Best,
Devak
Nanua
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Michigan in Color
Monday, December 2, 2019 — 3A
Behind the leaderless revolution
Dear Hasan,
Arabic food... but make it vegan
White-washed
ELIZABETH HO
MiC Columnist
I don’t like the term “white-
washed” as it is applied to people
of color. Sure, we can say that
Hollywood
is
white-washed
— PoC stories and characters
are frequently replaced with
white ones — but to say that PoC
themselves are white-washed is
degrading.
Many times I’ve heard remarks
such as, “She’s in a sorority, so
she’s basically white” and “He’s
not one of us because he grew up
in an all-white neighborhood.”
Once, I was called white-
washed by a classmate after
she found out that I listened to
punk rock (AKA “angry white
boy music”). She was suggesting
that only white people could
enjoy that kind of music, which
is a backward way of thinking.
Another time, I was called a
“banana”— yellow on the outside,
white on the inside — for liking
Starbucks.
Although I was eventually
able to make light of these
experiences, I’m aware that
others may take great offense
to being called white-washed.
And on a more serious note,
we shouldn’t think of people as
having less of a claim to a certain
identity just because they don’t
conform to our stereotypes.
A problem that is particularly
relevant to the Asian-American
community is thinking that
someone isn’t “Asian enough,”
or, in extreme cases, a culture
traitor, if they don’t speak their
immigrant
parents’
native
language. I worry that we are
pressuring
people
to
other
themselves rather than establish
a genuine connection to their
heritage for the sake of being
accepted by their fellow PoC.
This business of calling people
white-washed seems to stem at
least in part from resentment.
I recognize that some PoC are
more easily accepted by white
America than others. Further, I
admit that I would be frustrated
if another Asian-American was
treated better than I was because
she appeared more aligned with
white ideals. The situation would
be unfair, but I would be wrong
for being frustrated with her as
an individual, especially if I didn’t
know much else about her. I
would be wrong to invalidate her
experience. How she acts could
be a result of her upbringing,
over which she had little control
(as little control as I did over my
own upbringing), and I’m not
even considering the possibility
of cross-cultural adoption.
Instead of judging people
for who we think they are,
maybe we need to address the
structures and practices that
favor white normativity in the
first place. Maybe we also need to
address our internalized racism,
including our biases about what
belongs to whom.
In 2014, the streets of Hong
Kong erupted with the nascent
Umbrella Revolution. Led by
activist Joshua Wong and his
student organization Scholarism,
the protests consisted of the
79-day peaceful occupation of
Central, an important financial
and tourist district. The name of
the movement is derived from the
use of umbrellas as an adaptive
measure for protestors to protect
themselves from tear gas deployed
by the police. The Umbrella
Revolution
demonstrated
the
lengths
that
the
government
would go to in order to suppress its
people. The Umbrella Revolution
protested Hong Kong’s lack of
true universal suffrage: a new bill
stated that the chief executive was
to be elected from a collection
of candidates approved by the
Chinese Communist Party.
In June 2015, the electoral
reform bill was rejected by the
legislative council.
Four years later, the Hong Kong
government presented another
controversial bill: a new law that
would allow Hong Kongers to be
extradited to mainland China. The
frightening implications that the
extradition bill could quash future
pro-democracy movements were
all too real with the arrest of key
pro-democracy activists earlier
in the year. The people of Hong
Kong joined together in protest,
including
a
record-breaking
turnout of 2 million protestors
(the region’s total population is 7
million).
There is a key difference
from the 2014 protests: these
new protests are leaderless and,
rather than a united movement,
seem to be the result of several
movements linked together by
the same ideology. The protests
vary in nature from peaceful and
authorized to civil disobedience
to vandalism and violence against
the police.
In
a
piece
for
Quartz,
Wong writes, “Instead of rallying
behind one leader or leading
body, Hong Kong citizens are
all working together. In real
time, we’re coordinating using
online forums, word of mouth
and organic, collective action,
without the impetus of traditional
movement leaders.”
Much
of
the
collaboration
is
through
Chinese-language
websites,
but
non-Chinese
speakers can still view and
participate
in
the
movement
through bilingual websites like
the subreddit r/HongKong on the
American social network Reddit.
Boasting a membership of over
230,000 users, the subreddit is
frequently updated with photo
and video evidence of incidents
of police brutality. As in the
2014 Umbrella Revolution, this
year’s protests have been marked
with numerous cases of police
reacting with increasing force. As
a criticism of the police’s response
to the protests, numerous groups
have called for a “sixth demand”:
the disbandment of Hong Kong’s
police force. However, there are
concerns
that
the
protestors
may have more to fear from the
mainland government.
Carol Anne Goodwin Jones of
the Hong Kong Free Press reports,
“The violence in Hong Kong in
recent weeks has led to fears
that Beijing is gearing up for a
crackdown against the protesters.
Direct intervention by Chinese
forces is permitted under the
Basic Law, Hong Kong’s ‘mini-
constitution’,
if
Hong
Kong
declares a state of emergency
– which it hasn’t yet done. The
garrison
of
China’s
People’s
Liberation Army stationed in
central Hong Kong was recently
reinforced and the People’s Armed
Police has been seen massing and
drilling just over the border in
Shenzhen. This lends credence to
what the protestors see as a ‘last
stand’ to save the city they call
home.”
Already
in
their
18th
consecutive
week,
the
2019
protests show no sign of stopping.
On Oct. 6, 2019, Chief Executive
Carrie Lam employed emergency
legislation to enact a ban on face
masks. The masks have thus
far allowed many protestors to
remain
anonymous.
Opposing
this law as one that may cause
the police to also target the ill and
those with respiratory problems,
the protestors continue to wear
masks to their march. Many now
sport signs or alternatives to the
usual face mask that reference the
ban.
The future of the protests
remains uncertain, but Wong
believes
that
no
matter
the
circumstances,
the
protestors
won’t stand down until their
demands are met. Wong states,
“Hong
Kongers
will
never
surrender,
because
we
have
nowhere else to turn.”
I’ve been meaning to reach out to you for a
while now. I even contemplated writing you a very
thoughtful instagram DM about how much I enjoy
and appreciate your work and everything that you do
to represent the Indian-American community. But
the thought of sliding into your DM’s weirded me out
a little. So instead, I’m going to let you know in the
most normal and least awkward way possible: a very
public Michigan Daily article. Plus I’ve missed a few
meetings and haven’t written in a while, so this works
on multiple fronts.
Funny enough, I was introduced to you by my Dad.
For context, my Dad is a lot like Najme, in the sense
that he’s a Dad, he’s Indian and still works with the
intensity and passion that he had when he immigrated
to America. He might be one of the hardest working
people I know. Actually, on second thought, that
might be my mom, considering that she had to raise
me. But we digress. My Dad usually comes home from
work and enters our house on what seems to be a
very serious conference call, or he is just upset about
something. Therefore, I was quite surprised and a little
concerned when my Dad came home laughing on a fall
day during my junior year of high school. He then told
me to stop working on my math homework because
he heard a really funny story on the Moth radio hour
where the comedian was speaking Hindi and that I
had to hear it. Now, for anyone who has parents who
are engineers or maybe just Asian can appreciate the
rarity of this moment. On most days, the opposite
would happen and my dad would start teaching me
how to do my math homework because of his lack of
faith in my public school education.
He led me to our home office, found the story on the
Moth’s website and soon enough, your voice started
playing from our home computer as you told your
prom story. On my first listen I remember thoroughly
enjoying the story, but I remained skeptical. On one
hand, there weren’t a lot Indian-Americans in show
business. So as much as I enjoyed your story, I wasn’t
sure if I’d hear anymore of your material in the future.
On the other hand, I was very convinced that our prom
experiences would be entirely different and your story
was just an outlier. And even though I didn’t have
a “trusty huffy,” when I found myself driving back
home in my mom’s Chevy Malibu at 2 a.m. in drenched
clothes after playing hours of BeanBoozled in my
friend’s basement, the only thing I thought about was
your story (you can imagine how my prom night went).
Since my junior year, you’ve also delivered with
your time on The Daily Show, your Netflix special
Homecoming King and now with Patriot Act.
Listening to your work eventually opened my eyes to
something unique. It was the first time I had heard a
person talking about their cultural identity in such a
confident and relatable way. And even though I felt like
I had a pretty good understanding of my culture, I still
had a really hard time trying to express it and talking
about it with other people, especially when I started
high school.
People don’t give you enough credit for how well
you talk about your identity and the Indian American
community. Being a second-generation immigrant
is a very personal thing and can turn out to be an
incredibly strange to talk about. Especially when
you’re growing up and trying to figure it out for
yourself. For example, in elementary school, one of the
most common questions I’d get asked is why I didn’t
eat beef. I’d also occasionally get made fun of whenever
my mom would pack me Indian food for lunch while
all of the cooler kids ate their Lunchables and wore
clothes from the Gap. But in hindsight, you’ve got to
give kids that age the benefit of the doubt. No matter
how sensitive the topic, if an elementary schooler sees
something they haven’t seen before, they’re going to
ask you multiple inappropriate questions and throw
tantrums for fun. They’re just curious kids who don’t
know any better.
My dad’s job took my family to Bangalore, India for
three years, which meant that I would attend middle
school in India and move back to Ann Arbor halfway
through the eighth grade. Questions of my cultural
identity never really came up, because for once, I was
part of a majority. I went to an international school
where most of my issues came just from the experience
that is middle school. Plus, I got really familiar with
my culture and where my family was from. I got to
experience a lot of the same things my parents did
growing up. It was the first time I got to celebrate
holidays with more family members than just my
parents. When it was time for me to move back, I was
a little nervous and sad because of the relationships I’d
lose. But for the most part I knew moving back to Ann
Arbor would be like a homecoming and that I could
just pick up my life from where I had left it. However,
I had not thought about how much living in another
country for three years could change you.
I found this out in the most brutal and
uncomfortable way possible. My very first class on
arrival was Ms. Jender’s American History class. We
were learning about the Trail of Tears and she asked
the class for a volunteer to read a passage. Obviously,
no one immediately volunteered and so Ms. Jender
decided to wait until one of us did. I made the mistake
of breaking the deadlock and read a passage that
described some pretty horrifying things in a very thick
Indian accent that I had picked up (Like, I’m talking
multiple c’s guys). But by the time I was done reading,
I looked up and the whole class held in their laughter.
They all finally broke, when a guy from the back of the
class said “Hey Apu! Thank you, come again!”. And at
first I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
But in hindsight, that guy was just a dick, there really
isn’t a doubt in my mind about that.
In fact middle schoolers are probably the most
terrifying people you could interact with. This isn’t
solely from experience with dealing with other middle
schoolers, it’s also from thinking about the stuff I
was capable of doing myself. They’re at this weird age
where we’d expect them to be at least a little mature,
but anyone who does expect this is almost immediately
disappointed.
Ironically, my first week in Ann Arbor was probably
the week I felt most away from home. It was like
everyone forgot that I had lived the majority of my life
in Ann Arbor. Every teacher introduced themselves
to me deliberately speaking in slow motion and over-
enunciating every word assuming I didn’t know
English. A kid also told me they felt bad for me because
they had seen Slumdog Millionaire. The funny thing
is that when I had just moved to India and told people
I was from America, everyone would look at me
surprised that I wasn’t overweight because they had
seen the movie Super-Size Me. When I then tried to
explain to them that Ann Arbor was actually a nice
place and that it was near Detroit, they would then
respond in horrified expressions because the movie 8
Mile was somehow popular amongst middle schoolers
in India. So the stereotypes really go both ways on this
one.
When I talked to my parents about this, my dad
didn’t really react and told me to just wait it out and
that things would come around. My mom, on the other
hand, reacted in a completely opposite way. We started
listening to NPR a lot more in the car and she would
often make me repeat sentences or short phrases
in Terry Gross’s accent. Using this accent, she also
refused to talk to me in Hindi around the house (this
rule excluded my dad or relatives on the phone). She
also bought me a lot of clothes from American Eagle
because she thought that would help. And for my first
two years of high school, it really became a situation
where I’d leave my cultural identity behind at home
and when I went to school I just tried to do normal
high school activities and do anything I could to fit in.
But something strange happened sometime
between my senior year of high school and now. All of
a sudden I’m really having my moment as a person of
color. Going to college in Ann Arbor while also being
from here has been a somewhat interesting experience.
Because besides being deprived of fun, spontaneous
college memories because your parents want you
to live at home, I’ve been able to have very different
relationships with this city as I age. And I don’t know
if it just took 2-3 Indian restaurants or more hot yoga
places to open up, but suddenly the cultural identity
that I have worked to keep low-key has suddenly
become very interesting to all of my friends. My
friends come over to me and ask me questions about
my culture (that aren’t offensive), like I’ve been leaving
them out of the world’s best kept secret. Earlier this
week in one of my classes, my friend asked me where’s
the best place to get Samosas in a manner that someone
would buy drugs at a public library.
Other questions/remarks include “Hey I love the
food at Cardamom, you must be so lucky eating Indian
food at home” (I am lucky to eat Indian food at home
because my mom makes it. And according to her if
your favorite Indian dish is “Chicken Tikka Masala”
or “Butter Chicken” from Cardamom, then you really
aren’t eating Indian food. I’ll let you figure the rest out).
“Where’s the best place to get Chai tea” (If you call it
“Chai tea”, then you don’t deserve to know). “Is hot
yoga, like, authentic?” (I don’t actually have an opinion
on this one, so I guess the verdict is still out on this.)
Now that I’m writing all of this down, I’ve realized
that I’ve really become a real life version of a Yelp page
for all things Indian. And honestly, I don’t mind it that
much. I love the fact that I can share my culture with
different people. Just make sure to give my reviews 5
stars, don’t be shocked if I don’t know something and
don’t be awkward about it. I’m not an encyclopaedia
and nor should I or any other person of color be
obligated to talk about their culture if they don’t want
to. But I did start to sort of act like one. Maybe just a
little.
A little over a year ago, I
made the decision to switch
to a vegan diet. This change
has improved my mental and
physical health, but it also
had the people around me
questioning my decision. My
friends and family would
ask me why I did it and how
long I was doing it for, but my
least favorite question of all is
“what do you even eat?” These
questions revealed to me that
many of the people in my life
thought that without animals,
I could not sustain myself. My
family members even saw this
lifestyle change as a threat to
my culture. They believed that
a vegan diet meant I could no
longer enjoy my mom’s Arabic
cooking and that it would take
away from my “Arab-ness.”
All of these negative views
of veganism are rooted in an
innocent lack of knowledge, so
in an attempt to combat that
ignorance I will share some of
my favorite Arabic vegan dishes
that both sustain me and keep
me in touch with my roots!
This dish, though typically
stuffed with meat and rice, can
also be made by stuffing the
grape leaves with vegetables
and rice. I prefer to eat this
cold, however some eat it
warm as well.
The list of vegan Arabic
dishes does not end here.
There are so many vegan
options in this cuisine, and
even more options in other
cuisines as well. Vegan food
exists everywhere, you just
have to look for it.
This classic dish is simply made of
chickpeas, tahini, and garlic, making it
vegan. It tastes amazing on its own, and
even better with pita bread.
This is another classic dish with the central
ingredient also being chickpeas. It is a great
meat substitute and when paired with tahini
sauce, its flavor is unmatched.
ELIZABETH LE
MiC Columnist
NOOR MOUGHNI
MiC Columnist
The 2019 protests hinge on a
common set of five demands:
1. Full withdrawal of the
extradition bill.
2. A commission of inquiry into
alleged police brutality.
3. Retracting the classification of
protesters as “rioters.”
4. Amnesty for arrested
protesters.
5. Dual universal suffrage,
meaning for both the Legislative
Council and the Chief Executive.
Read more online at
michigandaily.com
Photo Courtesy of Archana’s Kitchen
Photo Courtesy of Archana’s Kitchen