The Man, the marvel, the Racist: Racism still in action

A while back, I decided i wanted to start writing a blog in my continual efforts to make a difference in the world. However, i was completely clueless as to where to start off, or even what to write about. However, while i was doing my daily Facebook surfing today, i stumbled upon an article my cousin had put up in her status. This article (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1999416,00.html) written by the enlightened Joel Stein, was a “humor” article, discussing his days of youth where he, as a child (though i wouldn’t be surprised about what he does today) would steal from various stores (claiming now that “There is an entire generation of white children in Edison who have nowhere to learn crime”) and yell at several Indians that they should “go home to India”. I find myself a fun-loving and accepting person, but this man’s opinions and views border on neo-Nazism, complaining about samosas and how Indians think that all “white people look old”. This man hits the epitome of blatant racism. In the day and age we live in today, and in the melting-pot of a country we live in, I’m surprised that Time even allowed this article to be published and didn’t see any problems with it before.

This article’s ONLY saving grace is that Kal Penn wrote an actually humorous rebuttal (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kal-penn/the-hilarious-xenophobia_b_634264.html).

Honestly, as the daughter of immigrant parents, i find this article truly offensive, with a capital O. Stein at one point wonders why so many Indians chose to populate Edison, New Jersey, his hometown, and asks “Were they from some Indian state that got made fun of by all the other Indian states and didn’t want to give up that feeling? Are the malls in India that bad? Did we accidentally keep numbering our parkway exits all the way to Mumbai?”. I know for a fact that India is a difficult place to live, with sometimes freezing weather in the winter and 120 degree heat in the summer, with incredible amounts of poverty and a system so corrupt, that even the native residents become frustrated. His prodding of malls and making fun of one of the oldest religions on the planet only further proves that this man is a pig-headed, racist, and one that nobody should put up with. Luckily, several organizations, such as SAALT, have rebelled against the article.

The author claims that his article was only meant to provide humor, but personally, i find it completely lacking taste and absolutely humorless.