Date: Mon, 9 Dec 1996 12:30:56 -0800 (PST) From: Lakshmi Gopinathan Nair <lnair-AT-uclink2.berkeley.edu> Subject: Id-entity Give me a name My name is Lakshmi Hindu goddess ooh, how exotic bet you're a wild thing. What a nice traditional name. Such a sweet girl. So Indian. No, no White feminists tell me I am not a girl. I am a woman please. Dirty slut. She's a bad influence on our girls, that one. Too Americanized. American? No. Only in India am I American. Here I am... ??? Asian hyphen American You don't look Asian. In England, I do. That, or black. Black? Ah yes... nigger. Or maybe sand nigger would be more appropriate. Dot head? Or how about Paki? Oh, Indian. What tribe? Pierced nose. Must be nouveau tribal. No, no... it's a traditional thing. for "us" Asian Indians... South Asian Cauc-Asian No, Dravidian South Indian, that is. Malayali Hindu (Hairy Krishna?) Um, Nair (International Society of Caste Consciousness.) Who wears short shorts? Person of color? But Amma says, Don't go outside or you'll lose your color. Perhaps post-colonial hyphen American. American Born Confused Desi... A,B,C,D... a, aah, i, eee, u, ooo... look at you, dancing bhangra, listening to Nusrat, eating pani puri like it was dosa-idli. Aren't you supposed to be a madrasi? And why don't you madrasis speak Hindi, anyways? Why don't you speak Malayalam? Wow, you speak English so well. Hardly any accent! Could I be considered sub-altern? No, you're just a middle class, privileged Western-educated Oriental. ethnocentric sell-out. First hyphen third world Imperialist nigger bitch who's late with the rent check yet again because you refused to study medicine or at the very least engineering. The least you could do is marry a nice boy. You know there's this guy. I think his name is uh, Patel He works in the 7-11. Yeah, I think he'd be perfect for you. Go home! Go back to where you came from! Tell me where to go and I'll go and rest and dream of nameless things.
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