Indian Apologism Is Not Helpful!
By Dr. Sawraj Singh
Recent happenings in America show that racism is growing to a point where it can turn into fascism. Let us look at three incidents. An Indian-American girl is selected for and wins the Miss America pageant. However, instead of being welcomed, she is subjected to racist slurs and online bigotry. A Sikh professor is attacked by a mob in New York. The Indian candidates in the election in Edison, New Jersey are subjected to a defacing campaign; their posters defaced by dots representing Bindis and swastikas.
These are not isolated incidents by some racist fanatics, but show a growing and deep-rooted sentiment against minorities and of growing intolerance and hatred toward them. These feelings and sentiments in the majority community are extremely dangerous because they are signs of impending fascism. Fascism in America will be far more dangerous than Europe because American society is far more violent than European society. The historical experience shows that whenever there is a crisis in capitalism, it has a tendency to turn toward fascism. American society is very deeply divided upon racial lines. Because of the tendency toward violence and deep racial divisions, America is now much more likely than Europe to turn fascist, and the fascism will be much more dangerous than Europe.
It is very tragic that some minorities, particularly Indians, do not realize what great danger fascism poses in America. The Indian community has mostly acted as an apologist for racism in America. They have either denied the existence of racism, or minimized the extent of racism in America. Unfortunately, the two leaders of Indian origin who reached the highest level, Bobby Jindal and Nikki Haley, have set a negative example about maintaining the independent identity of the Indian community in America. Both have become Christians. Even though it is their personal choice what religion they want to follow, yet being public figures, they end up giving the message that to be fully accepted in America, one has to leave one’s identity and must conform and merge with the mainstream. Indirectly, this kind of thinking promotes fanaticism and lays the ground for fascism.
Senator McCain is probably doing more harm to America than he realizes. He is encouraging the arrogant and jingoist extreme rightists and white supremacists. He also brought populist Sarah Palin to the forefront and encouraged the Tea Party movement. Both of those have mostly fizzled out. However, the Syrian crisis has given another opportunity to McCain to mislead America and complete the task Bush left unfulfilled; that is, the downfall of America. I do not think McCain fully understands the consequences of his actions. Therefore, we cannot blame him for deliberately endangering and harming America. However, inadvertently that is the direction he is taking America in. President Obama gave a new acceptability to McCain when he was looking for allies to have his policies on Syria approved by Congress. Ultimately, Putin proved more useful for Obama than McCain, and helped to pull Obama out of a difficult situation. President Obama should be very careful in allying with forces like Senator McCain. A short term gain can prove to be a big time loss in the long run.
Traditionally, I found most of the people of Indian origin to be bending over backwards to deny the existence of racism and discrimination in America. One way to lose your Indian friends is to talk about these issues with them. Indians generally do not identify themselves with minorities. They like to associate mostly with white people. However, the recent incidents have forced them to think that problems such as racism and discrimination do exist. Instead of whitewashing and denying the existence of racism, Indians should try to expose and combat it.
At this juncture, it is very important to confront the racist and fascist forces in America. Not only is the harmony and stability of American society at stake, but the emergence of fascism in America will have very serious and grave global consequences. People of Indian origin in America should understand that not only is their well-being at stake, but their mere survival is also at stake. Therefore, for their own survival and for saving America and the world, they have to stop becoming apologists for the racists and actually confront them. We need to join forces with all fair, peaceful, and justice loving people in America, including the sane elements amongst the whites to oppose the arrogant, ignorant extreme rightists, fanatics, jingoists and populists. All these elements, if unchecked, will push America to fascism.
Dr. Sawraj Singh, MD F.I.C.S. is the Chairman of the Washington State Network for Human Rights and Chairman of the Central Washington Coalition for Social Justice. He can be reached at [email protected].
