The Indians Abroad

Overseas Living: NRIs & India abroad

Archive for category Race Relations

Asian Women lead the US work force ranks

Jan 20

Posted by admin in Jobs and Occupations, Non-Resident Indian, Race Relations, india abroad

The highlights of Asian women in work force in USA

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, a division of U.S. Department of Labor has published some very interesting facts on women in work force in USA. In a report titled ‘Women in the Labor Force’ (2009 Edition) a wide range of employment statistics are highlighted. This particular write-up, to match the interests of the main readers/visitors of the site, is focused on the statistics related to Asian women in USA.

Note that there are no separate official statistics available for only Indian-American women with this much detailed survey based very large data samples/range. So, Asian women’s category is the closest gauge in this case.

The highlights of women in work force in USA:With main focus on Asian women, here are some of the highlights.

  • Overall Women in work force: In 2008, 59.5 percent of women (all categories) were in the labor force in America, and this share has been relatively stable over the past several years.
  • Unemployment rate for women: In 2008, the overall unemployment rate for women was 5.4 percent, but rates varied by race and ethnicity. The Asian women had the lowest rate:
    Asian Women: 3.7 percent
    White women: 4.9 percent
    Hispanic women: 7.7 percent
    Black women: 8.9 percent
  • Management Work for women by race: Employed Asian women were more likely to work in the higher paying management, professional, and related occupations in 2008 followed by the rest:
    Asian Women: 46 percent
    White women: 41 percent
    Black women: 31 percent
    Hispanic women: 24 percent

    • Read the rest of this entry »

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Hitler and India – The Swastika

Dec 30

Posted by admin in History, India, Race Relations

Given the gravity of the crimes he committed against humanity in general and against the Jews in particular, Hitler is considered one of the worst evils a human can be. However, over the decades, some have taken a very different view on him. For example, Savitri Devi (the pseudonym of a French writer Maximiani Portaz) tried to compare/synthesize Hinduism and Nazism in her writings, and proclaimed Hitler an avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu.

Among Indians, Hitler is often discussed for his affinity or likings of Hinduism. Though there is no direct proof of this from his writings or speeches, the origin of German symbol of Swastika and his belief in supreme Aryan race are some times opined as his affinity to Hindu religion.
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In Hinduism, the word swastika is derived from the Sanskrit word svastika meaning any lucky or auspicious object. The swastika is a mark (or a symbol) often made on persons and things to show good luck.

The swastika is considered a sacred symbol among the followers of many Indians religions including Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. It has long been a part of the Indian traditions, rituals and is often depicted in the religious or worship settings.

So, did Hitler take the traditional Hindu good-luck symbol of the swastika, rotated it by 45 degree and then used it as the German icon of his Nazi campaign? It was commonly used on the Nazi party’s flag, the badges, the armband and so on. Read the rest of this entry »

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Hitler and India – The Aryan Race

Dec 29

Posted by admin in History, Race Relations

“How has the dejection come to you at this juncture? This is not fit for an Aryan. It is disgraceful, and it does not lead one to heaven, O Arjuna.” ~ Lord Krishna in Holy Book ‘Gita’

We all know that Hitler and Nazi Germany wanted to propagate, what is often quoted as, the ‘Aryan race’. The term ‘Aryan Race’ and its meaning are often mistaken or distorted from what it really stands for.

Here are some of the key facts:

  • Aryans are the original speakers of the Indo-European languages. According to the most common definition, Aryans originate from the ancient Indo-Iranians, Indo-European peoples who inhabited parts of what are now Iran, Afghanistan, and India.
  • The word ‘Arya’ is found in Hindu religion and in Sanskrit, and it refers to the upper crust of ancient Indian society, or a noble person.
  • A German scholar has also linked the Indo-Iranian Aryan with the German word ‘Ehre’ meaning “honor”.

However, according to what Hitler and his Nazi regime believed, the Aryan descendants are supposedly a sub-group of the Caucasian (White) race. Hitler wanted to put forward this Aryan race as the ‘master race’ or ‘supreme race’. Read the rest of this entry »

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US Employment scene by Race and Ethnicity

Dec 17

Posted by admin in Jobs and Occupations, Race Relations, career planning

The interesting facts and the information below are based on a report from US Department of Labor and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Their report ‘Labor Force Characteristics by Race and Ethnicity, 2008′ is compiled for the year 2008; however, the picture painted below is probably not far from what we have today, in 2009.
Also, note that there is no separate category for ‘Indian Americans’;  in this study, they are part the ‘Asian’ group. Here are the key highlights from the US Department of Labor report:

Occupation and industry

  • Compared to Asians and whites, blacks and Hispanics are less likely to be in management, professional, and related occupations—the highest paying major job category.
  • In 2008, half of Asian men worked in management, professional, and related occupations, compared with only 34 percent of white men, 23 percent of black men, and 15 percent of Hispanic men.
  • Among women, in 2008, Asians were more likely than other groups to be employed in management, professional, and related jobs.
  • About 46 percent of Asian women were employed in management and professional occupation group, compared with about 41 percent of white women, 31 percent of black women, and 24 percent of Hispanic women. In contrast, 64 percent of Hispanic women worked in service jobs and in sales and office jobs, compared with about 60 percent of black women, 53 percent of white women, and 46 percent of Asian women.
  • Asians accounted for 5 percent of all employed workers but made up a much larger share of workers in several job categories, including computer software engineers (29 percent); physicians and surgeons (17 percent); and electrical, electronics, and electromechanical assemblers (18 percent).
  • Asians were over-represented in professional and business services, in manufacturing, and in leisure and hospitality.

Unemployment and not in the labor force

  • Among the major race and ethnic groups, Asians had the lowest unemployment rate of 4.0% in 2008. The blacks had the highest rate at 10.1 percent, 7.6 percent for Hispanics and 5.2 percent for whites.
  • The unemployment rates were 4.9 percent for white adult men and 4.4 percent for white adult women. The jobless rates for Asian adult men and women were 3.9 and 3.5 percent, respectively. However, the rates for black adult men and women were 10.2 and 8.1 percent, respectively.
  • Teenagers (ages 16 to 19) are especially vulnerable to joblessness. In 2008, black teenagers had the highest unemployment rate among the major race and ethnicity groups at 31.2 percent, compared with 22.4 percent for Hispanics, 16.8 percent for whites, and 14.6 percent for Asians.
  • Unemployed blacks have been jobless for longer periods than unemployed workers in other groups. In 2008, the median duration of unemployment for blacks was 12.1 weeks, compared with 10.2 weeks for Asians, 8.8 weeks for whites, and 8.4 weeks for Hispanics.

Education

  • About 90 percent of blacks and Asians in the labor force had received at least a high school diploma, the same proportion as whites. However, only about 68 percent of Hispanics had completed high school.
  • Asians were most likely to have graduated from college; 58 percent had a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared with 34 percent of whites, 24 percent of blacks, and 16 percent of Hispanics.
  • For all the groups, higher levels of education are associated with a greater likelihood of being employed.
  • Individuals with higher levels of education generally have better access to higher paying jobs. However, at nearly every level of education, blacks and Hispanics were more likely to be unemployed in 2008 than Asians or whites. Go figure!

Read the rest of this entry »

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‘Color-blind’ kool kids of today!

Dec 6

Posted by admin in Consciousness & Awareness, Culture & Society, Non-Resident Indian, Race Relations, india abroad

Fading racial bias and prejudice among the younger generations abroad!

Children make you want to start life over. ~Muhammad Ali

11:50 AM, 12/5/09
San Francisco suburbs, USA
Location: A kids’ party venue

“Rupa, you are here!,” a pretty little girl in red exclaimed the obvious; her curly blond hair bounce as she shakes her head with a chuckle.
“Happy Birthday, Courtney,” said Rupa, handing over the gift bag. The mothers exchanged a smile, and a hello; and then moved inside to make room for the next young guest arriving with another gift bag.

Kids run around in the play area. All kinds of play stations are spread around, twinkling bright lights filling the large play-room with colorful glow.

Every few minutes, a new kid arrives with a new gift. And, the ‘birthday girl’ – Courtney – runs to the welcome area to greet the newly arrived friend. Smiles, giggles, chuckles and innocent greeting fill the air:
“Hi, how did you get here?”
“I didn’t know you were coming!”
“Did you see the big pile of my gifts?”
“You are here too???”…….a joyful and lively chatter fills the big play room.

In the play area, a clear pattern starts to emerge. The kids are getting on with what they are good at – playing. Boys are crowding the ‘boyish games’ – target shooting, hoops, gun battle, Sponge Bob etc. They are running around – play station to play station, bragging and showing off, making sure that there is someone to witness their great performance.

The little girls have their own things going, mostly with the girly stuff. They are attracted to the ‘mechanical pony rides’, ‘matching games’, ‘the make-up show’ and pink swirly slides…… And, some more adventurous ones are taking up on the boys, playing hoops and shoots. There are no barriers, no rules, no bars. Everybody is a busy in their main goal – having fun. Read the rest of this entry »

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Bollywood to the rescue: Australian attacks on Indians abroad!

Nov 11

Posted by admin in Bollywood, Entertainment, Non-Resident Indian, Race Relations, Trivial Stuff

Friendly warning: To avoid mental indigestion, please take this post with a grain of salt and in light spirits. The intended humor does not – in any way – take away the seriousness of the Australian situation. Enjoy:

Dharmendra, Amitabh Bachchan and Dara Singh are getting old; otherwise we would not even be talking about this. We would not be worried about some group of kids attacking Indians in broad Australian daylight.
In good old days Dharmendra alone, may be with some help from ‘Big B’, could have taken care of this crisis. And a dance number in between – to prove his cool – would have been just the expected icing on the cake.
But those golden days of unbeatable magic are gone!

Singh is Kinngh to the rescue?

Singh is Kinngh to the rescue?

We do have Salman Khan, Shahrukh Khan and rest of the modern day Bollywood heroes. They are a force to reckon with, no doubt. The movie ‘Om Shanti Om’ is a living proof that they are no less than their ‘elders’ – the previous generation of Bollywood heroes! However, it is a troublesome that they have been a bit shy of the Immigration officers abroad recently. So, it may be hard to convince them to board a plane for overseas, if that’s how they ‘fly’!

So, there is the problem, there lies the dilemma – the real challenge! Which Bollywood star should go over to Australia and ‘fix’ those hooligans and thugs, who don’t really understand how good we Indians are?

Bigger challenges demand better solutions, some new ideas. We need a new Bollywood star (or two) to rise to this occasion, and go fix it, once and for all. We need some fresh Bollywood blood who can take over this challenge.

Which Bollywood stars to the rescue?
Who could it be? Read the rest of this entry »

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India Abraod – The attacks on Indians in Australia

Nov 10

Posted by admin in Culture & Society, Non-Resident Indian, Race Relations, Trivial Stuff, india abroad

The attacks on Indians in Australia continue 
The violent attacks on Indians in Australia continue. Last week, another Indian student was assaulted and left unconscious in Melbourne. The Australian youth attackers told him that “in this place there is no home for you”. This is the second published attack in last one week. There may be many more smaller or unreported incidents that we don’t hear about.

It is very sad and horrifying that these incidents against Indians have continued over the months. Since June 2009, scores of Indians have been attacked and are victims of physical violence at the hands of local Australians. The governments from both sides have been addressing these ugly incidents. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has spoken to his Australian counterpart in the past; external affairs minister S M Krishna has visited the country; and Australia has assured a policy of zero tolerance against the attacks. There have been many steps taken by the Australian Government to deal with all this, but there seems to be no end in sight.

It is clear that the issue is bigger than the Australian authorities. The law enforcement authorities and the policeman on the street can only do so much in this case.

Is the local economy to blame for the attacks?
Many believe that these attacks are triggered by the slow-down in economy. The unemployment is growing everywhere; people are struggling to find jobs. The immigrants and outsider often get the blame for stealing the jobs away from the locals.

This thinking and blame-game is not new or uncommon across the globe. In America, with unemployment exceeding 10%, immigrants and outsourcing are often quoted as one of the reasons for difficulties in finding work. There are many factions and groups, including some media outlets, in USA that openly blame immigrants as part of the economic problem. The main focus in America has been the Mexican immigrants who are blamed for taking away the lower wage jobs from working class Americans.

The attacks in Australia could very well have economic downturn as a contributing factor, if not the bigger or actual rootcause. However, the nature of the attacks, where the students are more prone to the violence,  seems more of a general resentment against sharply growing Indian population.

Racism or not?
Now, this is another can of worms. So far in recent years, this resentment against the immigrants and outsiders has been peaceful – non-violent – except these on-going cases in Australia. No matter how you look at the social or economic issues, it is hard to justify any violence against a particular community under any circumstances. Read the rest of this entry »

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Overseas hate crimes on the rise?

Jun 13

Posted by admin in Culture & Society, Non-Resident Indian, Race Relations, india abroad

The strong racial biases affecting minorities all over the world

Any topic related to ‘hate’ is no fun to write, but someone has to say it :) !…

An average human being is a decent and caring person, without major biases against any color, cast or creed. However, there also exists a small %age of individuals who do not fit into this category. There are some who have strong feelings and biases against other social groups or races, to the point that those feelings are churned into hatred over time.

The problem is that these extreme groups or individuals have acted on their feelings of dislike or hatred more often in recent days. Lately, we have seen racial violence all over the places that can be related to hate crimes including the following incidents: Read the rest of this entry »

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An open letter to Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh

Jun 12

Posted by admin in Culture & Society, India, Non-Resident Indian, Race Relations, india abroad

Global issue of racial bias against NRIs and Indians abroad

Honorable Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh
This letter is on behalf of the social commentary site ‘The Indians Abroad’ based out of USA. The letter is prompted by the current incidents of racial attacks against Indians in Melbourne, Australia. However, this long overdue request and suggestion is more towards the need of general awareness of negative bias against Indians abroad, and finding ways to minimize it.

Most of us go abroad for the main reasons of education or for finding better opportunities for ourselves and our families. The challenges of adapting to the foreign culture and the social issues of minority status are part of our daily living. These issues are often discussed and well understood by most of the Indian communities. The recent incidents of violence against Indians in Australia have exposed the tip of this iceberg – the often ignored racial biases against Indian immigrants that exist in most of the Western society.

The racial violence is not-so-common in the developed countries in this day and age; however, the related discrimination is everywhere. The social perception of Indians in the Western society is pretty negative. A large number of NRIs settled abroad are highly skilled professionals – doctors, engineers, scientists and so on…., but the overall view of the Indian community abroad is that of a low class society.

While Indian Govt. is looking into a possible policy to address racial violence abroad, a similar policy or steps are needed to address ever so prevalent racial biases and discriminations. Read the rest of this entry »

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Brown vs. Brown!

May 26

Posted by admin in Culture & Society, India, Non-Resident Indian, Race Relations, Short Story, india abroad

The line at the grocery store was quite long, but it was moving quickly. The whole process of check-out seemed quite animated – the clerk scanning the items, the customers sliding the credit card through the card reader, signing the digital pad, collecting the items along with receipt, and leaving. The clerk, his name-tag confirming his ethnicity of India, seemed quite efficient at his job.
At my turn, I stepped forward and followed the sequence. After the scan, I started collecting my items. I slid my American-Express through the card-reader, getting ready to leave as soon as the clerk hands me the receipt.
Then, out of nowhere, the clerk announced politely, “Sir, can I see your card and an ID?” Read the rest of this entry »

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I am not racist, but my brain may be!

May 7

Posted by admin in Consciousness & Awareness, Culture & Society, Race Relations, india abroad

NRI Tips: The unconscious bias and the depth of racial issues abroad

There is no dispute that America is one of the richest countries where entrepreneurial spirit strives for excellence; freedom of speech is respected and encouraged. Every work place preaches and teaches diversity but the society as a whole continue to struggle with racial discriminations and racial biases.
Many have undertaken the noble task of investigating and researching racism and race relations in America. I outlined a few very basic aspects of it in a previous article ‘ABC of race relation in America’. Some of the interesting studies of modern days blame this human behavior of discrimination on ‘unconscious bias’. The studies point to the fact that the racial bias is linked to our subconscious behavior where we discriminate, unknowingly to a large extent, even when we don’t mean it.
So it is not your fault entirely, it is the brain of yours that is messing with you! :) Read the rest of this entry »

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The ABC of Race Relations in USA – India Abroad!

May 5

Posted by admin in Culture & Society, India, Non-Resident Indian, Race Relations, india abroad

NRI Tips: Race relations of American society for a newcomer

Most of us leave India and go abroad for work or education. There is an ever-growing line of Indians going overseas to find utopia – looking for the land of their dreams. Going abroad is considered the best stroke of luck; every pundit will tell you that your stars are aligned perfectly for a great future overseas! :)
However, those pundits may not know everything about your stars or your future. Some may have warned you about the challenges abroad before, but it is hard to believe anything negative about the land of riches with so many promises; many Bollywood movies are witness to the prosperity abroad :) !

The reality is that living overseas is very different from living in India- your homeland. The overseas society and the culture provide an eye-opening experience for the new immigrants.

India is a multi-cultural society, people with different languages and customs living in a diverse setting; but they all come from the same race for most of the part. American society, on the other hand, not only has different religions and languages, but also different races. The white majority is followed by rest of the minorities- blacks, Hispanics, Indians, Asians and so on. Even though this multi-race society seems to mingle well at work and in many of the social situations, the racial biases can be seen and encountered on a daily basis. Read the rest of this entry »

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The Indians Abroad- Overseas Living: NRIs and India Abroad!

Apr 28

Posted by admin in Culture & Society, India, Non-Resident Indian, Race Relations, india abroad

‘The India Abroad‘ blog is dedicated to the Indians living away from the homeland of India.  Social and environmental issues that affect the NRIs- Non Resident Indians- and Indian diaspora are often explored.
The main theme of the site relates to the India Abroad and NRIs including:
Overseas living
Personal consciousness and awareness,
Social experiences abroad,
Bollywood and Entertainment, especially related to Overseas
Race relations in Western countries,
Culture exploration, Read the rest of this entry »

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