First Chamber Member Kamala Harris, a woman of Jamaican and Indian descent, has long been one that people have tried to categorize.
Since joining Joe Biden on the Democratic presidential list, some South Asians have begun to refer to Harris on social media as “Kamala Tante.” But the family and festive response has also sparked a serious discussion.
Critics point out that before South Asian Americans can ‘claim’ Harris as their own, the community must confront its own anti-blackness.
Discussion among South Asians about Harris’ Black and Indian background has always been tumultuous, a fact that has only increased since Biden chose her as his running mate. Some have criticized them for appearing pander to South Asians, others are outraged by the media that their Indian roots have been left out, while many now feel compelled to defend themselves against racist attacks by President Donald Trump.
Although there was an outpouring of celebration and praise for Harris from young South Asians after Biden’s announcement, some drew attention to troubling truths that her nomination forced the community to confront.
“I wonder if Kamala Harris as VP will influence the ‘No Blacks’ marriage rule that Indian immigrants impose on their children,” tweeted comedian Hari Kondabolu.
Anti-blackness may be uncomfortably familiar to many South Asians. Whether it is years of implicit benefits or open beliefs that have long been out of control in families and communities, critics say it must be broken down before there can be performative tones of celebration for the Indian half of a Black woman.
“We are aware of the sloppiness for Blacks, for Black people, the herbs for skin removal, the warnings given to ‘desi’ children not to bring Black partners home,” said Dr. Dhanashree Thorat, an assistant professor at Mississippi State University that studies race, feminism, and systemic oppression. “So if we’re ready to accept her as a Black woman, are we ready to confront all those things?”
Before the Indian community comes together behind Harris, it needs to understand how being black affects the lives of anyone in the United States and around the world, Thorat said. Because, although South Asians are hungry for representation, celebrating only their Indian heritage is a whim that feeds anti-blackness and the myth of the model minority.
For immigrants to the U.S., after 1965 the myth of the model minority was passed down by white people in power, praising Asian Americans as inherently hardworking and willing to assimilate to escape the oppression of Black and Latino Americans, experts have indicated.
“Why are our communities running after them now?” sei se. ‘I can not help but feel that her identity as a Black woman has suddenly become more palatable precisely because she is within the reach of this high office. And that’s exactly how model minority discourse works. ”
Harris’ relationship with South Asian America
Harris has not necessarily been quiet about her South Asian identity – she has previously talked about the inspiration she drew from her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, who immigrated to the US from the South Indies at 19, and her progressive grandfather, whom she visited in India from time to time. But the senator was never particularly vocal about her complex identity until her 2020 presidential bid.
She said she would rather define herself as “American.”
Even during her campaign, she was one of the two Asian American candidates running – but the image of the American audience of an ‘Asian’ does not resemble Harris.
“The stage she shared was Andrew Yang, an East Asian who just automatically became the Asian American candidate in the minds of the people, even though he was not the only one,” said Nitish Pahwa, an Indian American writer. who analyzed Harris’ relationship with South Asian Americans.
But as soon as she was announced as Biden’s running mate, Indians were quick to point out that there might be “someone in the White House who knows her myrrh and masala.”
But carrying Harris is not as easy as calling her “aunt.”
According to Pawha, Harris is being asked to emphasize her Indian roots over her Black, by ignoring her experiences in the US. The senator wrote in her 2019 book ‘The Truths We Hold’ that although her mother was an Indian woman, she ‘now, that she raised two Black daughters. ”
“The Indian experience in America is nowhere more deeply tied to the history and institutions of America than the Black experience in America,” Pahwa said.
It is also necessary to consider others who are both Asian and Black and have experienced intense discrimination in Asian circles, Thorat said.
“It’s almost like people talk about them as two separate women,” Thorat said. ‘You have Kamala who is a Black woman and Kamala who is a South Asian. And they are not two separate people. Why exactly do we celebrate their South Asian origins? Why can we not treat her like a Black woman? ”
And while representation is important, Thorat encourages voters to look beyond it. Considering Harris’ policy history – her tough-on-crime stance and support for policing petty offenses – it is important to determine how her leadership has impacted marginalized communities.
“We have to ask ourselves, what will these people commit themselves to as part of their position in this political bureau?” sei se. “Do they come to racial justice, to the introduction of change in immigration, and to other policies that are progressive?”
The effect of casteism and colonialism
Although recent protests by Black Lives Matter have been the catalyst for conversations in Asian American households, anti-blackness on the subcontinent is not a new concept. It dates back centuries, experts say. And its two driving forces are casteism and colonialism.
These two structures, which although legally abolished, still influence Native American culture, and confirm colorism by rewarding people who have lighter skin.
“All our communities have received anti-blackness. In South Asia, it is anti-dark, ”psychotherapist Yuki Yamazaki told NBC Asian America in June. Yamazaki is a half-South Indian, half-Japanese and studies Asian Americans and colorism at Fordham University.
The instinct for South Asians to prove their penchant for whites has already set its head in the US in the 1920s, when some Indians struggled to gain entry, claiming in court that they “know “should be considered for the purposes of immigration and that their status as” Hindu with high caste “should also count. This changed after the Immigration Act of 1965, Yamazaki said, but the idealization of whites lives on.
