I am sure many of you have already heard about the negative backlash against the new Miss America, Nina Davuluri. If you have not, here are some excerpts from Twitter of some things that were said Sunday night, complete with my own sarcastic commentary.
“@Sarawhitton: this is America. not India.”
My response: Good observation @Sarawhitton, this IS America, not India. Curse those judges for getting that one confused! Someone should have let them know!
“@savannah_dale97:Miss New York is an Indian.. With all do respect, this is America.”
My response: I think you mean, “with all due respect”, @savannah_dale97, but I guess “do respect” works too. Maybe you should try some of that respect thing.
“@Not_MissAmerica: More like Miss Terrorist #MissAmerica.”
My response: Nice one, @Not_MissAmerica!
Oh, and my personal favorite tweet.
“@JAyres15: I swear I’m not racist but this is America.”
My response: Guys, she swears she’s not racist! But this IS America!
I am just as likely as the next person to admit there are people out there who are either poorly educated (please note any of the above tweets) or don’t have any cool South Asian friends (what a bummer), but the massive outcry on Twitter has been shocking, disgusting, and a sharp reminder that as much as we like to call ourselves a “post-racial society,” the title isn’t warranted. By the looks of it, it won’t be as quick to come as we’d hope.
To give you a little background on where I am coming from, I am speaking about this from the perspective of a 20-something, college-educated, South Asian female. My parents immigrated here from Gujarat, India, in the late 1970s as a result of an “educated immigrant” push by the U.S. government. They decided to come here for the same reason as many of my Caucasian counterparts’ ancestors did: to make a better life for their children.
My childhood could easily be described as a blend between all things Indian and American. It was the type of childhood that could have been described by the types of lunches I brought to school, chutney sandwiches, Oreos and inconspicuous juice boxes of “Frooti,” which if you’ve never had one, you are missing out. Do yourself a favor and try it. At that stage in my life, not only was I teased for putting oil in my hair and having two long braids hanging down my back, but I was under the impression that we, as an ethnic group, would never be considered anything but simply outsiders.
All of this was exacerbated by 9/11. After 9/11, my family and I saw an immediate backlash against people who looked like us. No longer were we the Indian family on the block, we became the “them” in an “us vs. them” epidemic that spread across the nation and challenged the lives of so many families like our own. There were racist phrases painted on my parents’ cars, derogatory comments from the parents at school, and “random searches” in public airports. It was these events that intuitively shaped my perception that as Indian-Americans, we would never be able to fit in. Our allegiances were questioned because our noses were too big and our skin too tan. In essence, we were just too different. For us, in order to fit in we would need to abandon everything that had been related to our heritage in order to fit some perceived norm of what it means to be American.
That’s why Nina Davuluri’s win means so much to our community. For the first time, Indian-Americans are being represented in the mainstream media not as questionable figures but as Americans who should be considered role models for young girls everywhere. When I was growing up, you would never have seen the day an Indian woman was featured in a magazine or seen on TV, let alone a Miss America beauty pageant. The girl’s talent was a Bollywood dance, her career aspiration is a physician, and she wants to improve Science, Technology,Engineering, Mathematics education nationally. She exemplifies beauty, grace and intelligence with a desire to improve her community. Davuluri is a great example of what it means to be a relatable American woman.
Before more recent times, the closest thing we had to representation was Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Sure, we had an Indian doctor on the news, but what about our women? Strong, successful and beautiful, our stories were never told, our presence never acknowledged positively. But that’s changing now. With role models such as Mindy Kaling and now Davuluri, we are seeing a shift in the representation and a more diverse depiction of not only South Asians in general, but Indian-American women everywhere. We are seeing our women embraced for their beauty, sense of humor, intellect and grace.
But even that comes with a price. The price is what we are seeing now. The concept that an American-born Indian woman is not American enough is a pervasive thought that haunts all the progress that we’ve made as a society. For some odd reason, maybe because our hair is not blonde and our eyes are not blue, we are somehow less American than our next-door neighbors.
The point of this piece is simply to say that America is changing. As a nation, we need to understand that there is so much more to an American woman, to Miss America, than the color of her skin and how you pronounce her name. Nina Davuluri is Miss America simply because she embodies what it is to be an American, which is smart, strong, inventive and driven.
I’m not saying that everyone in the United States has these racist opinions of Nina Davuluri. I would go as far as to argue that the majority opinion is quite opposite from the racist remarks we’ve seen from Twitter. I would point to my best friends, my peers and my campus to show just how far we’ve come as a society. But the fact of the matter is, this opinion still persists nationally, and we need to do the best we can to rise above it and change these haunting perceptions that argue someone is inherently American enough simply because of what she looks like.
My two cents for Nina: ignore all the people sippin’ on “haterade,” enjoy the crown and continue to be a role model for girls everywhere. Congratulations, Miss America.
Veena is a senior majoring in neurobiology and political science. What do you think about Veena’s perspective on this controversy? Did you see any tweets that were worse than the ones mentioned here? Please send all feedback to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
