--- Eugene Correia <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > THE GREAT INDIAN CLASS TEST > COMMENTARAO / S.L. RAO > The author is chairman, Institute for Social and > Economic Change > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Elitism or meritocracy? > In The Karma of Brown Folk, Vijay Prashad examines > the > model minority that many in the south Asian > community in the United States of America believe > that > they belong to. He argues that American Orientalists > (including ideologues like the immigrant from Goa, > Dinesh DSouza), have perpetuated the stereotype > that > south Asian immigrants (unlike the blacks) are a > special breed. They are said to demonstrate the > finest qualities of hard work and an impatience to > succeed. He goes on to paraphrase DSouza as > arguing > in his book, The End of Racism, that the oppressive > conditions of life among black Americans is more a > result of their civilizational collapse than of the > persistence of structures of racial discrimination. > Prashad takes the contrary position that this is a > false contrast of racial stereotypes. He says that > the > attainments of Asians in the US are not caused by > natural or cultural selection; rather, they are the > result of state selection whereby the US state, > through the special-skills provisions in the 1965 > Immigration Act, fundamentally reconfigured the > demography of south Asian America. > ---- Mario replies: There is no doubt that the the US set the bar quite high for immigrants from India, as Mr. S.L. Rao correctly states, unlike Australia, Canada and the UK. However, the Indian-American community still had to bridge the cultural divide and compete head-to-head with the best and the brightest in America, from native born to other immigrant groups.
No one in America just "gives" a new immigrant group its success. This has to be earned the old fashioned American way, and the Indian community has risen to the challenge and has used it's unique advantages to reach the top of the economic pyramid in this most competitive of countries. So, I would argue, it is quite justified in considering itself a "model minority" in America and an example to other American minorities as well as the majority community, of the benefits of excelling in higher education, working harder than anyone else to make it more difficult for others to discriminate against them, and strong family values. I may not go as far as Dinesh D'Souza in calling Indian-Americans a "special breed" because there are many more in India at least as qualified as the Indian-American and willing to work just as hard. However, I would also not try and devalue the Indian-American community as some naysayers and Mr. Rao seem to do, and to discount it's enterprise, ingenuity, immigrant spirit, and the courage to leave the warmth and security of friends and family in India and compete in America at the highest levels of enterprise in the world. That "American" spirit, in my never humble opinion, is what distinguishes the Indian-American from other Indian immigrant communities.