Peeps peep this site from the UK, India, Pak, and elsewhere also.

And given the fact that every time an arguably racist event comes up on sepia, some people (usually the same people) poo-poo it and downplay its significance…(and I mean EVERY time)…you would think racism didn’t exist or weren’t a problem….The Jersey Guys were just expressing themselves, Colonialism helped India, the car dealers were just joking, Hindu gods on clothing are kosher….I mean damn.

(Yeah I know the retort….some of us probably think EVERYthing is racist…however, I think the usual opponents to racist incidents, such as Saurav for instance, put a lot thought into it and provide atypical reactions)

runnerwalla, I wouldn’t doubt it. I probably do tend to take things like this in a different light having lived preity much my entire life in the northeast. I have very little personal experience with race-based discrimination (relative to other folks that have posted on this blog in the past), although I am learning more and more about what other people in my bangali community dealt with when they first came here (most recently learned that a family friend was told he would not be allowed to buy a house in the 1970s in the Bronx because of de facto segregation).

But the reason why this gets me is exactly what you pointed to–that it might be part of a system of discrimination, complete with culture that discriminates, economic consequences, money, etc. I’m not saying it is clearly an instance of discrimination, because like I said, I don’t think there’s enough to go on from the post (and i’m too lazy to read the article:) but I wouldn’t be surprised if it were. “Cry me a f@#kin river” isn’t the most sympathetic of responses to someone facing a perhaps milder version of what you guys went through (I know you didn’t say this and i’m not lumping you together…just that you brought up salil’s comment).

Also, my family bought a car recently, and now I have some personal antipathy towards car dealers for trying to strongarm you into doing things, manipulating numbers, and generally being pushy and not being straightforward–it’s no surprise to me that women and minorities end up paying less b/c (very generally speaking) I would guess they have less of a sense of entitlement to stand up for themselves than White men. Not all of us, I’m sure–just more of us than White men.

I resent that. I have never employed any puns in my posts. I think you are confusing me with Manish.