A letter to Indians of my generation
I have prepared a few remarks to the Indian community and members of my generation with regard to the protests happening recently: I feel that I need to convey my thoughts to the public to bring awareness of bias and prejudice.
I have been unable to come to terms with George Floyd’s murder. How much ever I console myself I am unable to calm down because of the injustice that has been done. I have been feeling heartbreak, anxiety, grief, anger and helplessness. I am grateful that I am having these emotions because it reminds me that I am connected to life, and also my responsibility as a Citizen of this country. Walking in the Buddhist path taught me to see things very clearly and open my heart to the truth. What is the alternative? Let God decide whatever and let me take care of myself? No. Shutting down to things outside has never helped me. Instead, it has put me into more fear and disconnection.
White supremacy and racism are not new to us. Yes, every immigrant faces racism in America. But this racism exists in our very culture too. For example, my own sister was treated differently because of the color of her darker skin. In India, it was normal to post matrimonial ads in the paper asking for “fair skinned” brides. Also, when I was a child I used to go to the home of people of lower caste and my grandmother used to make me take a shower when I came back home. I didn’t like that. I used to find it very odd so I stopped sharing even though I had gone.
I was born into a Brahmin family and even though I never wanted to consider it as a privilege, I was repeatedly told that Brahmins are smarter and wiser. Somewhere I created the unconscious bias that I am better. After marriage, I was treated as though I belonged in an elite class. This story had been told and passed on for generations. And we all started to believe that it was true. We brought this mentality to the U.S., and we did not shed our biases.
When I first moved to this country, I stayed with my own people because there were more commonalities. This created more comfort. But it also created less awareness. I did not know what America really looked like.
My experience changed when I became a public school teacher. I worked with people of all different backgrounds. I taught students who come from various races and religions. My school tells us that teachers are culturally responsible for teaching tolerance.
And so, it was in the classrooms that my eyes opened to the truth. That white supremacy is still alive. People of color have the tendency to adjust to whiteness. For example, at special education meetings, parents of white kids feel free to make demands, while parents of color comply and remain silent. I have watched this carry on in their kids. Students of color who are a bit shy and have the tendency to accept and adjust to things. Even professionally. When my French colleagues talk, white people think their accent is cute. But when Indians talk, we are asked to repeat ourselves.
Recently, I was shocked to hear when one of my friends’ daughters did not have a playmate because a white friend of hers said that she wasn’t comfortable playing with someone of her skin color. Where did this racism come from? Children are not born to hate. They learn this from their parents.
In order to beat racism and white supremacy outside, we have to agree that we have racism and white supremacy inside — whether it is conscious or unconscious.
We raised our children by telling them good, ethical stories about characters in the Ramayana and Mahabharata. Take the Ramayana. We all know that Sita endured 14 years of suffering in the forest with Ravana. Her suffering remained in our hearts and minds. So much so that Sita’s story has been translated into many languages over the past hundreds of years.
What story do we want to tell our children now? Will we keep telling the same story of Sita’s suffering, while ignoring the suffering of what is happening in front of us right now? Sita suffered for 14 years. But have we ever stopped to consider how much suffering has happened to black people over the last few centuries? The story of America is about millions of Sitas who had to face horrific situations. But they, unlike ours, had no Hanuman. Still, they endured. Let’s tell them their story. And remind our children about the successes and beauty of the black community.
And then, tell our children that we are living here and prospering here because of sacrifices and labor of the black community. And then, tell our children that we are allowed to be in America because the black community fought for our right to citizenship under the Immigration Act of 1965. Today, we are able to go to schools, have lavish homes, and have the privilege to attend prestigious universities because they fought for our right to be here.
We Indians owe a lot of our prosperity, our rights and our privileges to the black community. We need to tell our children that our success is not just because we were “smart” and had “God’s grace.” But also the grace of black people, who fought for us to be in the US today.
Let’s tell our children what their history books will erase. Many black people were considered criminals, even though they were not doing anything worse than what white people did. Or that white people have kept black people at a disadvantage through mass incarceration and under-investments in education.
We need to be brave in telling the history of this country. We need to tell our children that the protests happening now are because of the centuries of hatred and disrespect we have shown the black community. The stored anger is coming out because of the continued suffering through generations and the continued denial of justice.
What is our job now? Come out of the cocoon that we have built within our own people and see the suffering of others. Especially the black community. There are many things to be done to get through this mess.
The first thing is for the Indian community to recognize that it is our responsibility to share the burden. We need to listen to what the black community needs and demand that from our politicians.
We need to break down the illusion of “us” and “them.” We all need to see the human race as one, of course, but we need to acknowledge that is impossible unless we accept that Black Lives Matter. Rather than hiding inside with fear and anger, we need to realize that this is not just a problem for the black community, but a problem for us all.
We all have saṅkhāras (formations) that come from how we perceive things. They condition our mind to think in certain ways. But at the same time we have a choice to remove the old saṅkhāras that are based on false illusions and replace them with truth and loving kindness.
For the practicing Hindus, invoke the Gita. There is a quote in Bhagavad Gita where Lord Shri Krishna once said to Arjuna “It is a sin to commit injustice, but it is a greater sin to tolerate injustice.” This holds true now. If one continues to tolerate the injustice being done now, then it gives the offenders the courage to continue with their sins, and there shall be no end to it.
