I have had so many calls with Dell Tech support recently and this was the only thing that stopped me hanging up halfway through them!

Ironically she refers to the American lack of tact in China and being boorish and insensitive. Did she really pay attention to her own speech ?

To get this back in sync with the comments in this thread, my take is that in our hurry to be critical of tasteless stereptyping, we shouldn’t be defending people who are doing the same thing just because they happen to be of our ethnic extraction. In the long run I think that will hurt us more than it will help us.

Re: appropriateness, her point about the need for respectful foreign policy, made in an ironically insensitive way, was made to a friendly audience. Columbia is an extremely liberal campus. The politics raised no eyebrows among most of the audience; the wording did.

“‘The badly-written commencement speech hurt my feelings.’

Which proves the point.”

Her comments don’t bother me in the least. She is free to say what she wants. What does bother me is her crass lack of tact and good manners to be appropriate for the forum in which she voices her views. Her behavior is in no way different from Roseanne Barr grabbing her crotch and spitting when she sang the national anthem at a baseball game some years ago. If Indra Nooyi had her views to vent, she could have used something else, not make what was to have been about the graduating students into a mean spirited self serving speech. I’m sure a person as smart as she is and with the resources she has, could have voiced her opinions in some political forum. Funny that she chooses a situation where nobody could get up and refute her views. Perhaps she is unable to actually debate her views ? And hence prefers it to be one sided ?

Oh and by the way, people like Eddie Murphy (Black) and Howard Stern (Jewish) built their early careers out of insulting the majority… obviously the majority enjoyed that ! Which proves my point about using the appropriate forum.

‘The badly-written commencement speech hurt my feelings.’

Which proves the point.

By the way, the real asymmetry? That Americans know many more Americans than real-life desis. That’s why these racial stereotypes are so damaging.

The anti-Japanese cartoon was drawn in WW II. The Japanese (at that time) were hardly known for their kind treatment of “Gaijin”.

Indra Nooyi is someone who heads a multinational American company, owes her success to the American business system, makes millions of dollars and yet shows her total disrespect of all Americans, who are off all races and religions. What was the point she was trying to convey ? That she has no concept of tact in a public speech ? I hope that is the last time she is ever invited to speak anywhere.

Nothing similar about the two incidents.

Mainstream slurs minorities: ‘Stop being so sensitive, ya pussies.’

Minority slurs mainstream: All hell breaks loose.