Comments on: ‘It Was So Important That We Were All Together’: Desis at Occupy Wall St., Pt. 3

By: Remove Ingrown Hairs

Remove Ingrown Hairs — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 13:28:51 +0000

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By: Golden Nifty

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By: gompiepie

gompiepie — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 20:56:44 +0000

Phew. I was worried at the headline there. Many more desis living in my 1 Bedroom in New Jersey Sad nonetheless, insulting to all those Hindu/Muslim dads who immigrated and make good thanks to free market capitalism. Now their clueless desi/brown/”South Asian” kids – otherwise completely disloyal mind – and dishonest, when it comes to their parent’s culture, tell us it’s all for our sakes! Bring in the heavy artillery folks Mitchell Patel, Laskhmi Sita Saraswati Narayana-Stein and Krishnaa Dell.

Always screaming oppression, sometimes I really wonder if this is all a suppressed colonial fetish, who knows?? Dears, if you seek to uplift your poor downtrodden brethren then get an arranged marriage or work at your local religious center. Otherwise just move to the socialist utopia of India and Sri Lanka.

By: V.V.

V.V. — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 12:46:08 +0000

Thanks, Sonny! If there were a way to “like” your comment, I would.

By: Pravin Praveen

Pravin Praveen — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 05:13:30 +0000

And there are many white people victimized by Wall Street too. Many hard working whites who have not defaulted on their mortgages who have seen their housing values burst by the bubble created by greedy speculators. My point was not contradicting the point that there weren't brown people disaffected. But the whole nitpicking on race in a movement that should focus on corporate abuses.

Not to mention that this seems to be getting global traction. So including race becomes less of an issue because the power structure internationally is not all white.

By: sonny

sonny — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 04:32:34 +0000

yes, there are many desis who work on wall street. so what? there are also many more who drive taxis, work in construction, work in convenience stores, and are losing their homes in queens to foreclosures. on the one hand, we have to challenge the model minority myth that all or most desis are wealthy, upwardly mobile, etc. on the other hand, we should be encouraging desis from privileged class backgrounds to stand up for social and economic justice, to challenge corporate greed, and perhaps to even question their own career paths. either way, south asians are still people of color who face racism every day, even in activist spaces like occupy wall street. pretending that our experiences are all the same isn’t helpful. it normalizes whiteness. it normalizes maleness. and so on. we need a much more nuanced understanding of the 99%.

By: Pravin Praveen

Pravin Praveen — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 01:54:13 +0000

I am one of those that actually defends the initial aimless nature of these protests. Let it be a fun gathering of people who feel ripped off and powerless to do anything to gather and vent. The "voice" of the protests can be finetuned in due time. People of color should take advantage of the decentralized nature of the protests and start their own niche protest. The central message should be about the abuses of wall street and how they seem to get away with corporate welfare at the expense of many powerless people. The central message should also be that the disaffected are many and while the one voice is against wall street, people should be encouraged to seek out the difference niches to listen to the different complaints. DOn't make the central agenda some politically correct thing diluting the central message. If you are a person of color, get your ass to the marches and start your own protest. Don't whine about the central message.

And if you look at the economic climate around the world, the rich and powerful, regardless of race, are good at abusing their power to garner a lot of wealth. Just look at the warlords and dictators bankrupting Africa. And I still gotta emphasize. Indians and other desis are definitely not the oppressed here. They are guilty of financial crimes as much as any other white person.

By: Pravin Praveen

Pravin Praveen — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 01:19:28 +0000

I guess I am confused by the whole oppressed people of color thing when it comes to this march, at least from a desi perspective. There are quite a few desis among the “oppressors” on Wall Street. So I do not understand where desis come off making a big deal about the language. Why not keep the message simple? Don’t let the fatcats on Wall Street get away with crimes at the expense of others.

By: V.V.

V.V. — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 22:17:40 +0000

There was no language in the draft of the declaration indicating that it was “how they wanted things to be.” The draft language referred to a present state. This was not a technicality, but a serious problem.

By: John Jacobi

John Jacobi — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 15:06:19 +0000

Sorry I missed that. Thanks. But from what I could figure out in the examples, they were not saying racism no longer exists. They were talking about how they wanted things to be. It seems like much ado over a misunderstanding/technicality.