Well, let’s be clear, I suspect that the credibility of the blogger in question wrt commenting on the world-views of hippies is in question.

I’m not agreeing with PG but it is a good practice to know the subject before asserting that the subject is made of green cheese sees the world through tinted glasses.

And you could take the trouble to say why in a way that wouldn’t be totally awful for the artist if they show up (which they will)

She already did here.

First of all, I apologize for not saluting the funny jokes I found. Garlanded Obama? Awesome. Detailed and absurd imagery drawn from ephemera is a specialty of yours I deeply appreciate, along with the well Leviraged puns. I even found the description of the store itself potentially humorous, though I would have liked more riffing there. Was the many-mala’d cashier practicing the ancient Vaishya art of salesrack-salesman-two-in-one? What bugged me about this post was how skimpy it was–how little you actually said about, say, the CD. I wasn’t really sure what the joke was, there. The skimpiness itself, the ease of assuming that it would work, and your subsequent response all made me uncomfortable. Let me try to explain why a little better.

In the post you wrote: “Yoga! Mantras! Flamenco! Veils! It’s nearly a perfect listing of New Age cliches!” Which puzzled me. The set of of four things (y, m, f, v) is somehow funny enough, just on its own, to be a joke? But (y, m) pretty much go together regardless. and (y, m, v) pretty much go together whenever a woman is involved–either she’s wearing a skirt or salwar with a dupatta or a sari with an achol. So the f, somehow, is the extraneous and gratuitous exocticism that makes it funny–except it just didn’t seem that funny to me without some sort of additional riffing. Classical guitar and Indian music fuse together quite well. Then you responded to Sameer’s comment with

Because they mix yoga and flamenco on the grounds that all things “exotic” go well together (emphasis mine)

That’s when I was really irked, and what I based most of my comment on. Why assume that these flimsy grounds were in fact the grounds on which the two were mixed? Well, b/c the set you’re mocking is, in fact (y, m, f, v, wf). And without an articulated joke about why this set (y, m, f, v, wfnd) is innately funny, it starts to feel uncomfortably close to a lazy joke about converts. The kind of joke that consists less of clever observations, and more of pointing and laughing at people who are different and weird.

Am I projecting? Maybe I am. But there’s a reason for that: There is a consistent trend in Desi America of mocking converts—with cruelty, vitriol, and downtright racism–because of ignorance of theological diversity, because white people are involved, and because they seem like a safe target for mean humor. I don’t think anyone should be a safe target for mean humor, especially anyone who isn’t being mean and isn’t a truly public figure. I have always grumbled on this site when I think people are crossing a line and forgetting that Google can easily bring the subject face-to-face with hurtful barbs. But more importantly, when any community has a history of making a particular class of prejudiced jokes, I feel that it behooves the humorists of that community to be extra careful about non-specific jokes. When the joke consists mostly of laughing and pointing, it starts to seem like pandering to those prejudiced assumptions. (Please note–I still acknowledge the reality of white privilege and don’t think that racial situations are automatically symmetric under simple substitution. I’m not trying to join the trolls here.)I don’t think you were pandering, but you did seem to be less careful than usual about not trying to pander. That’s what irked me, since I think you’re more aware of this dynamic than most bloggers.

Does this dynamic bother me particularly in this case? Sure. I freely admit that. For 25 years my ability to enjoy the rarely assembled community of South Asian Americans has been marred by how happily members of that community mock my religion and my co-religionists. I’ve always had to choose between bristling and marking myself as different, or grinning and bearing it while feeling like crap for “passing”. Since I’m proud of my many communities, however rare my combination is, I’m going to speak up for them. Since this is the exact same psychology that partially motivates me to read this blog, albeit with different communities in each role, I don’t see how I can drop it once I’m here.

But besides issues of presumption and inclusiveness, lists as jokes are also unsatisfying. When I wrote “If you want to make fun of the sound, then go through the trouble of actually listening to a track and putting some thought into what you’re making fun of.She might not take cover art or marketing seriously enough for your taste” this was partially because I do think there is fertile ground here for meaningful critique and snark. I.e. you could listen to the sound and, I bet, make some interesting, specific and potentially funny musical judgments here. The cover isn’t very artistically thoughtful, but you could actually take the trouble to say why. And you could take the trouble to say why in a way that wouldn’t be totally awful for the artist if they show up (which they will). I disagree with your characterization of yoga as always calm and cool–but a riff along those lines would have been much more satisfying.

And, for the record, I have grumbled in at least one of Manish’s orientalist-bashing posts. I really do appreciate people getting stuff out there, even if it makes me a humorless and curmudgeonly aunty before my time.

And the air was one of “cultural superiority”, quite frankly. As if by being desi somehow gave him an “in” into various Indic religions that were not his own (Sikhi).

Just as a test, how would the following sentences written by Ennis sound if the words were replaced;

Example 1:

This store is exactly as over the top and ridiculous as the name suggests. It’s the kind of place where one (White) salesman was dressed in a very handsome lime colored Chinese silk jacket while another (white again) had 3 sandalwood malas on one arm, several around his neck, and at least one on the other arm.

Replace “white” above with “black” or “desi” or “Mexican”.

Does it feel the same to you?

Example 2:

This sort of generic exotic orientalism is promiscuous and therefore fails to discriminate between the different varieties of non-Western other.

Ever been sterotyped and otherized by a desi, as is exemplified in this entire thread? I have.

Therefore check out this switch up and see where I and many others may be coming from;

This sort of generic exotic Occidentalism is promiscuous and therefore fails to discriminate between the different varieties of non-Eastern other.

Example 3:

Then onto the un-identifed “hippies” he supposedly is tight with;

“How can it be all the same? Well, ironically, hippies are extremely Eurocentric. They divide the world into the Western and the Other, and all forms of anything which isn’t from the West (which they reject) is all the same and all connected. Basically, we all look alike to them. The fact that they put all the wogs on a pedestal is no excuse, it’s actually just an extension of putting them all in the basement. ”

Replace “hippies” with desis. Replace “eurocentric” with “asiancentric”. Replace the “West” with the East and replace “wogs” with “pardesis”, and you get the picture.

“How can it be all the same? Well, ironically, desis are extremely Asiacentric. They divide the world into the Eastern and the Other, and all forms of anything which isn’t from the East (which they reject) is all the same and all connected. Basically, we all look alike to them. The fact that they put all the (rich) pardesis on a pedestal is no excuse, it’s actually just an extension of putting them all in the basement. ”

To be fair, I know that Ennis did not put too much thought into this particular blog and analyse all these factors like Nayagan and I have, so his offenses are not conscious, planned, malicious ones. Most likely upon reflection he would change the way he worded things a bit.

HOWEVER, I do find his statement to be racist AND religiously biased (against a religion he knows nothing or close to nothing about).

In this day and age we don’t stand for religious bigotry. You got something bad to say about a religion? Say it about your own.

Clean your own house first then come over and clean mine.

Word?

Dont see it that way at all. In fact, I found going to places like that truly revelatory, and it gave me a radically different perspective on my parent’s traditions.

Exactly, Jibbler.

And Ennis, nobody puts all the wogs on a pedastal, to use your somewhat offensive terminology.

Old hippies and people who have been into one eastern religion or another usually get over their idealization and over-romanticizing of people and cultures within like a year or so. Especially if they have the oppurtunity to travel and meet enough people to be disappointed.

So…

1. don’t flatter yourself, and
2. cut humans beings some slack. we are more complex than you give us credit for

And oh, it would be nice to see you address Jaya Laxmi’s comment above, as well as Nayagan’s.

Dont see it that way at all. In fact, I found going to places like that truly revelatory, and it gave me a radically different perspective on my parent’s traditions.