Location: Joukowsky Forum, Watson Institute, 111 Thayer Street
Sunaina Maira, professor of Asian American Studies at UC Davis and author of Desis in the House, will focus on the impact of September 11, 2001 on South Asian communities in the U.S., and on the larger politics of war and resistance to U.S. imperial policies. The talk will connect issues of racism and repression within the U.S. to American wars and occupation overseas, discussing the role that youth and students can play in responding to crises facing South Asians here that are connected to the U.S. role in South Asia and the Middle East.
Event Summary
"Desis in the Imperial State: War and Resistance"Sunaina Maira, Professor of Asian American Studies, University of California at Davis
Sponsored by the 2nd Annual Lecture Series on South Asia
Friday, March 3, 2006
In this presentation sponsored by the 2nd Annual Lecture Series on South Asia, Sunaina Maira, professor of Asian American Studies at the University of California at Davis, described how the 9/11 terrorist attacks and subsequent “imperial policies” have affected the South Asian communities in the United States in recent years. She framed her comments by speaking at length about racism and repression in American culture, noting that some Americans’ lack of understanding about the difference between an Iraqi and Indian has exacerbated negative treatment of South Asians in this country. Beginning with a projection of the movie poster “Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World,” a film staged in India, the speaker noted how the United States has served to “remap” the world in this post-9/11 era.
In the “War on Terror” suggested Maira, religion, nationality, and race have been conflated. The U.S. Government is no longer able to distinguish among the three. She commented on the recent rising attacks on Muslims, Sikhs, and other Muslim-identified peoples, which are considered hate crimes, punishable by the state. Yet, as she argued, the “racially biased” state policy and ideology is not called into question. “Who punishes this?” she asks. Maira identified a “new McCarthyism” in U.S. politics, which “excludes and racializes Muslim identity.” This form of political racism, which is based on orientalist ideologies, has contributed to an “imperialist racist theory,” in her view.
To support her argument, Maira discussed her recent research conducted at a local high school in Massachusetts. In 2002–2003, she surveyed Muslims students, asking them about personal experiences with racial profiling, their opinion of the war and U.S. foreign policy, and how people reacted to them as Muslim Americans. Many of these students expressed thoughtful, articulate responses, recalling a great amount of discrimination. Compounding this problem is many non-Muslim Americans equate Islam with violence whose adherents hate America.
The speaker lamented the lack of South Asian mobilization in local communities to launch a national campaign for the protection of their communities. This inaction is symptomatic of the disunited South Asian communities, many of whom are plagued by class and religious fissures. Many South Asian organizations share anti-Muslim sentiments. The majority of active community leaders hail from upper-middle and upper-class families; representation of the working class is virtually absent. In order to more effectively address the issue of discrimination, the “leadership must rise to the occasion,” Maira stressed.
The speaker concluded by identifying the largest question with which the South Asian community is grappling: “How do we confront imperial politics in the U.S. today?” She noted that South Asians must be “clear in their analysis if we are to be effective in our dissent.” They must question the ongoing military interventions around the world in the name of the “War on Terror.” South Asians must also realize that domestic profiling and surveillance of their community had gone on long before 9/11. Since its founding, “Racism has been the elephant in the living room of America,” claimed Maira; South Asians are only the newest group to be the victim of such policies.
Submitted by Watson Institute Student Rapporteur Laurel Rapp ’06.