When did India-bashing become so in vogue?

[burythehatchet]

There seem to be an inordinate number of threads labeling Indians everything from mean and nasty to unhumanly cruel towards certain classes. One poster insists that based on the interactions he has had with a handful of Indians he has met allow him to label 1 billion Indians.

I think its kind of sad/funny because the ignorance is profound. Is this a residual accumulation of the outsourcing problem?

In my experience I've met Indians who are nasty bastards and those who are saints...just like any other group. So what gives?

[imenja]

1. It must be due to outsourcing

I haven't read the India threads to which you refer, but I'm certain it must relate to the problem with outsourcing and Americans losing jobs. The fault, of course, lies with corporations and an "ethic" that privileges profits above any kind of personal or national responsibility. India, wrongly, becomes the outlet for that resentment.

[politicaholic]

9. Sure, outsourcing possibly, or maybe, just maybe, it's the polyester pants

The building accross the street from me is Indian Engineer central and wow, do those guys sport the same polyester pants and short sleeved dress shirts! The ties are the worst.

I guess they take off their ties when they move up to Microsoft.

[Az]

2. Fear, ignorance, stress, depression ...

the list goes on. But people are being put through the ringer. Some nations and groups are mentioned in connection with some of the stress they feel. Their ignorance of the matter allows them to fill in the blanks with the worst imaginings. A desire to protect themself from this percieved threat lowers their sense of connectivity with them. This begins the cycle of dehumanising them.

Nothing new.

[Warpy]

8. Baloney. It's due to seeing the decently paid office jobs

going off to India, along with the IT jobs and a lot of the medical jobs.

If there's resentment against India, it's well deserved. Looting another country's jobs is not a great thing to do if you want the high opinion of its citizens.

The same goes double for China.

[yankeedem]

10. and that is Indians fault how?

They are supposed to turn down jobs? They need to eat also. Blame greedy corporations and Americans/Westerners who don't protect their own industries.

[Warpy]

15. It's the fault of their government and ours

[Az]

11. Where did you think they were going to go?

For decades we horded the majority of the worlds resources. The rest of the world mucked by with what we didn't consume. We failed to invest in improvements in our infrastructure while they built from scratch. They improved their educational systems while ours went to seed. They caught up in capabilities and we got expensive.

Because we did not see the excess of wealth as a burden we created a vacuum. One that now we no longer have the ability to deal with. We let our control of the matter be taken over by the corporations. And now they are going to parse out the power as well as the jobs as they see fit.

If instead of focusing on beating everyone we had focused on bringing everyone into parity we would not be in this crisis. But we wanted the short term benefits. Those who started down that path didn't have to be concerned with the long term because they would be dead. Its not their problem. Its ours now.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. I think outsourcing is probably the reason

Outsourcing is exploitation. Indians working those phone centers often become estranged from their families (working graveyard shifts over there to accomodate our time frame), and have problems because of clashing cultural values.

[Vincardog]

4. accumulation of the outsourcing and phone banking

I do not like getting calls from people who can not pronounce my name asking for credit card numbers.

[indigobusiness]

5. Victimizing is in vogue in this sociopathic trend in America

Everyone else is to blame for everything.

[SariesNightly]

6. I've met both too

As much as I want to bash Indians because of a really despicable Indian lecturer, who could be the worst human being imaginable, I won't because for that one satanic creature, I've met three angelic Indian lecturers.

It's easy to be racist, but the simple fact is every race has its trash. Meet enough people, and skin color ceases to be a factor.

[htuttle]

7. The Empire hears footsteps behind it

On the surface, you might assume it's simple, all-American racism.

However, there has been such a rise in it that I'm thinking there are additional factors at work -- something channelling the ever-present US xenophobia (ironic, for a nation of immigrants) toward people from India.

Perhaps it's because they've arisen as a potential competitor on many levels lately? I'd expect a similar level of hatred toward people from China if that were so, but maybe that was already there (persisting from when they were 'Red China').

I think China has been more amenable to US investment dollars as well, so maybe that has something to do with India and Indians getting singled out in what is supposed to appear to be a 'spontaneous' burst of ill will.

[Chovexani]

12. Same shit, different year.

Blaming The Other for society's ills has always been the American Way.

Just look at the anti-LGBT horseshit that was spouted (and continues to be spouted) by certain DUers in the aftermath of the election. Racist sentiments against Indians don't surprise me at all. Some people are not nearly as "progressive" as they think they are.

[burythehatchet]

14. good points

I do remember the gay bashing

[Solly Mack]

16. Sadly, yes

[blondeatlast]

17. No one responds to the LGBT threads anymore, so it's time to kick

another group around.

My husband is Indian, and HE's threatened with outsourcing, as well as thousands of other Indians in the US. We already know of one who lost his job to India.

In this effing administration, we're ALL feeling the pain. What I don't understand is why we can't comfort each other instead of beating each other more?

[gumby]

13. When Bunnypants chose Pakistan over India.

That's part of it. The outsourcing thing is part of it... I talked to India-accented people for several days in one of those "customer service things." I must say that it did make me think. (the people I talked to were very helpful)

However, I think the Bush Cabal is putting it's money behind China, so it's that whole global owners thing. (the Bushies have been invested in China for a long time. Funny that China is now joining Russia in war games... perhaps they are joining to fight fascism?)

If you are seeing an anti India thing, perhaps it's just a logical outcome of the New World Order propaganda. <coughs>

[imenja]

18. Ignorance in action

Lots of it present on this thread. Blaming Indians for outsourcing is like blaming Mexican immigrants for the fact the agricultural and other industries insist on using cheap, undocumented laborers. Or like White workers in the North blaming African-Americans during Great Migration for taking jobs in factories. Without the decisions by corporations to keep wages as low as possible, none of this would be an issue.

[AlCzervik]

19. threads like the ones you've described is what keeps me away from gd

there is a lot of assholerly going on in here of late.