Customer Reviews

The Karma of Brown Folk

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This should be required reading for indians living in the US. Whether you agree or not with all of the opinions it helps create positive discussion (including an explanation of why such a large percentage Indians in the US have fared so well financially).

It also helps place South Asians in the context of US social order--where one's status often revolves around money and race.

The book is worth reading if only for its scathing review of deepak chopra :)

This is a book, that you will either love or hate--no middle ground. I personally love this book. Vijay Prashad's book provides a honest, critical analysis of south-asians in America. It is sharp in its criticsm of Hinduvata's influence in shaping Indian identity; just as keen in debunking the model minority myth. It is a superb rebuttal to D'Souza, and other neoconservatives and the ways in which white america uses south asians as weapons against blacks. Prashad draws on Orientalism of America, and how this affects the ways in which desis are viewed and the ways in which they act in the racial landscape of America. Finally, Prashad asks of desis to commit model minority suicide--something every desi needs to explore critically.

This book must be read by all south asians in US, to whom it is so passionately argued; whether one agrees with Prashad's arguments or not, there is something informative and worthy of consideration for desis of all political affinities. For others, it is a parochial account of the Indian immigrant experience, which makes it a bit difficult to understand, but nevertheless something you need to read and try to understand; definetely a must read for black-americans, for this book calls for a black-asian (brown) solidarity that is worth exploring. The fate (Karma)of ALL brown folks in white america, needs to be shaped by such a solidarity.

I especially recommend this book to South Asian teens, who are caught in the midst of finding their identities, and jumbling to reconcile desiness with their americaness.

First, what's right about this book: There is no question that racism and prejudice in the South Asian community is a serious issue and needs to be addressed. I applaud Prashad for, at the very least, bringing the issue to the forefront. This is the first book I am aware of that attempts to delve into this matter head-on. Prashad is one of the few folks on the far Left to clearly articulate a dynamic view of culture, as opposed to (this is consistent with my own opinion on the nature of culture). In contrast to many multiculturalists who view culture as a static in nature where people are to be pigeon-holed in a racial or ethnic box, Prashad refreshingly describes culture as a fluid concept where individuals have some degree of choosing cultural ideas, themes, practices, rituals, and values. I wish more people of Prashad's ideology would get this. As of now, I have only seen this view expressed well (if at all) by neolibertarians (e.g., various Reason magazine columnists ) and neoconservatives (e.g., Paul Gigot in the Wall Street Journal and Michael Barone in The Weekly Standard). This dynamic view of culture is Prashad's and the book's greatest contribution. Now, what's wrong with this book: The biggest problem I have with Prashad is that he has an extremely pessimistic idea of what America (i.e., the USA) is about. Specifically, he holds the common (if not standard) Leftist perspective that America is a white male-dominated society. Phrases like "racist country" and "white supremacist" pepper his arguments. While I understand this work is a polemic in nature, nevertheless his shrill statements on America as a fundamentally racist nation greatly diminish the value of his arguments on the dynamic nature of culture. His essays (such as those in the progressive magazine "Little India"), express this same, tired view of America, and generally without the benefit of his otherwise keen insights on cultural dynamics. We are expected, in this book, to accept America as a hopelessy white supremacist society (almost a priori) and this for me made the book extremely irritating to read at times. Also, I would agree with an earlier review that there are two (if not more) books within this book. While some of his discussions on Orientalism, "greedy gurus", and Hindutva (i.e., Hindu chauvinism) dovetail with is main points on racism and prejudice, he devotes far too much time and effort to these topics. Indeed, the impression I get is that he is excessively attributing South Asian racism to these factors. It seems he is trying too hard to connect South Asian racism to these themes, and in the process leaves out several issues that have been explored by others as possible factors contributing to South Asian prejudice. Why, for example, didn't he fully address desi (i.e., Indian) cultural attachment to white (a.k.a. "fair") skin? What about intra-South Asian prejudice originating in South Asia itself (which includes caste, religion, language, region, class, etc.)? One of his central arguments of (Hindu) desi Americans using "Yankee Hindutva" as a reaction to "white supremacy" fail to convince me. I believe there is far more to explore beyond orientalism, gurus, and Hindutva to try to explain desi prejudice. Prashad also almost totally ignores other ethnicities and how the play into this new American ethnocultural landscape. I would have greatly appreciate the author's views on the experiences and histories of other Asian Amerians (Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Filipinos, Vietnamese, Cambodians, etc.), Hispanics, native Americans, Jews, Italians, Irish, Arabs, Persians, Caribbean blacks, African immigrants, etc. While I'm not saying that Prashad was required to give "equal time" to other groups (he is, after all, writing a book about desis), he seems to focus too much on a desi-white(WASP)-African American triangle and not much else. Specifically, why hasn't he explored desis' views of other minorities, which would more correctly reflect desi patterns of prejudice and racism? Another twist on this is that Prashad could have discussed the experiences of desis across the diaspora, especially in Britain, Malaysia, Singapore, Guyana, Trinidad, Fiji, Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya. The latter 6 countries provide especially vivid desi experiences that point to desis' high degree of endogamy, ethnocultural conservatism, and disproportional economic power as phenomena to be explored. Finally, and this may be my own prejudice as a pragmatic, mild-mannered Midwesterner: I can't help but see Prashad as yet another ivory tower academic pontificating from his ideological bunker in the elite Cambridge-to-Capitol Hill corridor (he's a professor at Trinity College in Connecticut). Maybe it's just me, but his calls for progressive action ring hollow to me and at times it seems as if he's trying to show off his progressive credentials. Also, particularly annoying to me is his reliance on Internet usenet newsgroups to gauge desi sociopolitial thoughts and views. (I'm not sure if he uses newsgroups as an example in this book or in his other essays). A few individuals drawn to the Internet to vent their bigotry does not qualify as a group for serious cultural analyis. These newsgroups are often merely echo chambers of extremism, chauvinism, and hubris. This reliance on newsgroups makes Prashad appear to be an out-of-touch academic who doesn't or won't take the time and effort to take into account the full range of South Asian American cultural experiences. Would it be too much to ask Prashad to spend a few days interviewing desis from a variety of places, such as Edison, NJ (a premier desi commerical and cultural hub), Oak Brook, IL (a high concentration of rich and upwardly-mobile suburban desis), or just about any random motel off an Interstate in the South (where there is high chance you'll find a desis working as anything from housekeepers to managers to wealthy owners)? In short, the book discusses some important and interesting topics, and provides some very useful insights and observations, but ultimately, Prashad's stubborn ideological bent greatly diminishes an otherwise noble effort to pry open the critical cultural phenomenon of desi "success" and prejudice.

Mr. Prasad's views were a refreshing change....

Mr. Prasad's work tells it like it is and shows that even though many nonwhite immigrant groups have been successful in this country and have achieved honor and status that they, just like African-Americans and other people of color, are not above the pervasive anti-nonwhite racism that permeates this society.

Vijay Prashad has written an incisive book that is far reaching and timely. This is a handbook for those who have been thinking about what it is to be South Asian American in the US racial landscape. I haven't read anything in a long time that can draw out the progressive connections between the likes of Asian Dub Foundation, Faiz Ahmed Faiz and John Coltrane; and those who would have us fall into obsessive-compulsive disorders such as Sly Baba Chopra and D'Souza. Passionately written and politically astute.

The major problem with Prashad`s work is a good problem: it seems that he is combining two books into one.

The first part of the book is dedicated to a fairly extensive history of how Indians and Indian culture has been viewed in the United States in the 19th and 20th centuries. The second part of the book explains the model minority myth that has developed since the 1970s. While the two concepts are certainly related, each would be better served in its own work with less time and space devoted to the other.

Personally, I found Prashad`s argument to debunk the model minority myth the more compelling of the two arguments. For the first time, it helped me to understand why so many South Asians (particularly Indians) are successful in the United States. Basically, the immigration policy in the United States has assured that there will only be well educated, intelligent South Asians in the United States. That`s slowly changing now, but the model minority myth remains very prevelant, even in relative well educated circles.

Prashad's book keeps in step not only with academic scholarship about Asian Americans and Asians in America but shows why we should all care. Finally someone breaks down meaningless stereotypes about Asian "success" and Black "failure" -- D'Souza's self-congratulatory rhetoric ignores the complicated truths of survival we see and live everyday. Prashad gives common sense a good name.

Who are these reviewers? What kind of axe do they want to grind? This is a great book: I love it. I've bought multiple copies and given it to friends. Read it yourself and see how fresh it is. It says it like it is, and asks for solidarity for social struggles that is so needed. Someone said Prashad is the 'avenger': true that.

I am a 2nd generation Desi and have run into a number of disturbing trends amongst fellow Desis and on what they tend to focus. It clarifies anomalies such as lifestyle choices. If many Desi elites are truly "successful" even if that means within the filter of white-supremacy, being a model minority, then in what is that success measured? Fiscal wealth means only so much, and even then how empowering is it, when the dream of returning to the Motherland of South Asia is never fulfilled.

By relating the idea of the model minority and its place in a white supremacist society it gives more meaning to what we as diaspora can do. Not only must we dismiss racism (e.g. in it's anti-black or anti-Muslim forms) from the Hindutva, but we must go head on and attack it, namely in the sense of creating a true poly-cultural, anti-racist agenda.

Vijay Prashad does criticize D'souza and Chopra as well they should be, not only for their views, but their portrayal of Desis in an American light. They are not successes, simply because they make money, or have a following. They are irrelevant.

I've already chosen the life of model-minority suicide as an activist for Palestinian Solidarity and against racist agendas of Imperialism and Zionism, and as a devout (direct) democrat (not party, but ideology). This suicide means that we shoudn't even give time of day to the hierarchy that enslaves us to enslave others. We should organize ourselves and make our own wealth and our own world.

Remarkable work by Prashad which has quickly become a classic.

This book carries out a very deep analysis of the South Asian
diaspora in the west, which helps us gain tremendous insights
into their complex condition. Read it!!!