In the U.S., on Sunday, Donald Trump led an extremely racist and inflammatory rally in New York City that many are comparing to 1930’s Germany. Speakers mocked Latinos and Black Americans, said they should slaughter people who didn’t vote for Trump, and called Puerto Rico (a U.S. territory) “a floating island of garbage.” This is amid continuing voter suppression of Black and Hispanic voters and Elon Musk paying out $1 million to Republican voters in swing states. Elections are in a week.
Gas prices are shockingly low in Europe and the United States, given Iran and Israel striking each other. In most states in the U.S., gas is below $3 a gallon. This is due to a global lowering demand for oil compared to alternative energy sources – generally, a very positive sign.
25 million people need humanitarian aid in Sudan. 750,000 people are on the brink of starvation. Thousands of civilians are being killed and there is mass rape and torture. This is a result of the continued war between the military and paramilitary forces (RSF and SAF). There is still war and suffering in Darfur. Still.
North Korea has sent 10,000 troops to fight for Russia in Ukraine. Are you terrified? I’m terrified. We’re on the brink of world war with fascism on the rise globally.
Israel is waiting for the U.S. election before considering a ceasefire as the death toll in Gaza continues to climb. Israel is also bombing Lebanon, but it did withdraw from the last hospital in North Gaza. If Trump wins, analysts predict Israel will push to hasten the genocide; Netanyahu is ignoring Biden’s pressure in the hopes he won’t have to listen to Democrats next year.
The Big Thought: Race Isn’t Race In India – And This Teaches Us A Lot About Race
As an Indian American, I’ve always been fascinated by the way we define race. In America, it’s messy enough. I’m a minority, but not one of the larger ones. I’m brown, but not Hispanic. Asian, but not in the way most people think of. Indian, but not North Indian. But in India, the story is even more fascinating. Take my family. My mom has light skin, as does her family. I have cousins who white-pass in the United States. On the other side, my dad is dark and I have family members with black skin. If India were America, I’d be “mixed race”: I have medium-tone skin, type 3B curls, and a wider nose. But because India cares more about religion, I’m not. In fact, my parents are from the same religion, the same caste, and the same subcaste or jati. Though the caste system is abolished and my parents condemn casteism, it still exists. And it’s still powerful. When religion matters more than race, things get interesting. After all, you can’t really tell someone’s religion by looking at them. Even Hindu Brahmins, the highest of the upper class of Hindus, range from pale, light skin to black skin. There’s a sizeable Tamilian Brahmin community that appropriates Black American culture because they genuinely see themselves as Black (which they are not).
All these people are Hindus in India.
But the religious divide is fierce. Many racially and visually identical people from the same state in India are Muslim or Christian or Sikh, instead of Hindu. And in today’s India, those differences are what matters. With an increasingly powerful Hindu right wing, religious violence has increased in recent years, with Hindu groups using indigenous rhetoric from the U.S. to argue that they want to kick out, punish, or disenfranchise the large Muslim minority — because Muslims were historically colonizers. And the fairest skinned Muslims face what Americans would view as textbook racism. (It’s less comparable to religious discrimination in theU.S. because it doesn’t matter what you believe as much as the family you were born into.) Of course, sometimes race is still race, especially in a world that adopts much of its sociocultural debates from America. India has huge issues with colorism, skin-lightening, and worshipping the British. Anti-blackness (against black skin) and anti-Blackness (against Africans) are rampant to this day. While Priyanka Chopra faced criticism for playing an East Indian boxer in a biopic because she’s not East Asian, India’s most famous Muslim actors (Shah Rukh Khan, Amir Khan, Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif, etc.) frequently play Hindus and vice versa. Still, I caution against adapting U.S. rhetoric worldwide and frequently use India as an example of how different countries with different histories need different solutions.
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Isvari Maranwe
CEO of Yuvoice
Award-Winning Cyber & Tech Attorney | Political Analyst & Writer
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