A blog post inspired by a recent conversation about Indian identity raises some interesting questions,
In the post in the Michigan Daily, Tanya Madhani recounts when a White girl commented, “You’re not even like really Indian.”
Tanya remembers looking confused and the student explaining further.
“Well, I mean like you’re not really ‘Indian Indian.’
Tanya thought about it some more as if she was calculating her Indianess in her head the way she would a calculus equation. She wasn’t involved in dance like other Indian Americans on campus. She didn’t associate exclusively with other desis.
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I remember back in my high school days when I would loosely throw the term banana around about other students I considered weren’t Asian enough. Decades later, some of those “bananas” are active in the Asian American community giving back and helping those in need.
So Tanya has a point. Before you question anyone’s identity, you might want to think about it a little more because no one has to prove anything to anyone.
Agree or disagree?
