Indian-American and Sikh-American identity is critical to the play, as Sravya pointed out after we met last week. She writes:

The play at it’s core is about the need for communities of color to empathize with each other and solve the problems they collectively face by avoiding reaching for whiteness and attempting instead to find justice as people of color, so I think it’s really important to have this discussion. Here are some links that I think might be useful for the dramaturgy blog, and maybe we can talk about this briefly at the run-through rehearsal next Thursday (Feb 2).

Brief History of Sikhs in the U.S.

Some scholars estimate there are about 100,000 Sikhs in the U.S. and 25 million worldwide. They have roots in the Punjab region of South Asia and practice a monotheistic religion based on the 15th century teachings of an Indian guru. The Sikh Coalition, a nonprofit legal group, has analyzed more than 140 actual or suspected hate crimes against Sikhs in the U.S. between 2001 and 2012. The group says that this past December alone, it received a surge of calls from Sikhs seeking legal help — three times as many as during the same time in 2014.

Discrimination And How Indian-Americans are Reaching for Whiteness

My dad went on his first American road trip to the South in 1979, from New Hampshire to Mobile, Alabama. This was his first Thanksgiving and the first time his white hosts had seen an Indian man. Before dinner, he was invited to the grocery store and his friend’s father grabbed a rifle off the shelf and placed it in the bed of his truck. This was the South, my dad was told, and others might not like him because of the color of his skin. So he went to the store and faced a few mean stares, but was ignored. Welcome to America…

…Jay Caspian Kang wrote in The New York Times that immigrant populations like us, who believe they are on the “march to whiteness,” “seldom engage in the sort of political advocacy and discourse that might explain, or even defend, our odd, singular and tenuous status as Americans.” As we defend this fragile position as Americans while also finding our own political voice, the illusion that Indian Americans stand squarely on the side of African Americans and Muslims and Mexicans will be challenged…

Aziz Ansara

Mindy Kaling

Narrative Article About Being Indian-American in the South

…Can I be Indian, or do I have to downplay my identity to live in Louisiana? Can I have an Indian wedding if I marry a white Louisianan? Can I teach my children Hindi? Can I practice Hinduism? Can I do these things and be elected to public office, be a person that people can relate to? To answer that question, tell me–could you?…

…Louisiana is my home, and I can’t forget the kindness of people who made me feel welcome here. I have seen the good of people in this state. I know not everyone is a hardened or even intentional racist. But people carry racist prejudices based on their limited experience and empathy. I grew up in Opelousas, and it’s still socially and structurally segregated. I grew up hearing awful, inhumane assumptions and jokes about black people. Maybe that didn’t happen in your household, but white people said things in front of me because I’m not black. But I’m not white, either.

KENNER, LA – JUNE 03: Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal speaks at an event with Republican presidential candidate and U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) at Pontchartrain Center June 3, 2008 in Kenner, Louisiana. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)