't let go and demand apology for everything.
Of course any disrespect against Hinduism and ignorance in presenting ideas on Hinduism doesn't sound nice, but at the same time doesn't demand extreme measures if the offender has done it for the first time.
Amberish K Diwanji says:
Well said. In that sense, Kal Penn's reply was wonderul. He wrote a piece that laughed off Stein's article, and we should have left it at that. And to be honest, we here joke about each other all the time, and one has to simply laught it off.
well, thanks for saying it like it is.
you may very well be right about our pathetic hysterical over-reaction as an Indian-American community here. There is a thing called karma and we do need to keep our peace with grace. it seems we in the American-Indian community have grown quite soft — and forgotten about the HARD WORK it takes to maintain the olive branch. In India, you have the Hindu vs. Muslim fights brewing... and here we go in a tizzy over some little jokes.
Amberish K Diwanji says:
:-) But why do you say Indian-americans have grown soft? the latest episode hardly proves that.
And you cribbing about desis response in the US to this Time's piece is the worstest (if I can coin a new word)!
Amberish K Diwanji says:
:-) [Nice word! Though i disagree with your opinion]
I think we have already taken more than a few knocks in history. We need to react strongly. Criticism of people may be accepted but of Gods should not be tolerated at any cost.
Amberish K Diwanji says:
Why not? Hindu religion is far from perfect and if we don't start by criticising it, how can we improve it. Different Hindus have different takes on Hindusim which is perfectly legitimate even if others don't like it. Why should Hindus behave like some mad Iranian ayatollah or wahabi nutcase based in Lahore?
Absolutely ridiculous take on a well-meaning protest. As Mr. Stein and "venerable" Time have the right to publish what they want, Indian-Americans have the right to spend their money on any subscription they want and in this case on which subscription they don't want. Time for two weeks now has stalled every effort for an apology and only buckled when subscribers started to disappear. Indians are not thin skinned as you pointed out. No one laments about multiple gods or retarded cousins. The only problem with the article is reference to dot busters and street slogans like "go back to India" and the way Stein glorifies them. It's a shame that out of all people a Jew decides to single out a community and spread hatred. He should have known better and, for that matter, you should know it too.
P.S.: Reading Time archives through the Bangladeshi war will give you a good idea of where the magazine stands.
Amberish K Diwanji says:
Indian Americans are too few to affect Time magazine sales and most Indians in India are not really upset about that article, so the apology was not because of fear of losing a few hundred subscriptions but because they perhaps regretted the words of Stein (which as I said, was in poor taste). By referring to dot busters and go back to India, Stein was not glorifying them, just stating a reality of what happened. And nostalgia is universal; it is so very common in India too, with complaints about migrants taking over our cities and so forth. Stein piece was terrible, but to ask for an apology was, in my opinion, worse.
Point about Bangladesh well taken; true Time was so damn pro-Nixon and Pakistan. But then, they were pro-India too earlier, so it is unfair to label it an anti-India mag.
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