--- Vivian D'Souza <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Not long after I arrived in the USA, I was having > a coffee in a drug store. All drug stores had > restaurants within the store in those days. The > waitress, not sure what to make of me, asked me if I > was "Indian Indian". I was taken aback, and then > realized the import of the question. I responded > yes I am. That immediately differentiated me from > the Native American, still known as Indians then. > In retrospect, I laugh at the episode. > Mario adds: > Vivian, Excellent observations on migrating to the US and assimilating therein, which I can fully identify with. Unlike when I first came here, when I would get questions about my Christianity, my English and elephants and tigers, today, when I meet a Caucasian American for the first time, within minutes he tries to impress me with the other Indians he knows, and they are invariably either his or his family's physician, professor, accountant, architect, tax advisor, home builder or child's classmate who is head of the class, or the IT guys that underwrite America's computer industry and numerous businessmen who own and operate hotels, motels and other small businesses across America. > In this most competitive of industrialized countries Indians as a community have been the highest ranking ethnic group when ranked by family income since 1980, followed by Filipinos. So much for the perception of being discriminated against by the allegedly "mainstream" Caucasians. Not that some don't try, but, in this country, they can slow someone down, but certainly cannot stop them. > When my eldest daughter, who was born in the US, was a small child she was initially confused between her Indian parents and the "Indians" she saw in the movies and on television. When she was four she sorted it all out by using two names in conjunction: She called us Indian Indians, herself and her brother were Indian Americans and the guys with the tomahawks, bows and arrows and warpaint were American Indians. > The first time I visited an Indian reservation I went up to the chief who was in full costume with the long feathered head-dress and said, "Chief, I'd like you to meet a REAL Indian." He was momentarily taken aback because HE was the REAL indian to all the tourists, then saw the incongruity of my comment and burst out laughing. He said, "So, you were who that Columbus guy was looking for. Everyone calls him a great navigator, but when he set out he didn't know where he was going, when he got here he didn't know where he was, and when he returned home he had no idea where he had been!" > Vivian writes: > > Fast forward, several decades later, there are > over a million Indians in the USA. > Mario observes: > Vivian, it's more like 2.3 million now, not counting some illegals, I'm sure:-)) We have even had our own category in the US census since 1980, "Asian Indian". > The attached article was published just last week: www.iht.com/articles/2006/10/29/news/indians.php > _______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list [email protected] http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org
