South Asian Workers’ Center (SAWC)[i] is proud to have volunteers who are from the South Asian community, as well as those who are not. One such volunteer, a Haitian student who lives in Malden, Patrick, offered to help our organization with the food drive.
In mid-May, Pat spent a few hours at BJ’s (Grocery Store) gathering essential items for 25 families in Malden. He purchased rice, kidney beans, cooking oil, fruits and veggies, milk, and eggs. One of the homes that he was instructed to drop off some food at was owned by a SAWC coordinator, named Ganga, a light-skinned South Asian woman who helps out with pandemic relief work. Upon opening the door and seeing Pat with heavy bags of rice and beans, Ganga immediately shut the door on his face. She was taken aback. She was waiting for a visit from the SAWC community. Her first and immediate response on seeing an unfamiliar and non-South Asian person was to shut the door.
Faced with this abrupt show of disrespect, Pat was furious and dropped the bag off at her door and ran to his car. He immediately called and vented to me about the hurtful interaction:
“Yes, Professor Sinha. Your community people are racist. This white lady shut the door in my face as she owns this big house and she thought it is a Black guy who could be a criminal and rob her? How can she treat a student volunteer like this? Isn’t she aware that I am helping the community?”
How has this coordinator never learned that you don’t shut the door in the face of a volunteer who is helping you during the pandemic? They should be taught about the history of Black people’s struggle in this country.
“I was out in the store for three hours, risking my life!! Isn’t my life important? Do you know the Black community are more prone to catching this virus infection? Most Black people live in crowded housing conditions due to legal segregation and redlining policies. They have poor access to health care due to racism in the health care industry. They have chronic health conditions from intergeneration trauma and environmental stressors, which lead to weaker immunity.”
And they are the essential workers.
And let me tell you #Blacklivesmatter! Do you understand the reason why I am so furious? I have nothing against your community, but why can’t your community accept a Black person helping them?
I had to talk to Ganga and understand why she treated Pat in this terrible fashion. I was on a telephonic conversation with both of them on separate lines.
Ganga: I never shut the door on him. He was without a mask, so I went inside to get one for him. I am a 60-year-old lady with underlying health issues. I do not want to be exposed to the virus! He was out for so long and could have passed the virus to me.
Jyoti: Apart from passing on the virus, he was buying groceries for 25 families in your neighbourhood. Many of those families have been COVID victims and barely have supplies in their kitchens! Can we please show some respect and acceptance for people who are not from our community?
Pat: I had a cotton bandana that I covered my face with, it is very sturdy and comfortable. Better than the I-19 masks people buy from the market. It is not easy to get infected when you have those masks and also, I drink a very healthy Haitian drink.
Ganga: Do not worry Jyoti! This student of yours is a disturbed guy, I often see him picking fights with all the neighbours in Malden. He is mostly on drugs and seems disturbed to me. He is, for sure, seeking publicity and attention within the South Asian community! We should not allow such notorious people to join SAWC; I can give you many South Asian volunteers who could help our centre.
Jyoti: Can we stop having such stereotypical assumptions about people, I am offended by this statement Ganga. He is my student, and I know him to be a social justice advocate so let us be nice to people who are doing something for our community. He is helping us during the pandemic; let us keep our biases and prejudices away. Forming such an alliance with Haitians, Hispanic, and African American groups will help us get over our hesitation in connecting with other communities. Especially during such a tough time, we need to form alliances. It is entirely unfair to call him a drug addict!
Ganga: (a very religious person, defends her point by saying, today is Thursday and it is Lord Vishnu’s day, he sent this disturbed guy to help us as he wanted to teach us a lesson.) Pat is abnormal, so he was shouting and yelling at our community. You see how most black people are loud and aggressive. He refused to unload and drop the rice and beans bags in front of my porch, as he did not like the South Asian community. He is just doing this for grades and passing your course work. Lord Vishnu took care of the South Asian community, and my son, who is working from home, came out and helped unload the stuff out of his car. Lord Vishnu is also giving us a message to involve our community. Other communities do not understand our culture. For others to understand our culture, we need to invite them for our Pujas, bhajans and recite mantras to them. Pat is disturbed so these mantras will help him calm down and not blame the entire world for being racist. Anyway, Black people are very loud and look so different from us. Also, many have criminal histories, either doing drugs or shoplifting. Therefore, they are always suspected by the cops. I watch such news almost every day.
Jyoti: Really? Different? In what sense? South Asian men are also treated poorly by white folks in this country you told me so last time! So why this bias against Black people by us, the South Asians?”
There is no grade or academic point Pat earns from helping SAWC community!
Certain behaviours that people think are common to Black people, such as rapping or dancing while walking, are seen as being ‘disturbed’ and/or ‘abnormal’ by certain members of the South Asian community. For a Ganga, a Black Haitian young man spells “danger” – Pat was a potential danger”.
This is what sociologists understand as a stereotype – a widely held, simplified, and essentialist belief about a specific group. It is closely linked to prejudice – a preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience. Such attitudes lead to discrimination -the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex. Pat for Ganga represented the ‘other’.
————————————————————
Related to this: Prejudice against Blacks within the South Asian community has been talked about during the #BlackLivesMatter protests and in other contexts. Sharing some links that discuss this:
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/embed/p08kts7j/53395935
Another member of our community, Sufia, an Indian cook who has lived in America for 30 years, was speaking to me in Hindi about why she would not come for our community cooking event. Her comments showed how her family’s intra-group prejudice toward those from their same religious group, but from a different region, lent to the inter-group prejudice she and they hold toward Black people.
Sufia: “Nahi..hum bangali muslamano ke saath baat chit nahi karte, hum nahi ayengey aapke community cooking event par and humey nahi chahiyea yeh ration pani. Bangali musalman humse bahut alag hote hain… low category ke Muslim hote hain. We Indian muslims are the most superior, we have been to Haj and are very religious. Hum unsey gift card lelengey par khane ka samaan nahi!
Translation: No, we do not interact with Bangladeshi Muslims, never in our 30 years in this country did we ever make friends, talk, or dine with them. They are inferior to us; we Indian Muslims are much more accomplished, have better class and are superior to them in all senses. We have been to our Holy places, so we cannot eat anything from their kitchen or offered by them. We can accept gift cards and pandemic support checks from them, but not produce or other edible stuff from them.
Kalo ke saath to hum kabhi baat bhi nahi karte.
We never talk to blacks!”
Jyoti: But why? This is so wrong! What is so wrong with black people whom you think are inferior and different from you?
Sufia: (offended and mad at Jyoti) Do not ever try and reach out to me again. I do not want to talk to anyone who wants to change my thinking at this point of my life. My husband worked at Whole Foods (grocery store) his whole life. I am a chef by profession and cook in people’s kitchen and help them with their household work. I cook, clean and make exotic dishes at South Asian people’s kitchen to make my living. My husband and me worked very hard to make our living in this country. Our kids are our legacy, and their success defines whether we did right or wrong. Both our sons are well-settled, earning well, and are Software Engineers in California. With our pride, conservative ideas and beliefs, we helped our kids become successful. Now you are interfering with our ideologies and calling it a bias? Do not ever try calling me. Go away! Our kids will not approve of us joining any ethnic group or believe in community building exercise.
Moreover, to answer your previous question: There is no way we will ever talk to or relate with any Black communities in our neighbourhood. We are different from them, and their food habits are so different from us.
This explicit voicing of what can be seen as clear racial and ethnic prejudices and stereotypes by ordinary, regular people is deeply disturbing. It violates every attempt to build bridges, nurture diversities and solidarities across groups. That it becomes manifest in a humanitarian crisis such as COVID-19 is both worrying and distressing.
________________________
Related to this: The nomination of Senator Kamala Harris as the Democratic Vice Presidential candidate is historic beacause it’s for the first that an interracial woman – Black and Asian American lineage will be running for such a high office in the US. At the same time, her position as a woman of Black and South Asian lineage has led to conjectures on what it would mean for both the communities and the relation between the two. Some related links:
𐩘What Kamala Harris’ unique story means to Black and South Asian Americans?𐩘The Kamala Harris identity debate shows how America still struggles to talk about multiracial people
𐩘What Kamala Harris’ unique story means to Black and South Asian Americans?𐩘The Kamala Harris identity debate shows how America still struggles to talk about multiracial people
It is not easy for people to accept that they harbour prejudices, stereotypes, and they discriminate. As members of an ethnic or racial group, they have been brought up with such ideas. These are common sense of their groups. Sociologists and anthropologists have found common sense both confounding and powerful. It makes sense to follow common sense in everyday life. It is practical at a personal level and deeply political at the macro level. The guiding maxim would be to stay within your ‘own’ groups; avoid the ‘others’. That is ‘safe’; much like the advice for women to stay home; the elite to be in ‘gated communities’; the poor to be kept away. What is rendered invisible in the narrative is that this is unjust and discriminatory. The logic would be, therefore, that South Asians should stay within their groups. But as we saw the South Asian community is vast, diverse, and internally hierarchical. As our group grows in America, we need to encourage one another to listen to and care for the diversity of other groups as well.
[i] South Asian workers’ centers is a community-led organization based out in Boston. The center helps the immigrant community connect with the available resources in their neighborhood. We organize through food ,culture, art and activism.
https://cambridge.wickedlocal.com/news/20200612/guest-solidarity-during-pandemic—-sawc-and-community, accessed on 18th September 2020.
Jyoti Sinha teaches within the Sociology department and the Honors College at University of Massachusetts Boston. Her immediate research interest focuses on community building within the South Asian diaspora in the northeastern region. She is the Founder and President of the South Asian Workers’ Center (SAWC), a home for the South Asian diaspora within New England.