SAN FRANCISCO – Not only do South Asians and Blacks in this country hold increasingly racist notions of each other in the post-September 11 era, but they, along with other people of color, are increasingly likely to engage in White supremacy behavior, a biracial scholar of cross-cultural relations asserted.
“I’m very concerned about inter-minority racism,” said Dr. Nitasha Sharma, an assistant professor of African American studies and Asian American studies at Northwestern University. “It’s more than just having a negative idea about someone; it’s about oppressing them. Some minorities uphold White supremacy in what has become multiracial White supremacy.”
Her remarks came during the 24th annual meeting of the National Conference on Race & Ethnicity in American Higher Education. As examples of such racism, Sharma cited how some South Asians—which she defined as Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis—unfairly scorn Blacks, while xenophobic sentiments in recent years have led some Black Americans to unfairly typecast South Asians “as terrorists.”
She noted how gaps continue to increase between Blacks and South Asians, making them near-polar opposites in yardsticks such as educational attainment and in the subsequent social stereotypes as well. “Blacks are underrepresented in higher education, overrepresented in incarceration and stereotyped as overly sexual and innately athletic. South Asians are earning more income than almost everyone else, including Whites; they’re overrepresented in higher education, yet viewed as asexual, non-athletic.”
She added that, as uncomfortable as people may become from the acknowledgement of such observations, “it’s important we not shy away from talking about our differences” because only through honesty “can we develop models for multiracial alliance.”
Sharma’s comments came during a session she led entitled “Let’s Talk About Inter-Minority Race Relations and Racism: (South) Asian/Black Relations Mediated Through Hip Hop Culture.” It was among discussions, panels and workshops across five days in which educators examined not only race, gender, religion and sexual orientation, but intersections among them that often result in minority populations being abused.
In a speech, University of California, Hastings College of the Law chancellor and dean Frank Wu echoed Sharma’s theme, in part, about Asians becoming marginalized. He recounted how, growing up in Detroit in the 1970s as one of few Chinese American youth in the area, he withstood slurs “like ‘chink’ and ‘gook’ and questions over whether my parents were Communists.”
