Make America Anti-racist Again
As a first-generation American of Indian origin, I have seen racism firsthand. I have seen it growing up in India — with my family unconsciously discriminating against a barber, as it was considered “sin” to touch them. I have seen my Catholic school deliberately and forcefully violate the rules between church and school by teaching us “moral science” with fables from the Bible. India is a country built on sectarian ideologies — we have hierarchical and racist tendencies at all levels. Some of these centuries-old racistic ideologies are based on religion — Hindu vs. Muslim for example. However, these tendencies go deeper than religion — the class society of the Hindu religion makes people implement conscious biases between castes. For example, Vaishyas (Businessmen) caste are “inferior” to Brahmin (Priest) caste. Sub-castes, for example, Dalit (untouchable) caste has many sub-castes. To make things more disgusting, each of these can have many sub-castes have divisions within them based on the geographical and historical separations as well. The hierarchical nature of the Indian caste system is something that’s ingrained in how most people go about their daily lives, even today. Growing up, I was part of the Vaishya (businessmen) class and I was *proud* of my caste. I felt privileged that I can look down upon others. I criticized the reservation (quota) system for education seats in India and lamented that this is biased towards unqualified students. I was not just ignorant of the plight of the minorities who have been oppressed for centuries, but I was outright arrogant in my disapproval of the nation’s policies to give them a level playing field. In short — I was an arrogant, privileged Hindu man all my life, and I am frankly ashamed of it. Worse, I never even knew of my vicious predilection until my 16-year-old son, Varoon introduced me to the term “Antiracist” a few months ago.
When I arrived in the USA for my postgraduate studies 22 years ago, I was worried if the country would accept me. Though I watched many Hollywood movies in preparation for my arrival, I was barely proficient in understanding the “American Accent”, nevermind talking in one. Despite all my fears, my institution, the staff, and fellow students accepted me with no prejudice. Frankly, it was genuinely refreshing to see a nation with no explicit bias against outsiders like me. I finished my MS and eventually started my own company over the years. Over my many interactions with customers, students, faculty, investors, faculty, and staff — I personally have not seen any explicit racism in America. I was worried that this will all change on September 11th, 2001. I attribute most of this to George W Bush’s unequivocal condemnation of anti-muslim hatred and calls for tolerance that has unified the nation.
Unfortunately, all that changed about four years ago.
Most people read “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” as just a vision by the forefathers of the nation.
While society moved forward in being more inclusive, some dark corners of America became more reclusive. Organizations like KKK sprung up from these reclusive corners. The members of these hateful organizations and their sympathizers felt like their rights were taken away by the minorities, and they wanted to revert back to the nation where “all men are created equal” applied only to “all privileged men”. I am sure they had some “justifications” or “rationale” for such assumptions — there is enough evidence to show that the founding fathers themselves were slaveowners, and made explicit comments on how slavery was an integral part of our nation. Fortunately, the progressive legislations of the last 50 years, led by Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, John Lewis, and many other civil rights activists have resulted in incremental steps towards a more perfect union. These progressive directions have led to the election of Barack Obama in the year 2008. For all their vision, and transformative language — I don’t think Ben Franklin would have predicted that America would have an African American president 232 years after their declaration of independence. I am not sure if they would have been happy or disgusted if they had a glimpse of this future. We can never get into the shoes of our founding fathers — they had a different upbringing, completely different historical backgrounds, and the overarching cultural biases integrated into their daily lives. I was one of the progressives saw Obama’s victory on November 4th, 2008 as the turning point in America’s racist post towards a more inclusive future. I was in a hotel near the Northeastern University campus that night, anxiously awaiting the results and the announcement of Obama as the winner in the 2008 elections. The results were announced around midnight and I came out to take a breath of fresh air. Within minutes, hundreds of students ran into the middle of the campus chanting “Obama, Obama, Obama” and I ran alongside these students, envisioning a better future and a more inclusive country. I assumed that this is the beginning of the end of racism in America.
I was so wrong.
Obama’s election energized the progressives, but we completely ignored the 35% of the country that hated Obama. They did not just despise his policies, they did not just dislike his rhetoric, they probably did not even detest him, but they resented the fact that he was an African American. However disgusted they were — their racist tendencies were ignored by the Republican Party. There were some tea party activists like Ted Cruz and Jim Jordan that made mild gestures based on their perception of eroding privilege in the nation, by gently blowing their dog whistles of racism. Donald Trump saw an opportunity here, probably in the years 2013–2015, and started spouting racist conspiracy theories about Obama’s birth. While progressives ignored him as a clown and a bigot the “silent majority” heard these proclamations loud and clear. They saw a messiah in Donald Trump, someone who will Make America Great Again, by taking it back to the world where “all men” meant “all privileged men”.
I am not sure how Donald Trump arrived at this conclusion that there is an undercurrent of racism, or if he was purely stating what he had his in mind all along. Regardless of the origin, he stumbled upon the silent majority of disgruntled Americans who hated what America has become and wanted it to go back to the good old days. He tested this message with Republicans and their biases during this presidential bid in 2016 by calling Mexicans rapists. After he saw the positive response to this message, he escalated this to “Build a wall, and get Mexico to pay for it”. Once this took form, he denigrated Muslims and called for a “Complete Shutdown of Muslims entering the United States”. Trump replaced racist dog whistles with full-throated bigoted bull horns. Everyone, Trump included did not realize how much this resonated with a silent corner of our great nation. They saw in Trump someone who resonates with their disgust of Obama. They saw in Trump a messiah that would reverse all their perceived “anti-privilege” legislations of the last 50 years. They saw in Trump someone who thinks like them, cares about them, and resonates with them. Trump took advantage of this perception among the silent majority and kept stoking their anger with insightful rhetoric on Mexicans, Muslims, African Americans, Obama, and anyone that did not believe in the concept of privilege.
We lived in an expensive neighborhood in the outskirts of Atlanta, and I thought had courteous relations with my neighbors in the community. Donald Trump’s election has opened up a centuries-old wound in our nation, and this was apparent in our community as well. Overnight, some of my neighbors who celebrated Diwali with us the past year decided to ignore my greetings altogether. Even some of my Indian friends explained how Trump’s win means that they were right along to discriminate against Muslims — they saw in Trump a permission structure to continue their racist ideologies. I guess most people want to feel accepted n the world — even if they have immoral tendencies or unacceptable ideologies — Trump’s victory emboldened them in 2016. They saw Trump’s victory as a vindication of their pain and decided to be more explicit in their hatred for minorities. Trump had many opportunities to change this, he could have reset his campaign rhetoric on inauguration day, he could have unequivocally criticized white supremacists after Charlottesville, he could have disbanded his racist policies against Muslims, he could have been more tolerant to Hispanics — he did none of these. He continued stoking racist flames in the nation because he wanted to Make America Racist Again. Instead of trying to unify the country, he saw that his only path for reelection is to divide it further and deepen the divide between racists and antiracists.
A few months ago, Varoon Kodithala and Damian Galvan, both rising High School Juniors interviewed Dr. Neal Lester on their Polititeen Podcast. This podcast was revealing to me on many levels, I heard several terms and their definitions for the first time. In fact, I heard some of the words like privilege, implicit bias, racism before — but I never understood the real meaning behind these words. In short, I woke up to my own internal tendencies of systemic racism after listening to this interview. I understood that I was a racist because of my upbringing as a Hindu kid from a caste that was considered “upper caste”. The only way I can fix this is by becoming an “Antiracist”.
“Anti-racism is the active process of identifying and eliminating racism by changing systems, organizational structures, policies and practices and attitudes, so that power is redistributed and shared equitably.” — NAC International Perspectives: Women and Global Solidarity
Over the last few months, I have explored different dark corners of my own upbringing to understand how I can be an explicit antiracist. I made some serious changes to my lifestyle, including the completion of my transition out of organized religion. I started this quest a few years ago, and whatever arguments I had to support my Hindu religion were wiped out once I understood the racist connotations of the caste system. At least for me, the only way to be a true antiracist is to abstain from the core foundation of my own racism. Once I made this transition, it was easy to be non-denominational about myself, and it allowed me to do the same for others.
I feel that Joe Biden had a similar transformation over the years. In his 47 years of politics, he made some mistakes. He sided with segregationists and supported legislation that can be construed as racist for us now. He has shown that he can learn from his mistakes and remediate his wrongs. In fact, Joe Biden was at the helm of much social justice and criminal reforms under President Obama. Kamala Harris was the most vocal in her opposition to Joe Biden’s nomination during the presidential debates, especially for his support on the school busing. I am sure Biden was affected negatively by this withering criticism. However, instead of shunning Kamala, he welcomed her to join him on the party ticket. Once elected, Kamala Harris will be the first Mixed Race (African American + Indian) Vice President of the nation. Joe Biden might have made some mistakes, but he learns from them by listening to his friends and opponents alike. He has a strong conviction that America is not a racist nation, and he believes that even the people with racist predilections can be informed better to elevate the conversation in the country.
Let’s imagine an antiracist President Of The United States
Trump’s divisive, bigoted, and race-baiting language, countered by Biden’s unifying, tolerant, and antiracist rhetoric.
Trump’s explicit support of the fringe elements like QAnon, replaced by Biden’s overwhelming support of the progressive ideologies that moved our nation forward.
Trump’s vitriol and bluster, displaced by Biden’s soothing statesmanship.
I support Joe Biden because of his unequivocal commitment to unifying the nation, and his explicit commitment to Antiracism.
I hope you can join me in voting this election season to Make America Antiracist Again.