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Thursday, June 25, 2020
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
MICHIGAN IN COLOR
South Asians need to be
heldaccountablefortheir
Anti-Blackness
NITHA ARUN & SUBARNA BHATTACHA-
RYA
MiC Guest Writers
The cold didn’t stop anyone from going
out during syllabus week. We went to an
event hosted by Sigma Beta Rho, a multi-
cultural fraternity mainly made up of South
Asian males. The DJ was playing a song and
the n-word dropped. Without hesitation,
the crowd of South Asian men sang along.
To every single word. I stood in shock, yell-
ing to my friend over the music, “Did you
hear that?” I was one of the only people that
reacted.
People moved on after the event — if they
even noticed it to be one — and their silence
spoke to their complicitness in this blatant
racism. When the situation was brought
to the organization’s board, they tried to
brush it aside. They continued to listen to
Black artists’ music and claimed their con-
venient proximity to Blackness was enough
to warrant them a “pass” to say and sing
the n-word. These same people have said
nothing substantial since the murders of
Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George
Floyd and countless others in the Black
community. This is not a singular problem;
rather, this indifferent attitude towards say-
ing the n-word is a symptom of the pervasive,
ingrained anti-Blackness in the South Asian
community.
It’s important to introspect upon our lives
as South Asians and the experiences that
come with growing up in America. Many of
us have heard about or been directly affected
by the atrocities committed against people
of our community in America: the “Dot-
busters” after 9/11 who singled out any per-
son who had brown skin and murdered them
as Islamophobia heightened, or the murder
of two Indian immigrants in Kansas. Some
of us have faced more normalized types of
racism: the IT jokes the Chad or Brad — or
whatever his name is — made in AP Econ
or the microaggressions you faced as you
walked down the street. We’re all aware of
the stereotypes in the media like Apu and
Raj which deem our identity as humorous,
reduced to a side character for comic relief.
South Asians have been historical targets of
racism, but we must remember our experi-
ence in no way matches the breadth of insti-
tutional racism which the Black community
has to confront on a daily basis. We need to
contextualize ourselves within the history
of the United States. There are mountains
upon mountains of problems which remain
unsolved, but they cannot be resolved if we
alienate ourselves from the Black commu-
nity, which is what brought us this far in the
first place. We can never achieve true equal-
ity as non-Black people of color in America
if we stoop so low as to demean, berate and
disrespect those who came before us.
Breaking out of the iceberg: a
taleofinspirationforGenZ
PRISHA GROVER
MiC Staff Writer
Graphic by Hibah ChughtaiI
“Avatar: The Last Airbender” was an
animated children’s show released on Nick-
elodeon during the 2000s. The story sur-
rounds the culmination of a 100-year long
warbetween the hegemonic Fire Nation and
all other nations and tribes of the world. It
is based on several people who have the abil-
ity to control one of the four elements around
them — air, water, earth and fire — while one
person, the Avatar, can control all four and
is tasked with keeping the world in balance.
ATLA is a great symbol of cultural unity.
It fuses several influences: the stories of Hin-
duism; the cultures of the Arctic, Inuit and
other indigenous groups; Chinese culture
with slight influences of Japanese culture
and many more. The concept of the Avatar
itself is derived from Hinduism. In Hindu
scriptures, the god Vishnu has inherited
an avatar, or an earthly form, the ten times
he has thought the world needs it most. He
takes on a brand new life and assimilates into
normal society, living as a voice of reason and
good. This is what the main character of this
show is based on — the concept of the avatar
who works to keep balance in the world and
ensure peace is kept. In ATLA, the avatar is
the reincarnated spirit of Rava, the spirit of
good, and is meant to master the elements of
the world and maintain balance.
The different tribes are based on differ-
ent beautiful cultures around the world. The
two water tribes are respectfully based on
the Inuit and Yupik people. Their weapons,
style of clothing and manner of gathering
food all match up with these cultures. In
every tribe or nation, there are influences of
Chinese culture. In the water tribes, it comes
in the forms of the betrothal necklaces. In
the Earth Kingdom, the most blatant show of
relation to the Chinese is the Great Walls of
Ba Sing Se, similar to the Great Wall of China
which was built to consolidate the Chinese
states and protect them from invaders. Their
clothing — especially their military cloth-
ing and of their leaders — are all based on
ancient Chinese garb. The Fire Nation’s
culture is derived from several different
sources, including the Aztecs and Incas. This
influence can be seen in the Sun Warriors,
who teach those around them to harness the
power of the sun and appreciate its cycles,
using their sunstone. Another strong influ-
ence in the Fire Nation is of the Chinese and
Japanese, as with the other groups. The top
knots worn by Fire National royalty — such
as Fire Lord Ozai, Prince Zuko and General
Iroh — represent their positions of power.
Finally, the Air Nomads are based on Tibet-
an philosophies. In line with their universal
philosophies, the Air Nomads spend their
lives meditating and searching for enlighten-
ment. They search to be detached from the
world and free their spirit.
Each character in this show brings some-
thing unique to the table — whether it’s
their personal experiences or family history.
However, the most important part about
them is the things they have learned from
their different cultures and the history of
their people. Katara and Sokka learn about
the strength of the Water Tribe from their
grandmother and Katara’s teacher and draw
inspiration from them. Katara also learns
about the nuances of the moon spirit, a long
standing symbol and guardian of her people,
and learns to draw strength from her. Aang
learns about the universal philosophies of
his people from his teacher, Monk Gyatso.
He learns from their teachings to be impar-
tial, kind and compassionate. Toph uses
the knowledge of her culture to be strong
and unrelenting. She takes the strength of
her predecessors and teachers, and learns
to turn potential weaknesses into unique
assets. Despite how different their cultural
and ethnic backgrounds are...
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The Civil Rights Movement paved the way
for South Asian immigration into the United
States. Due to the pressure from the move-
ment, Congress passed the Immigration and
Nationality Act of 1965, also known as the
Hart-Celler Act. This bill allowed the immi-
gration of wealthy/potentially wealthy South
Asians into the United States. The latent con-
sequence of this was the myth of the model
minority. White leaders saw our general eco-
nomic prosperity in the U.S. and used it to
dismiss the systemic racism that affected the
Black community. We were tools used to por-
tray the way all minority populations should
aspire to be; anything less was dismissed as
laziness and ineptitude.
We must stop thinking our academic and
economic success puts us above the Black
community. This only perpetuates the model
minority myth, created by white America to
divide us in the first place. If we continue
to take advantage of this privilege we have
been allotted through our “model minority”
status while denying that it exists at all, we
will always be complicit in the crimes perpe-
trated against the Black community.
This complicitness is present in our con-
versations and seemingly harmless “pref-
erences.” I’m reminded of the time when
my family was house hunting for a home in
Michigan. Even before stepping inside the
two-story brick house with a vast lake in the
backyard —every Indian family’s American
dream — my parents decided we wouldn’t
live there because a Black man walked out
the front door of the neighboring home. We
need to recognize this generational rac-
ism and ingrained hatred for those who are
different from us has to end here. We need
to move past generations of colorist ideals
because it has impacts not only on our rela-
tionships with other communities, but also
our own mental health. No one is born racist.
Anti-Blackness is learned through the envi-
ronment we are exposed to growing up. It is
our duty to unlearn it.
We need to hold our peers and family
accountable without hesitation. We all know
the scene. You’ll be at aunty’s house for a hol-
iday party and just as you are about to stuff
that samosa in your mouth, an uncle will
comment on “how lazy Black people are,” —
this being the same uncle who made his wife
bring the food to him. Now, you have two
options: Pretend you didn’t hear anything
and eat your samosa chup chap or confront
him. Your parents give you the “don’t say
anything” look. It is at this point that you
drop the obedient achha bachcha guise and
indoctrinate uncle on the systemic racism
that has resulted in several inequities in the
Black community.
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