Nina Davuluri (1989- ), an American beauty queen, is the first Indian American and the second Asian American to become Miss America. She won almost 30 years to the day after Vanessa Williams became the first black Miss America. Like Williams she was also a Miss New York and a Miss Syracuse.
Not only did she win, she won being proud of who she is, doing a Bollywood fusion dance as her talent. I also like that she is unmistakably brown.
On Twitter most people were happy for her too, but not everyone. Right after her win racists went nuts:
9/11 was 4 days ago and she gets miss America?
A damn camel jockey?! Wtf!!!
Egypt dancing? This is America. #MissAmerica
First a president from God knows where, Africa and now a miss America lady that I can’t say or spell her name… Terrorist
How the fuck does a foreigner win miss America? She is a Arab! #idiots
I swear I’m not racist but this is America.
Miss America right now or miss Al Qaeda?
Miss America? You mean Miss 7-11.
Shes like not even american and she won miss america.
So miss america is a terrorist
And on and on like that. At least 700 tweets called her a terrorist.
The tweets were not just racist (Islamophobia, perpetual foreigner stereotype, etc) but ignorant too:
nationality: she was born in America, in New York state, so she is just as American as anyone else.- religion: she is Hindu, not Muslim.
- ethnicity: she is ethnically Indian, not Arab or Egyptian.
- racial profiling: she is not a terrorist, much less a member of Al Qaeda.
Even if she were Arab or Muslim, it would still be highly unlikely that she would be a terrorist.
She was not shocked by any of this – she went through the same thing when she won Miss New York. She also has the example of Vanessa Williams before her, who received death threats and hate mail during her reign.
If anything, the tweets underscored the need for her chosen cause as Miss America: “celebrating diversity through cultural competency.”
She will use her $50,000 prize money to help pay for medical school. She comes from a family of doctors.
Her parents came to America in 1981, eight years before she was born. They are from Andra Pradesh, a Telugu-speaking state in southern India.
She grew up in upstate New York, Oklahoma and Michigan. She spent summers in India with her grandmother. There she trained in classic Indian dance. She loves Bollywood and Tollywood (Telugu-language films) as well as Star Trek and Star Wars. She went to the University of Michigan where she studied brain science.
Body image: She lost 60 pounds (27kg) to become Miss America. She has suffered from anorexia.
Colourism: Some argue that she would never win Miss India because she is too dark. Growing up her parents told her to stay out of the sun, but her friends thought her skin had a nice tan colour.
Vanessa Williams and Nina Davuluri
See also:
Abagond 
Reading the twitter responses to Miss Davuluri’s win. The ignorance was just astounding. She has handled the fallout with grace and poise. She is quite lovely. Good luck to her. There is nothing post racial about America.
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She is gorgeous. It is sad that racist tweets were being posted on Twitter because this woman didn’t look like the ”all American girl” with blond hair and blue eyes. The whole situation with racists posting on Twitter showed me yet again how racism ran deep in the psyche of most White AmeriKKKlans.
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I pay almost no attention at all to the Miss America Pageant and haven’t for years. Thanx to social media stupidity, she’s now a household name (that apparently none of those idiots can pronounce .)
I applaud her tactfulness and grace during all of this. That just shows she’s as beautiful inside as she is on the outside.
Evertime anyone who isn’t White takes a step forward these people start to scream about it. You can decry their behaviour if you like but I just see all this yelling as a sign of just how little power such people have and how numbered their days are.
They can see it too.
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Abagond, you should have included one of the many tweets saying “This is just political correctness! Obviously Miss America isn’t about who’s the most beautiful anymore!”
Some even blamed it on Republican Donald Trump, for his bleeding heart liberal management of the Miss America pageant… until it was pointed out that Donald Trump manages the Miss Universe Pageant, and has no affiliation with the Miss America Pageant.
The last two Miss Americas were both White, a brunette and a blond. Strangely, there was no need to explain any political reason for celebrating their beauty. But as soon as Miss America doesn’t look like Miss White Bread America then immediately they fall into their racist code speak! “Political Correctness!!!”
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@King
Well said. This woman who won is beautiful. I don’t see why Whites always think this country belongs to them and that anyone who is not White is not American. I am so sick of their ways and thinking, it is unreal.
And by the way, this woman is the future of AmeriKKKlan and they will have to accept non Whites as our population increases and their population decreases.
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I am so happy for miss Nina Davuluri. ^_^
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Abagond
Interesting picture of Vanessa Williams you chose. Is this what she looks like now? She seems to look more like someone else and less like the Vanessa I’m most familiar with…
BTW, blissfully ignorant white people will continue to enjoy their racist ideas and speech only until they are no longer tolerated by their slightly less racist white brethren. I’m not holding my breath waiting for that to happen …
The only thing that has changed in the last 50 years is the advent of “Political Correctness”… which in itself hasn’t done much in terms of meaningful, real change.
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Strong, dignified lady.
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People will say that she suffered racism from strangers but the fact is she is probably used to this,not that you can get used to discrimination but more that she has accepted she may face hostility..the first time she faced racism was from her own parents..whether indirectly or unintentionally ..they told her to stay out of the sun,in effect saying she was dark enough,to sunburn even more would result in having black skin,that comment alone would already give her a complex about her skin tone.
I’m not surprised her parents thought this way( I suppose many darker Asians have been given the same line by their parents) ,these attitudes towards dark skin in Asia are prevalent,in south Asia darker skinned people are looked down on with contempt and east Asia white skin is seen as clean ,pure and good while dark skin is seen as dirty,bad and ugly..God knows what they would do with black people.
She is a beautiful women and although there were many of them equally as beautiful or more,I’m sure she was a worthy winner.
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So what if she was Arab or Muslim, if she was American and born in this country, she still would have the right to compete in the competition. Racist jerks,stereotyping.
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The picture chosen of both parties depict the common comparison of different tones in our races,a light skinned black being lighter then a dark skinned Asian.
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The lady is absolutely GORGEOUS! You go, Nina.
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when I saw her pic I thought nina was black, she is very beautiful and she has the smarts to match. The racists saying she a terrorist smh, they need to stfu as we saw with the boston bombing terrorists have white skin too and they weren’t born here yet they were calling them all American b() ys. Hmmm.
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Vanessa Williams looks different. dang look at the guns on nina, dam she almost got those nice arms like serena Williams, maybe I need to play tennis and be miss America to get a body like that lol.
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Vanessa Williams is 50 years old. however, that is a very unflattering picture of her.
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^ yes it is. wasn’t she married to rick fox. I always got her confused with Nicole ari parker and Stacey dash they kinda look alike to me. they could be related further down the line lol who knows.
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And I can guarantee that the people who made those tweets had the least amount of melanin in their skin. Least amount of soul too. That’s how whites are. They love the anonymity of the internet so they can say what they all feel. Screw them. Let them get skin cancer and die.
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maybe its her makeup or something, I see her forehead near her hairline looks a different color from her face.
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dam average bee that’s cold rofl, u and adeen are militant as he11 lol yall more militant than the guy in my pic
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@Average Bee
”And I can guarantee that the people who made those tweets had the least amount of melanin in their skin. Least amount of soul too. That’s how whites are. They love the anonymity of the internet so they can say what they all feel. Screw them. Let them get skin cancer and die.”
Got that right! That is how I feel about these Neanderthals too. This beautiful Indian is an American too and just because she is not blond hair and blue eyes, doesn’t mean that she isn’t American. I am American but I happen to be Black. And second of all, Whites lack the empathy and soul we have. Scientific studies have shown that Whites do lack empathy for others particularly brown people and soul.
http://restructure.wordpress.com/2010/05/04/white-people-lack-empathy-for-brown-people-brain-research-shows/
http://www.vanissar.com/blog/from-white-racial-shame-to-empathy-for-people-of-color-part-i/
Most of all, this woman is the future of America and if they don’t like it, well too bad! They will have to deal with non Whites being in charge for years to come while their population declines year after year.
@Mstoogood4yall
We have to be militant in these times because we, as a race of people need each other more than ever. I am sick of the divide within our race. We need to stick together and stop sucking up to these Neanderthals. We, as a race, are better than that.
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I’m not “militant”, Ms. That term is/was used since J. In-the-closet Hoover to paint revolutionary minds as violent.
I’m honest via my observations. They are ALL closet racists suspects AT THE LEAST. They ALL KNOW IT. WE ALL KNOW IT. The euros can deny it all they want. They can dance around it all they want. They can quote MLK or even the President if all they want.
But their actions speak louder than anything. Their message boards prove it. If whites were genuine human beings, or even if they saw non-whites as genuine human beings, then they’d have no problem with open debates about race, regardless of the venue. But once you head down that lane, it’s the same bullshit with them;
“I don’t see color” (while stopped at a red light flying a plane or some shit).
“I have Black friends.” (who have never stepped foot into their home)
“There are ‘white niggers’ and there are ‘Black niggers’.” — My personal favorite; said as if these pinks don’t give “white niggers” the *distinction* of being called “wigger”.
Race talks with them are a joke. Indeed THEY are the joke and can’t even see it. The entire world is Brown. This includes us “Blacks”, what with our brown skin and all. It also includes the “yellow” that comes with pure, unmixed “Blacks”, the same variety of yellow that is found in far eastern Asia. I spent a few years stationed in Japan and ended up seeing a pair of BLACK female twins in America who looked absolutely like a pair of Japanese female twins I knew. Take an anecdote for what it is, but the resemblance was uncanny. In reality, that is what this whole “race” shit is about; keeping euro physical features alive in spite of weak-ass genetics. I would say the lines have been blurred, but that’s not the case; there were no racial lines to begin with until the cavemen discovered the round earth outside of their perpetually-overcast “continent”.
As soon as I heard the works of (Dr.?) Neely Fuller Jr. this popped into my mind.
And as soon as the rest of his work (along with Dr. Umar Johnson [who recently changed his last name], Ivan the Great [Van Sertima] and all associated persons) that’s when I realized that I had been playing this game wrong all along. I’d be mad if I drove down the wrong highway for 25 miles. Imagine doing it for 25 years.
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Muricans are really ignorant, why can’t they understand that Muslim isn’t a race, not every brown/olive skinned person is Muslim, and not all Muslims are brown skinned.
Muslims come in all colors, and this girl isn’t even Muslim, she’s not even Middle Eastern.
Surprisingly, the first Muslim Miss.USA in 2010(Rima Fakih) didn’t face the same kind of racism, probably because she was Lebanese, so she was lighter skinned than Nina Davuluri.
I’ve known Arab Muslims that passed for white and didn’t face much racism after 9/11, on the other hand there are plenty of Indian Sikhs and Hindus that have suffered from hate crimes since 9/11 because they darker-skinned, and in the minds of Muricans: dark-skinned=Muslim.
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@Average Bee
I agree with you on this. That is what White supremacy and racism is about as well as the way Whites conquered, destroyed and killed others who weren’t White and stole their land and resources for wealth, money and power. And they still continue to do that to this very day.
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I’m so happy for Nina. She deserves that title.
Also, a lot of white people were whining that Miss. Kansas should’ve been the “real” Miss America for obvious, yet stupid reasons.
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Lol @ all the Akata girls trying to act like this woman is one of you. She is nothing like an Akata. First of all she is not fat.
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“Akata” = supposedly a Yoruba / Nigerian slur for Black Americans.
Many who resort to using it don’t actually know what it means, but will often use it in a derogatory manner nonetheless.
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The tribalism / ethnocentrism and petty one-upmanship among the various African-descended ethnic groups is one of the reasons Blacks on a global scale are typically kept in place as the low man on the totem pole.
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^ thanks for explaining that fiamma, the anti blackness is crazy I tell ya.idk could be an imposter but then again there are other black ppl that can’t stand black americans, dam u media showing the crazies over here on tv all over. ugh.
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I saw the troll insulting the black people, they thought they were being clever.
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I read that Akata is some kind of a slur against black American people.
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Ok average bee I won’t use that word anymore, but for real u and adeen kinda comment alike. Yes the entire world is brown they created this race system because they were the odd man out everybody else has color in their skin and everybody else welcomed them even though they looked different from everybody. Rofl the funniest thing is when they say I don’t see color and then their dum@@s says I have black friends, really I thought u just said u don’t see color. smh. the racists that were attack nina davuluri are lame I bet they would rather a dumb blonde like this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww) than a smart brown skinned woman like nina.
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ugh moderation
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Funny some morons tend to believe all black Americans are fat. While they have thick thighs I don’t attribute that to being fat, then again low self esteem haters are out in full force this weekend.
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this the kind of miss America they want http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=miss+south+carolina&FORM=HDRSC3#view=detail&mid=80342E156BB4A0118F2280342E156BB4A0118F22
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@mary burrell
When I see people go that route I chock it up to low self esteem and looking for anything to make them feel better about themselves. All I can say is have at it. I am sure if they put forth that much effort then they must need it.
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@ mstoogood4yall
I just cried looking at that clip and refused to watch because she frankly bored me. Did she have on a wig?
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@sharina: I agree.
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^ idk if it is a wig but there appears to be nothing going on inside that head. a wig can’t cover up stupidity only baldness or a bad hair day lol.
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I looked up the word and wow, its basically like the n word. it says it was used as a derogatory term for black americans but is starting to become more neutral, smh sounds just like how they are saying oh no we taking the sting out of the n word its becoming neutral now. its one thing to deal with stereotyping from whites but from other black ppl wow.
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I think the troll wants to stir up trouble. I don’t think they liked seeing the support for the south Asian woman. Best just to ignore. It maybe that our friend x learned how to use the Urban Dictionary on the Internet.
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LOL
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It is so sad to know she is what my state decided should represent us.
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@Anne
That would require that he get past and get over the note to xprae thread. He is still writing posts on it and I am still laughing my azz off at it.
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oh no there’s two of them http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=miss+south+carolina+vs+miss+utah&FORM=VIRE3#view=detail&mid=95A3AF7FD35A2438F35895A3AF7FD35A2438F358
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rofl bahwhwa http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=miss+south+carolina+vs+miss+utah&FORM=VIRE3#view=detail&mid=54224CE3A5343DBE968854224CE3A5343DBE9688
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…Nigerians were the main ones selling us in the first place…smh. they been funnystyle
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Yes it is a racial term and for that I am sorry but you people are the first to scream about african booty scratcher and calling someone crispy so karma is a bitch.
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Still got love for them tho….we all got that one cousin that can’t get right..
Anyway, how they hating on this beautiful Indian America tho? She’s baaaaad. Racism must run deep if you can hate on beauty like this.
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That woman who used an Yoruba slur against Black Americans is also part of the problem. As long as she lives in racist, White dominated AmeriKKKlan, she will face racism, internalized racism, discrimination, hatred from others even from Black Americans as a Black woman. No White American would ever distinguish her from a Black woman.
This type of division on our own race gets to me as an Afro Caribbean woman. We should all stick together as a race of people not fight amongst each other.
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You’re welcome MsGood. I first came across that word years ago on a Nigerian message board. It was used in a similar manner as the word ngger is used on white supremacist sites. And also In the same manner as on the racist white forums, I did get the impression it was being used in many cases to bolster a flagging ego.
It was kind of suspicious though, as it was quite petty and off key…..
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If you can’t see the problem, which is AAs claiming everybody else’s culture and beauty, then you can’t be helped.
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You are our culture…remember?
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@adeen
I agree 100%
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Matter of fact.. forget tryna regain my real African culture for a min… Because when I think of my AA culture, as in here in the states.. its everyone else tryna take it and be a part of it.
People hate on us AA and our black culture sooo much… But can’t do without it.. tell me why I just saw a staples commercial playing hip hop in the background..
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@ Adeen
There is no guarantee that she lives in America. She could be living any where in the world. But this attitude is not rare among Blacks who live elsewhere. Brace yourself, but there area lot of Blacks who dislike African-Americans, for whatever reasons.
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Good thing about the racist reactions (if there can be a good thing) is that they expose their authors as frickin’ morons. Seriously, an American Indian (not Native American) lady gets linked to 9/11, called a terrorist and misidentified as Arab/Muslim…
Moron is the default intellectual score for all racists.
Her restraint, positivity and dignity should be an example. Sadly, morons don’t follow examples.
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@Najia Girl
You have some personal problems you need to work on. You can’t claim anyones beauty for starters because a persons beauty is their own. As for cultures…I would like you to actually point to where a black person is stealing her cultures or some others persons culture. I mean I did not know it could be stolen from one or that anyone group had a claim to beauty or culture. But I tell you want you say ignorant because it is obvious that you can’t be helped. 🙂
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Yeah the blood is the same but does that matter to AAs? I’ll admit that AA men are more handsome than Naija men but AA WOMEN are can we say hmmm. They try to fight you like you were a man and get mad when you date GOOD BLACK MEN WHO THEY DONT WANT ANYWAY! All they want are THUGS then they try to fight you, spread rumors, make fun of how dark you are, are bossy, saying **** like she think she pretty and all manner of ignorant ****.
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And then they try to claim you when you win a beauty pageant or date a white or Asian man, just like the Asian woman in the post.
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It’ natural for people to notice things about other groups that are like most themselves. Black Americans might see Nina Davuluri as similar in skin tone. A White person might say that she looks just like a White girl (feature wise) with darker skin. That’s not abnormal or tragic, it’s just the way humans are.
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@Naija Girl
“AA WOMEN are can we say hmmm.”—Is that an indication of your jealousy.
“They try to fight you like you were a man and get mad when you date GOOD BLACK MEN WHO THEY DONT WANT ANYWAY!”—I have never fought anyone for no reason or gotten mad because someone is dating a black man but I guess I should try it as that is what African American women do.
“All they want are THUGS then they try to fight you, spread rumors, make fun of how dark you are, are bossy, saying **** like she think she pretty and all manner of ignorant ****.”—Sounds similar to all manner of ignorant you just typed. 🙂
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@Naija Girl
“And then they try to claim you when you win a beauty pageant or date a white or Asian man, just like the Asian woman in the post.”—I am going to guess you have a different definition of claim because telling someone they are pretty is not necessarily claiming them.
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Lol @ Najia.. nobody’s claiming this Indian chick. Were happy for her and noticed she’s getting beat with the racism stick. We stated our opinions about how we still got wounds from said stick lashings.. where do you get claiming someone?
Btw… stop dissing my black American girls. I know there’s a point somewhere in your posts Najia, but I can’t find it. Too many jealous feelings in the way of it.
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@ King — I don’t understand what this discussion is REALLY about…what is it about?
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Nina Davuluri is a spitting image of my sister-in-law. I will say my sister-in-law is about 2 shades lighter. So when I read some of the negative responses it made me think about how people are viewing my sister-in-law and because my daughter is a younger version of my sister-in-law (kinky hair though) I started to feel a little off in a sense of how people view my daughter. Do they get the stamp of non-American?
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@ Bulanik
Evidently it’s about African Americans… or just African American women… or.. Well… stip claiming the beauty of this Indian girl! But I can’t find where anyone did that, so I see why you’re confused (as am I) 🙂
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@ mussandrad
“Because when I think of my AA culture, as in here in the states.. its everyone else tryna take it and be a part of it.”
I was about to say that lol.
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@ King.
Oh. 😀
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King, it’s too baffling. Night-night.
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This Naija person, is bring confusion. I suspect they are trolling.
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*bringing confusion*
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@ BUlanik
this is about onethe divisions black ppl have smh https://abagond.wordpress.com/2011/04/22/the-7-layers-of-division-in-black-america/
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I fear it won’t be any clearer in the morning, my dear. Pleasant dreams.
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one of the divisions typo
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I swear she sounds like some of the crazy ppl on bossip attacking each other because of nationality.
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@ mussandrad
What appropriation of Black American culture are you talking about!??!!?
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7YV3a3S-Aw)
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I apologize on behalf of all black americans because we apparently all think alike and have the same views and have telekinetic powers and a hive mind and say ignorant things about Africans. * sarcasm off*
In all seriousness, yes some ppl are ignorant about Africans, just like some Africans are ignorant of black americans. The media has poisoned us all, to where we see images of Africa being in chaos and poor, and yall see images of us being crazy and lazy. Do I believe all that, he11 no because I know who puts those images out there and why they do it, to create distrust and rivalry. fall for the bait if u want.
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@Naijja Girl, whatever you call yourself
First of all, I am not AA, I am of Afro Caribbean descent but you have some serious issues. No White person would ever look at you on the street and distinguish you from any Black American. We are all Black at the end of the day so I don’t like your attitude towards Black Americans although I am from a different cultural background from Black Americans.
@King
I am not AA. My family is from the Caribbean and I identify as Afro Caribbean but I don’t like it when other Black people look down on another group of Blacks because of cultural differences. We are all Black at the end of the day. I am sick of the fighting that
@Sharina
Nina Davuluri looks like the splitting image of my cousin when she was younger.
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@ mstoogood. Ok, thank you. In the morn I will look at the layers mentioned in Abagond’s post, but Ms Davulari is Asian. How does that fit into it?
@ King, I think you’re right; jefe has been showing me how Indians fit into all this (on the Tainos thread), but I way behind the curve of understanding.
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When did Africans and AA start beefing anyways? What’s that about? I can’t go home or something? Cuz I plan to move back to whereever I trace my lineage to..N***as better not be tripping when I get there.
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Just playing. This thread was supposed to be about miss America with her fine self. But someone tried to hijack it.
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@Mussandrad
I wonder that too. We are all Black people, we need to stick together and unite against the racist, White supremacist system. I am sick of my own people fighting and arguing every minute. We are all Black people.
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@ Bulanik
Nina doesn’t fit into it but the going back and forth with this person that thinks they are better than black americans is one of the 7 layers of division in the black community.
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I agree. I just don’t get it.
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and I think the confusing part was where did anybody claim Nina as black, I didn’t see anyone say oh sh@t she is beautiful yep that’s that blackness in her she black because black is beautiful and is the only way someone can be seen as beautiful is by being black. nobody said anything like that. all some ppl said was they have a family member that looks a bit like her. he11 I could say I have a family member that looks like big bird, does that mean I’m claiming big bird as black, no. Some ppl have certain features that remind us of someone we know that don’t mean we claim them.
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@Adeen
The way I see it people will have similar features no matter what race or cultures or whatever. I just don’t understand why the Naija individual saw it as wrong to acknowledge that (if that was even something someone brought up in here).
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@Kiwi
Yes you do know what I am talking about and I have heard of people from other Asian groups look down on each other. It is sad really because you are all Asian at the end of the day and Whites will always see non Whites as inferior to them. And the same with Black people too. You are very correct in your reasoning.
@Sharina
I agree with you. We are all Black at the end of the day, I don’t see why this woman felt the need to look down on Black Americans. I am a first generation Jamaican woman who lives in this country and I am sick of the division and fighting among own in our race We are all Black. We need to stick together and unite against the system of White supremacy.
Yes I do have a different cultural background from an average Black American too but I don’t look down on Black Americans. We are all Black!
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Congrats to Nina Dauluri!!! This was a pretty funny commentary about the whole thing. Enjoy 😀 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SCQU-eK6-w)
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You can keep talking about black unity this or that. Fact is you want a black “unity” you can control and be the elite of. You act that way in Nigeria, Tanzania, s Africa everywhere you go. You are not the leaders of african people’s. just because you have western privelege.
Look at all the stupidity claiming people’s cousins look like this asian woman. You are not asian, though I’m sure you’d wear an Indian woman’s hair in your nasty weaves.
And kiwi and adeen. You don’t know what you are talking about. I don’t care what Europeans think about us. You do. Think for a minute about that fool who thinks he can just decide to goober in an african country, just cause he has ancestry. Rude awakening is awaiting there. And yes. Many Africans consider you white, like the ones in Sierra Leone acting like locals were supposed to feel bad for them at museum. I laugh at them even though they cried just like you laugh at my african hair and darkness.
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@MB
Certainly looks that way, doesn’t it?
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Think about what you call yourselves. African queens. You think you are our queens. First of all GOD has not made you such. Then you get to Nigeria and complain about our traditions.
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See I am trolling now yeah right. Just another example of AAs thinking Africans should accept the abuse they dish out on them. When you try to liberate yourself you are trolling somehow.
Quit claiming other people’s labs money and beauty!
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and here in lays the problem with America making “black” a race …. the term black in America in reality means “African-descended” (regardless of how much European DNA you carry), as long as you appear to show any stereotypical African traits.
in the UK or Europe, both of these women might be called “black” and depending on the country, only Nina Davuluri would be considered “black” based on her skin tone and Vanessa Williams would be “non-black” — in certain countries in North Africa or the Middle East, Vanessa could be called “Arab”
when white people visit our countries, they come with smiles and goodwill and are willing to interact with the locals.
But when we go to live in white majority countries, then their “true” feelings hang out for all to see and the utter contempt they feel for African-descended or dark-skinned people comes out the closet.
and this is why I said it takes foreign black and brown people living in America to “understand” how white European-descended people truly feel (as many North Africans and other Muslims found out when they get their “white” card revoked after 9/11)
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Let me take up Naija Girl’s side of it for a moment.
If you read what she’s saying closely, you will discern that she’s talking about previous bad experiences with African Americans. One of the things we have to realize is that even though we don’t have White privilege, most of us do have American or British privilege.
Naija Girl is going about it the wrong way, because she wants a way to strike back (which most of us have done on the internet at one point or another) But the truth is that as a Black living among Backs in America, the question we have to ask ourselves is, how often, outside of purely intellectual circles, are Africans seen as equals? In fact for many decades, Blacks in America were taught to look down on Africans and Africa…. to be ashamed of it and it’s “backward” people.
We should admit that as a whole, african Americans have not been embracing of African immigrants as people who could come here and teach us some of what we have lost. Instead we have seen ourselves as the modern version… Africans 2.0 rebooted by Westernism, Capitalism, Democracy, and technology. We have seen ourselves as the ones with the answers, the ones to bring aid and understanding. How often have we seen ourselves as needing to sit at the feet of Africans to learn anything?
So crazy as Naija sounds, we need to look past her tone and have some respect for her complaints. We do too often think that African-American culture is the apex of Black culture worldwide. We have Oprah! We have sent money and old clothes to Africa, We have so much to offer!!
I say, step back… and consider that she has had to deal with some crazy arrogant attitudes herself in her past. SHe shouldn’t assume that those experiences define ALL Black Americans, but neither should we assume that what she’s saying is just based on nothing.
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Lol.. this b**** trippin..
lol @ Africans not liking the Africans that they sold to outsiders(WHO RAPED THE LAND) for being out of touch.
and another lol @ Africans not wanting those same Africans they sold in the first place to come back and reconnect….ALL WHILE ALLOWING ANOTHER WAVE OF OUTSIDERS TO COME IN AND RAPE THE LAND ONCE AGAIN
Is someone ironing clothes? Because its getting real irony up in here
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@ mussandrad
Your statements would make a lot more sense if this all happened within one generation and you were pointing your finger at the same people who did the selling, but more 150 years later, the “Who sold who” argument loses just a hair or relevance.
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@king I see your point and Najia’s to an extent.
But what privilege exactly? Africans have their own countries. As a black man in America I don’t feel that I can say that. Sure I live here but let’s be real. Are we really wanted here? A lot of other black men and women would say no. I’m not sure what privilege I have here
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When dealing from a position of power in the world, African Americans have had greater celebrity, a higher standard of living, and have served in more powerful positions. African-Americans are citizens of the most powerful country in the world. All of that translates into a certain degree of privilege, despite the fact that it doesn’t come close to the privilege that White citizens enjoy.
It also too often translates into an attitude of superiority to other Blacks, around the world, and an assumption that what we do, and what we like is “cool,” while what other Blacks around the world like is somehow backward compared to us.
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Sorry, maybe Naija is just a bit confusing (or a bit confused, or maybe both) and not trying to troll per se.
She may have had some bad experiences with black Americans, esp. black American women, and wants to rant a bit about it. Fine to let off some steam.
But, this post was about an Indian American who won Miss America. Naija’s comments steered way off into a different direction, ranting against “african-Americans”, esp. females. It sounds like she believes in the Jezebel stereotype.
But, I really find it too confusing to use AA, as I might think it means Asian American. This post is about a woman of Indian descent, isn’t it?
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Yeah Jefe, I completely agree that going off on ALL African-American women based on some bad experiences with a few is wrong and foolish. I don’t agree with anything that she said about that.
I’m just looking underneath the childish attack to try and see where this is really coming from.
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@ king
Yeah u right. we have privileges that we don’t recognize sometimes, but this thread is kinda going off topic and confusing a lot of ppl lol. A lot of ppl have privilege that they don’t think they have, black males have privilege in some instances, black women have privileges in some instances, and lighter skinned blacks have privilege. as black americans we do have some privileges, like poverty here isn’t as bad as in other places and the wages are higher. I think a lot of us get tunnel vision and just see what we don’t have or are missing and don’t pay attention to what we do have.
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I agree Kiwi.
I think Asian Americans have a pretty high immigrant population, so their main concern is FOBism. The further you can get from being a FOB, the more American and prestigious you become.
In the Black American community, there is far less African immigration, so that most Blacks are not connected through FOB ties to their continent of origin. Instead American Blacks are taught that there is nothing of value in Africa at all. Intellectuals may have the ammunition to fight these ideas with examples from african civilizations and history. But the average African American does not know any African history, and thus cannot refute these claims of African inferiority. On some level, many Blacks eventually buy into these ideas.
But as you imply, we are all prone to measure our prestige based on our Americanism and our American values. As much as we call out this nation on all of it’s BS, we still have a tendency to think that our association with it qualifies us fa\or a position of leadership and importance within our respective races.
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Agreed! It’s easy to get tunnel vision when you live in a tunnel. Understanding the world as it is requires stepping out of the tunnel from time to time to see other people’s perspectives and problems.
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@ Lifelearner
That video is hilarious! Another good video reaction (though not as funny) was Chescaleigh’s:
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WirHnzcbS6Q)
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Kiwi thank you for trying to understand.
As for the one calling me the b word, you are no man. This is exactly what I’m talking about. Most african American men are better looking but sometimes have awful attitudes! I don’t blame them totally because those particular AA men don’t have dads and their mothers beat them in grocery stores. And as for my comment on this post. The reason is I thought those were making out like she was AA, knowing that if she were an ordinary asian many AA’s would say “Ali Baba” and other stupid stuff, acting like they own the place.
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Kiwi, this is indeed a USA based blog, so it will almost certainly be Anglo-America centric.
Yes, I have also seen many Asian Asians puzzled why many Asian-Americans seem to pride themselves on being so westernized, or even scorn less westernized Asians. I have had Asians from Asia telling me that they think some Asian-Americans act and think more like white people. What they are doing is applying white stereotypes to Asians.
To many Africans, some African- Americans probably seem to think and act like white people to them, to the point of scorning Africans for not being more westernized or applying white stereotypes of Africans towards Africans.
But Naija is also apply the Jezebel stereotype towards African-American women, which is essentially a white stereotype. So, is she also picking up on white stereotypes of blacks and applying them to African-American women using confirmation bias?
This stuff is really off topic for this post — one about an Indian American Miss America.
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Haha!… well one thing we learned on that long boat ride over is that which doesn’t kill us makes us stronger. (I might have gotten a few good smacks for acting up in the supermarket myself, if I recall correctly!!!)
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@King
This applies to Asian Americans also. It is not just purely an anti-FOB ism thing. There are many (“white-washed”) Asians who learned a white version of Asian culture and history. What’s worse (at least compared to African-Americans), they do not know anything about Asian-American history. For example, most black Americans are aware of African-American slavery, lynching and Jim Crow, but many Asian-Americans are not aware of Asian-American slavery, genocide, lynching, or Jim Crow as it applied to their ancestors.
But, the fact that it is mostly white-washed Asian-Americans that are like this gives testimony to just how white-washed most African-Americans are — indoctrinated and brainwashed to accept a white version of their culture and history.
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@ Naija Girl
Of course you come off as a troll: you call Black Americans a racial slur, stereotype them, misread what they say, derail the post. Just like what any old white racist troll does. You complain that Black Americans lack manners – but show none yourself.
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King you may have enjoyed getting hit but I will not do so to my children when I have them. I want to be a loving mother. I also think it should be a crime for women to be as fat as they are here.
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Lol @ my having no manners, or so you just can’t take reality.
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My two cents before I declare this off topic:
1. Black Americans do have American privilege and are often unaware of it. Privilege blinds.
2. Black Americans are taught to look down on Africa by White American culture, to be ashamed of it. It is part of their own internalized racism. Some Afrocentric blacks do romanticize Africa, but even that is off-base.
3. African immigrants to the U.S. often look down on Black Americans, think they are better than them and apply the same stereotypes to Black Americans that White Americans do, along with some of their own. In part, it seems, to distance themselves from THOSE people. Bravo.
If you want to continue this discussion, take it to the Open Thread or the American privilege post:
https://abagond.wordpress.com/2010/09/16/american-privilege/
Further comments on it here will be deleted as OFF TOPIC. This post is about Nina Davuluri and issues related to her, not about how terrible Black Americans are.
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I looked up”derail” and that’s what I’ve done sorry I will wait for a better time to speak.
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@Naija,
Not all the commenters here are African-American (and therefore might not take your ranting so personally), but recognize trollish behavior when it occurs. You might not have come here intending to be a troll, but you exhibited some of their churlish behavior. That is the reality that you presented to us today.
Maybe you can consider expressing your “beef” against black Americans honestly and sincerely, but without attacking people here. I think people do want to listen if you don’t berate them first.
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Jefe. Ok I will do as you say and sorry for impressions I gave.
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Get your money baby. Good look for her, her family &, the homeland her ancestors are from.
Good looks.
As for the racists & the bigots. I love that the truth gets played out for the world to see. They are not my concern intellectually.
The intellectual racists & bigots are the ones I like to chop it up with.
Some of these people don’t live that far from. But according to a older black male friend of mine, racism is not an issue anymore. (Sarcasm)
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@Naija Girl
I see you went IN. And you were OFF TOPIC. I get where you are coming from.
I make it a personal goal to be more accepting & understanding the perspective & existence of Africans.
Good Day
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@ lifelearner
rofl, that vid she is beautiful and funny the man in the vid was fine too.
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Chescaleigh was on point in that vid, her skin and her hair are always flawless.
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@ Matari
That is how she looked last Wednesday on September 18th 2013. The picture comes from the following web page where you can see other pictures of their meeting:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/19/miss-america-nina-davuluri-vanessa-williams_n_3956159.html
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@ Naija Girl
“Look at all the stupidity claiming people’s cousins look like this asian woman.”—In this statement you showed your own level of stupidity. For one only one individual make the claim it looked like her cousin and on my end you assumed because I am black I must have married into a black family. So please continue to show your ignorance while still trying to fabricate your superiority.
“You are not asian, though I’m sure you’d wear an Indian woman’s hair in your nasty weaves.”—More of your ignorance because I guessing that is all you can muster up in that jealous fit you are having. Did it occur to you that not all blacks wear weave? Nope. I have never wore weave because I have beautiful hair I don’t need to be ashamed of.
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@king
I understand that their is some truth to what she is sayinh as I have experienced similar and I was born and raised in the states. It just annoys me that I was able to grow and judge people individually and there are people like naija and others who still make it an excuse to generalize and be ignorant.
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On top.
“This is just political correctness! Obviously Miss America isn’t about who’s the most beautiful anymore!”
I know king posted this above but this to me implies she is not beautiful. For those who claimed we are post racial or racism is not big problem anymore……guess you were WRONG
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Here’s a view from India:
http://www.rediff.com/news/column/dear-indians-can-we-get-rid-of-the-superiority-complex/20130920.htm
Dear Indians, can we get rid of the superiority complex?
Comment Share Text size: A A A
Last updated on: September 20, 2013 14:26 IST
Maybe, we Indians as a people could do with a bit of two other qualities we love to tout as Indian — humility, and introspection.
Nina Davuluri winning Miss America got a lot of already twisted knickers into even more of a tourniquet.
The racist rants against her on Twitter made headlines, and many of us Indians — the only demographic in the country that apparently matters, the Indian with enough bandwidth to be on real-time social media — were appalled that Dr Martin Luther King Jr’s dream was still a distant mirage.
Damn these Yankees, we declared. They’re a racist lot.
We of course are a country where Fair and Lovely is like Colgate, and where ‘wheatish complexion’ is a prominent qualifier in matrimonial advertisements.
On Facebook the other day, a viral meme did the rounds that showed the same Davuluri photograph as published on an American Web site and an Indian newspaper. The Telugu-American desi seemed to have been Photoshopped to be fairer in the Indian publication.
Then, of course, an American woman winning Miss India would probably have caused a few political parties to call for outlawing of beauty pageants, and god forbid if any of her ancestors had been near Pakistan.
Actually, forget that, imagine if Miss Maharashtra came from Uttar Pradesh.
In his New York Times op-ed advising the United States against another military adventure in Syria, Russian President Vladimir Putin wrote something that best applies to us Indians: There is a danger if the people of any country believe they are exceptional.
Perhaps few countrymen think they are god’s gift to mankind more than us Indians. Yes, along with other great civilisations we have given the world a lot in the course of history. But right now our contribution to the richness of human civilisation is closer to zero.
India as a country — ironically, there’s a lot of individual accomplishment, including in the Indian Diaspora — is propounding no new great thought, art or concept anymore.
We are just the unruly mob at the international airport: Arrogant, unruly and reeking of a superiority complex that we didn’t pick up at the duty free shops.
By United States government estimates, white people will become a minority in America by 2043. Imagine if the majority were in visible danger of becoming minority in India.
Scientists believe that within a couple of centuries, most of the world will look Brazilian — because that is where the maximum human intermingling has happened.
Meanwhile, we Indians even shudder at the thought of certain communities proliferating within our own country.
Even in the 21st century, an Indian-American parent can ‘deny permission’ to a daughter to marry a black guy.
Ironically, the thought that the world is one family comes from our glorious culture, rendered rather inglorious by us with our rampant ignorance, intolerance and inflamed, uninformed opinion.
It is perhaps time we as a country stop living in the past. Because the future is staring us in the face.
We Indians live in a country where one of our topmost legal eagles accuses a 15-year-old girl of being inflicted with an ‘illness that draws her to men’.
And we believe we need a dictator to cure us of our own illnesses. We have conveniently forgotten, again, that history reaches us there are no good dictators.
We love to wear our pride on our screens, and pointing at any Indian Army wrong is immediately seen as unpatriotic. We forget that we have in our immediate neighbourhood a glaring example of what happens when the military is given more importance than common people.
We complain of the West’s racial profiling when in the toniest part of ‘India’s most cosmopolitan city’, a leading pizza chain had to shut shop because the residents of the colony would store human excreta in buckets and pour it on the delivery boys when they started out. Reason: The store sold non-vegetarian food, the residents are strict vegetarians.
We rejoice at death for rapist-murderers, but turn a blind eye when the victim is an ‘alleged militant’ like Manorama Devi of Manipur, whose kin have not got justice for about a decade now.
We have let a woman of Italian origin rule us through a clever divide of administrative power centres, but far too many of us have not accepted her Indianness. We have every right to reject her politics and her corrupt government, but shouldn’t her living most of her life here make her Indian enough?
As Mithun Chakraborty declared hilariously in Golmaal 3, those who live in glass houses should change clothes in the basement. Maybe we Indians need to internalise that.
And don’t take umbrage at Bollywood being synonymous with India — it’s we who have made it our culture. It’s we who listen to and watch nothing but Bollywood (check sales figures if you disagree). It’s we who flock to the movies — item number and all — with our children.
So, maybe, we Indians as a people could do with a bit of two other qualities we love to tout as Indian — humility, and introspection.
A Mango Indian
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@ Nobody Important: Comment deleted for use of Mock Ebonics.
https://abagond.wordpress.com/comment-policy/
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Just checked that 1st Runner up was Chinese-American Miss California and 4th runner up Miss Minnesota had a Chinese-American father. Can’t imagine what those tweeters were thinking when they saw the 5 finalists up on stage.
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@ Adeen: Comment deleted for insulting language.
https://abagond.wordpress.com/comment-policy/
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jefe
I can’t either, but this is the type of diverse melting pot they have been peddling for years, so the hypocrisy is funny. Using these same lines of thinking to appear better than other countries.
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I wonder if Ms Davuluri’s visibility as Indian American will make a permanent identifying dent in mainstream media?
I have heard that “The Mindy Project”, starring an Indian American woman, is shown on prime time US tv. Indian actors have a long history of presence in American entertainment (Boris Karloff comes to mind, as does Ben Kingsley), but I don’t think that they were always seen or described as having “Indian”heritage. (Ben Kingsley played Gandhi, but that was a biopic, and I remember there was surprise that he was actually Asian.)
Hollywood actress Merle Oberon was part Sri Lankan, but to me, she always looked like Bollywood actress, Rekha. That Merle Oberon was part Asian was her great secret and shame, and this fact was kept hidden until her after her death. She had made up the story that she was from Tasmania, somehow.
Hollywood’s Merle Oberon: http://www.nndb.com/people/927/000043798/oberon2.jpg
Bollywoods’ Rekha:
Rekha: https://scontent-a-mad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/258_25601295478_4620_n.jpg
In more recent times, I have seen Indian actresses playing Latinas.
Sarita Choudhury played a Chilean indigena maid in “House of Spirits”, and a character by the name of Raquel Martinez alongside Gwyneth Paltrow in “A Perfect Murder”.
I can also think of Sakina Jaffrey who plays Linda Vasquez alongside Kevin Spacey in the US’s version of “House of Cards”.
I suppose they looked the part 😀
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@Bulanik
“I have heard that “The Mindy Project”, starring an Indian American woman, is shown on prime time US tv.”—Yes, you are correct and although I have yet to see it…it is quite popular.
With that in mind I am actually wondering why the reaction from those individuals to Miss Nina Davuluri’s win?
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My 2 cents: I was happy with this choice, because I think the winner was hot. That’s the ultimate meaning of a beauty contest–beauty, or to put it more bluntly, shagability. She’s got it. However, in the above pic by the boat her legs are too chunky. Let’s not kid ourselves, she needed to lose the weight to make the win happen. Most men like healthy, thin women. They don’t like stick figure models with 0 curves of course. Those are types that fashion designers (mostly gay men and women) pick. When people from other countries come to the U.S. they are shocked by how many morbidly obese women there are. Let’s keep the dangers of anorexia in perspective vs. those of obesity. Nina doesn’t look unhealthy at all now. Also, let’s remember that she was the one calling the previous Miss America “”fat as [bleep]”.
The point some whites have made (not the uneducated points you brought up), was just that it seems to be only the traditionally white majority countries who are willing to vote someone not from the majority race as a representative of their country. In any case, I think that goes more to demographic decisions that have already been made. Like it or not, the U.S. is diverse and so is beauty. However, luckily, men are polygynous by nature (the counterpart to female hypergamy), so most of us can appreciate a new flavor each month (or year in this case). This gal is at least more graceful and feminine than the tattooed army skank that was in the running.
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I typically have an issue with beauty contests, I think it perpetuates sexism and viewing women primarily as ornaments. That said, I do remember when Vanessa won. I was too young to truly understand the impact and I didn’t realize she had death threats but I’m not surprised either. In any event, it’s always good when barriers like this are broken, the light shines, and the roaches scatter. America has come far, but not far enough. If there’s any doubt, this whole incident with Ms. Davuluri, who is lovely btw. should clear it up. Like you, Abagond, I also love that she is unmistakably brown. In the face of all the color-struck fools!
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@biff
” Most men like healthy, thin women.”—I am glad you nominated yourself the authority on most men. Perhaps you can blog and continue on an extended basis of what most men do, like, or say etc.
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@ poetess
I thought the same thing how ppl know sexism is an issue yet they do these beauty contests and some of the women can’t answer a simple question correctly. That does little to disprove the pigs that think women are just pretty and can’t do anything other than be ranked from hottest to least. Reminds me a bit of that dam show battle of the bods smh.
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Congrats on Ms Davuluri’s win — and she does indeed have a gorgeous bronze toned complexion.
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Its interesting that Vanessa looks White standing next to Nina whom ethnically is not considered Black or of African Heritage.
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Mindy Kaeling is pretty successful in American television. She has beautiful brown skin.
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Don’t really want to be a spoiler, but was there a popular vote segment to this contest? Are you aware that for over 30 years now there have been well over a million expatriate Indian workers out in the West?. Whenever there is any contest held by the social media, this seems to be the only group of people who sit on their computers or handle their cellphones to ensure that a person or entity connected with India wins the contest.
Prizes for Literature, the best hotels and game lodges, personalities of the year, beauty pageants have often gone to persons connected with India. It seems that there is a group of Indians who monitor such contests or awards and get to work to ensure an Indian victory. You may recall (if I remember this issue correctly) that at one of the American Idol series an Indian contestant was kept in the competition by “popular” vote even though the judges wanted him out.
Even when UNESCO held a contest for the best national anthem it was India that walked off with the prize; even though it’s national anthem is in Bengali – a language that 90% of the population does not understand.
Is Nina the most beautiful woman in the USA? Ask the gang-voters!
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@ Legion 😀
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Beauty contests fill me with ambivalence — they are still a guilty
pleasure of mine! LOL. (I have to laugh at myself.)
So very pleased by the vision and presence of Modong Manuela Mogga, the angel-faced and poised Miss South Sudan reaching the last 10 of the Miss World contest.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJyaYTR7l1M)
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The racist comments posted by some individuals are appalling. They also
show the ignorance of the people who posted them; Asian Indians are not Arabs and have nothing to do with the recent terrorist incidents. Can these
posters really be that stupid or ill-informed? It seems their brains have not
evolved at all. Either that or they are practicing the BIG LIE technique
invented by Josef Goebbels and think the rest of us are stupid enough to
fall for it.
To conclude: a Native American acquaintance of mine once said “if someone
cut us open we would all look the same inside.”.
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