Tag Archive for "south asian"

Posts Tagged south asian

Sakhi: Ending Violence Against South Asian Women

I am really excited to announce that I have been invited to join the board of Sakhi, an amazing and truly effective, 22-year old, New York City based organization dedicated to eradicating violence against women with critical resources for people in the South Asian diaspora. Sakhi’s mission is two fold (from their website):

We create a safe place with a full range of culturally-sensitive, language-specific information, support, services, and advocacy for South Asian women facing abuse in their lives; and, We work to inform, actively engage, and mobilize the South Asian community in the movement to end violence against women forever.

The work of Sakhi is much needed in the face of a world that still justifies and in many ...

By Samhita • 13 years ago

Aishwarya Rai lightened up on the cover of Elle.

So, that happened and Rai is really mad about it. Understandably so, after all, she is a very loud and proud Indian who often takes joking pot shots at American culture. And she is well within her rights to be mad, what is Elle thinking?

But this bring up a much larger issue that is how much color politics play into who becomes famous in India. A big part of why Rai herself is famous is because she is lighter than the average Indian, a standard that is very pervasive, to an unapologetic degree. Also, Jorge Rivas at Colorlines talks about the skin lightening industry, something we have written about as well that is thriving not only in ...

So, that happened and Rai is really mad about it. Understandably so, after all, she is a very loud and proud Indian who often takes joking pot shots at American culture. And she is well ...

By Samhita • 13 years ago

Dharun Ravi and anti-gay sentiments in the South Asian community

I was surprised last night when my mom said they should put Dharun Ravi and Molly Wei in jail for what they did to Tyler Clementi, a young man who took his life last week after Ravi and Wei spread video of him engaging sexually with another man on the internet. I shouldn’t be too shocked, she always treated my gay friends as her own, but she’s also always been a little bit homophobic.

Is this because she is from India and Indian culture is uniquely homophobic? Yes and no. South Asian culture is not uniquely homophobic compared to other cultures. There is a vibrant and organized GLBT community in India, not to mention existence and comfort with queer ...

I was surprised last night when my mom said they should put Dharun Ravi and Molly Wei in jail for what they did to Tyler Clementi, a young man who took his life last week ...

By Samhita • 13 years ago

No Hee Hee, Ha Ha, For Me Joel Stein.

I suppose when you come across a writer so engulfed in snark, so above the tide, so cutting edge that it is almost impossible to touch their well thought out and clearly obvious humor that you find yourself paused, unable to dissect with the surgical precision of cutting analysis you have come to expect of Feministing. I mean, you should at least be able to stop and acknowledge that the author was kind of intelligent, had a strong point of view or made you LOL.

I really think Joel Stein was hoping he would get that kind of reaction about his column in this week’s TIME about his painful realization that his town was overrun by “Indians,” a deeply sad ...