[Vision2020] Hillary's slur on Indian-Americans

[amy smoucha]

Hmmm Dick.  In my neighborhood, in Polish South Chicago, all the slang below 
was slung.  However, rather than "take it" people would beat the hell out of 
someone who used a term as a "slurr."  Those immigrants weren't "stronger", 
but they may have acted on it differently, say with a knife or a fist.

I lived in St. Louis for a dozen years, and I imagine a lot of people would 
laugh about Hillary's joke in an insider way.  There is much tension between 
Asian shop keepers and African American communities and white neighborhood 
organizations.  It's a very complex set of issues--about who sells liquor 
and cigarettes, about who owns things and who buys goods, about crime, 
power, money, families, safe nieghborhoods.  I'm not defending Hillary's 
humor--let's talk about why it offends some folks.  But, in the context of 
issues in that community, it's an insider joke with a lot of referents.

These discussions--the humor, the response, the questions--are not whiney.  
They reflect real, meaty, challenging issues in real communities.  
Immigrants today aren't more or less whiney, industrious, or anything else.  
If you look at the history of immigration, the groups and their concerns 
were very complex--just look at the wobblies in your own back yard.  Did 
they just shut up and assimilate?  Should they have?

Anyway the golden days aren't, and the issues are more complex than you may 
think.

Amy Smoucha


----Original Message Follows----
From: "Dick Schmidt" <dickschmidt@moscow.com>
To: "Tim Lohrmann" <timlohr@yahoo.com>, <vision2020@moscow.com>
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Hillary's slur on Indian-Americans
Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2004 20:05:19 -0800

Tim,

She is just "bumping" the facts that Indians, and other nationalities from 
that part of the world, own more than half the gas stations, party stores 
and motels east of the Mississippi.

I thought someone was too thin skinned but about this situation when I read 
the article earlier today on the internet. Everybody wants to be treated 
like a baby. I'm tired of all the whiney a**ed minorities who have nothing 
else to do but bitch!

Our ancestors were called "polaks", "krauts", "stinkin' Roosians", "dagos", 
"wops", "frogs", and many other names. They were much stronger than the 
whiney immigrants we have coming in now. We never hear any complaints out of 
those from the Orient. They come here, work and study hard and blend in to 
our society and become model citizen Americans. That is the kind of 
immigrant they all should be.

Dick Schmidt
   ----- Original Message -----
   From: Tim Lohrmann
   To: vision2020@moscow.com
   Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2004 7:44 PM
   Subject: [Vision2020] Hillary's slur on Indian-Americans


   Visionaries,
      Isn't it remarkable how some folks are so forgiven when they engage in 
bigotry or racial/ethnic stereotyping?
       TL

   Hillary Clinton Regrets Gandhi Joke
   JIM SUHR
   Associated Press

   ST. LOUIS - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton apologized for joking that 
Mahatma Gandhi used to run a gas station in St. Louis, saying it was "a lame 
attempt at humor."

   The New York Democrat made the remark at a fund-raiser Saturday. During 
an event here for Senate candidate Nancy Farmer, Clinton introduced a quote 
from Gandhi by saying, "He ran a gas station down in St. Louis."

   After laughter from many in the crowd of at least 200 subsided, the 
former first lady continued, "No, Mahatma Gandhi was a great leader of the 
20th century." In a nod to Farmer's underdog status against Republican Sen. 
Kit Bond, Clinton quoted the Indian independence leader as saying: "First 
they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."

   The director of a U.S. center devoted to Gandhi's teachings said the 
remarks amounted to stereotyping and were insensitive.

   After being approached by The Associated Press to clarify the remarks, 
Clinton suggested in a statement late Monday that she never meant to fuel 
the stereotype - often used as a comedic punch line - that certain ethnic 
groups run America's gas stations.

   "I have admired the work and life of Mahatma Gandhi and have spoken 
publicly about that many times," Clinton said. "I truly regret if a lame 
attempt at humor suggested otherwise."

   Michelle Naef, administrator of the M.K. Gandhi Institute for 
Nonviolence, a Memphis, Tenn.-based organization founded in 1991 by a Gandhi 
grandson, credited Clinton and her husband, former President Clinton, with 
long having "supported the Gandhi message." But she said Saturday's remarks 
"could be incredibly harmful."

   "I don't think she was, in any way, trying to demean Mahatma Gandhi," 
Naef said. "To be generous to her, I would say it was a poor attempt at 
humor. Perhaps I'm overly sensitive, but I find it offensive when people use 
stereotypes in that way."

   ON THE NET

   M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence,



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