Joel Stein is in trouble with Indians (Asian) for his Time column "
My Own Private India" about how he regrets the demographic changes in his Edison, New Jersey hometown since he grew up:
TIME responds: We sincerely regret that any of our readers were upset by Joel Stein’s recent humor column “My Own Private India.” It was in no way intended to cause offense.
Joel Stein responds: I truly feel stomach-sick that I hurt so many people. I was trying to explain how, as someone who believes that immigration has enriched American life and my hometown in particular, I was shocked that I could feel a tiny bit uncomfortable with my changing town when I went to visit it. If we could understand that reaction, we’d be better equipped to debate people on the other side of the immigration issue.
The amusing thing is that Stein already wrote a 2006 column for the LA Times apologizing in advance to Jesse Jackson:
The reverend turns down a preemptive 'I'm sorry' and denies that he's the arbiter of apologies
Joel Stein
December 5, 2006
EVENTUALLY, I'M going to write something horribly offensive. And when I do, it might be several tense hours before I can get Jesse Jackson on the phone in order to apologize to him. So I figured I'd call him now and pre-apologize.
In addition to Michael Richards telling Jackson that he was sorry for his racist tirade at the Laugh Factory, Jackson has accepted apologies from Mexican President Vicente Fox (for saying Mexican immigrants will do jobs that "not even blacks want to do"), the producers of "Barbershop" (for a Rosa Parks joke in the film) and himself (for calling New York "Hymietown").
Needless to say, the new Seinfeld DVD is selling swiftly, Fox served his full term, "Barbershop" had a sequel and New York is still chock full of Jews. A Jackson pardon never fails.
So after putting in a request that I thought Jackson's staff wouldn't take seriously, I was startled when my phone rang two hours later and the reverend was on the other end. I would be absolved, I thought, in two or three minutes.
I was very wrong. When I explained my request, it became clear that this hypothetical offensive thing I might do someday was instead happening right now.
"Why should you be offensive?" Jackson asked, annoyed. "I don't know why you would do that."
Luckily, as I was stammering a response, Jackson smoothly segued into reciting his own agenda. I was not surprised to hear him tell me about America's lack of concern about Katrina victims, the media ignoring Trent Lott's return to party leadership and the dearth of black actors on television ("all day, all night, all white"). I was, however, surprised that it took him nearly four minutes before he mentioned that he worked with Martin Luther King Jr.
A smarter man would have thanked Jackson for his time and gotten off the phone. But as I predicted in the very premise of this project, I am not a smarter man. I asked again if he could slip me an indulgence.
"I don't know why you would insist on continuing to bring this up," he said. Oddly, I was thinking the exact same thing.
I explained that I was interested in finding out how a single person can play judge for damage done to an entire group, and why society needs a figurehead to represent its pain. Then I hoped and prayed that sounded smart.
Jackson said that when Richards called him, "I made it clear that I am not the arbiter of apologies." In fact, he said, "I'm more likely to be called upon to get someone out of a foreign jail than to accept an apology." Between the foreign arrests and the apologies for racist slurs, being a civil rights leader seems a lot like being a parent to rich children.
Then Jackson pointed out that listening to confessions is pretty common for someone in his line of work. "When people are distressed, when people are injured, when people need their cases argued, they tend to call a minister," he explained. "People tend to call someone to give them a listening ear. That's all. At the end of the day, it's about providing a service: to alleviate misery."
My future misery, however, was currently unalleviable. "It would be inappropriate," he finally told me. I am the first person in history to have an apology turned down by Jesse Jackson.
But as ridiculous as it seems to have people apologize to Jackson for things they didn't do to him, and for him to demand apologies for events he wasn't involved in (Outkast for dressing in Native American outfits; the U.S. for crashing a jet in China) — the theatrics do serve a purpose.
Confrontation is a necessary part of contrition. Apologizing in a press release to anyone offended makes sense in theory, but it has no stakes. We need to see human emotions expressed by real humans; our catharsis has to come from leaders playing our parts on stage.
And though Jay Leno, Barbara Walters and Dr. Phil may try, Jackson performs that role best. I know that after I finally got off the phone, my sweaty palms and aching stomach felt like they were taught a moral lesson.
I just hope that people don't find this column so offensive that I'll have to really apologize. Because I'm not sure Jackson would take my call after this. Oh, who am I kidding? Of course he will.
Meanwhile, the second most-read article on LATimes.com last evening was
By Larry Gordon, Los Angeles Times
July 7, 2010
The president of the University of California and leaders of a dozen prominent American Jewish organizations are in an unusual public dispute about the extent of anti-Semitism on UC campuses and the university's response to it.
In a letter to UC President Mark G. Yudof, such groups as the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the national governing bodies of Conservative and Orthodox Judaism have criticized the university's reaction to anti-Semitic acts on UC campuses as too weak. The letter, sent June 28, cited what it said were increasing incidents of swastika graffiti and anti-Israel speakers who use anti-Semitic language, and alleged that many Jewish UC students feel "an environment of harassment and intimidation." ...
Yudof, who is Jewish and whose wife, Judy, is the former lay president of Conservative Judaism in North America, also wrote that the Jewish groups may have based their concerns on an unreliable sampling of student opinion. Most Jewish UC students' "perspectives are more mixed than you suggest," he wrote.
The UC president said he was disappointed that the letter writers seemed to have dismissed the new UC Advisory Council on Campus Climate, Culture and Inclusion as destined to fail, and he urged them to support its work.
Considering that UC Campuses are typically located in places like La Jolla, Irvine, Westwood, Santa Cruz, and Berkeley, I'd say the the UC "Campus Climate" is pretty dog-gone nice: typically 70s and sunny.
Oh, wait, that's not what the word "
climate" means anymore on campus. (Except when it's about "climate change.")
The panel, which met for the first time last week, was created after several controversial incidents over the last school year. Those included an off-campus "Compton Cookout" party by UC San Diego students that mocked Black History Month, and the spray-painting and carving of swastikas at several locations on the UC Davis campus, including the dorm room door of a Jewish student.
Some Jewish leaders have complained that UC administrators seemed to be more upset by the UC San Diego incident than the swastikas. UC officials have denied this.
Okay, so
that's what this is all about: competitive aggrievement. The Jewish organizations are mad that the black organizations got more mileage out of their recent UC San Diego
hate hoax brouhaha. Well, of course.
Still, the reigning heavyweight title contenders of competitive aggrievement, the blacks and the Jews, should be aware that there's a new Indian kid in town who is ready to rumble.
a couple of quick community updates...
ReplyDeleteIndian-American woman about to be elected Governor of South Carolina.
Indian American immigrant who grew up in Nehruvian socialist Delhi appointed Dean of Harvard Business School.
I find it hilarious and depressing that Indians would be getting aggrieved now. I went to high school with quite a few, and they were the least PC of any group at the school. They were very, very open about not liking blacks (though all Asian groups were pretty open about that), and they detailed what they thought was wrong/right with every other group too, including their own (Indians are cheap, Indians are pushy, Indian men are sexist, etc.).
ReplyDeleteIf they're now acclimating to the PC culture, well, that just sucks. Damn.
Just a little off-topic, but Ann Coulter just published one whale of a good column.
ReplyDeleteMight be her best work since "kill their leaders and convert them all to Christianity" got her fired from Buckleyville.
BTW, what got Steve fired from Buckleyville?
If they're now acclimating to the PC culture, well, that just sucks. Damn.
ReplyDeleteA few years ago, The Derb was warning that the young orientals [Chinese-American, Korean-American, Vietnamese-American, etc] were getting sucked into the grievance industry and were trending strongly away from the GOP [unlike their parents and grandparents, who often came here as boatpeople, fleeing Communism].
I don't doubt there is a lot of anti-semitism at the universities in California if they are chock full of Muslim students, as the universities in Canada are. There are more and more Muslim students every year. They tend to study mostly business administration.
ReplyDeleteThe specific parts of Joel Steins 'satire' that stung was the reference to dot-busters during which several Indians were assaulted and killed in NJ
ReplyDeleteand the gratutious reference to Hindu gods.
I bet most white christians would not like a Jesus referred to as a jew on a stick
Muslims aren't a big deal in California. I've seen one woman in my life in full chador in California (driving on the freeway, which was pretty scary -- not much peripheral vision).
ReplyDeleteSteve in the college campuses, there is a muslim-leftist alliance and in practise this leads to harassment of jewish students
ReplyDeleteRegarding blacks, Indians are very non-PC their kids are warned never bring home a black or a muslim
ReplyDeleteTheodore Dalrymple - Indian families are often dismayed (to put it mildly) when their daughters choose Jamaican lovers. I know of two who have been killed by their close families to redeem family honor in the eyes of their community. The first was hanged at home; the second was taken back to Pakistan, where she was beaten to death,
Joel Stein kinda reminds me of Mike Royko but he's too much of a smug smartass. Royko was a man.
ReplyDelete"Steve in the college campuses, there is a muslim-leftist alliance and in practise this leads to harassment of jewish students"
ReplyDelete...while leftist Jews harass the heck out of the rest of us.
In a way, Stein's article was cowardly. He picked on a small minority with a better sense of self-deprecating humor than most. Most Hindu and Pakistani guys think Babu on Simpsons is a riot. (What a bunch of fools.)
ReplyDeleteIf Stein had real guts, he would have written a similar article about how blacks ruined a neighborhood. It wouldn't even have been printed by Timud. (Okay, bad pun, Time Talmud, but then something like 50% of Time writers are Jewish though it pretends to be a 'national magazine'. Newsweek--guess what I call it?--is even more so.)
Joel Stein will never write a satire column on muslims on how muslims ruined Dearborn
ReplyDeleteThere is an unholy alliance between Muslims and leftist students in Canada. Trust me on this--my own daughter is part of it. Most young people in Canada are very much against Israel. Israel = evil ;
ReplyDeletePalestine = good ;
It is not just young people, either. Left leaning adults of all ages are the same way.
I understand it is the same in Europe. It seems bizarre to me that left leaning people would team up with Islamists who favour polygamy, wife beating, stoning gays, etc. But there is no point arguing with them. They are completely irrational. It is if they have been bewitched by the Mohammedans.
Islam is a dangerous cult. They want to take over the world. The parts they have already taken over are corrupt, dysfunctional hell holes. Europe will probably be majority Muslim with 50 years.
Once a minority reaches a large enough voting block, they can make sure no government that wants to stop more immigration will be elected. Then they have much larger families than any other group in the population. I'm quite certain they do this mainly to make more Muslims.
Steve you have outdone yourself with that post- so f'n funny especially the last line.
ReplyDeleteDan in DC
"Especially if one of those groups are even more business savvy, more educated and equally cunning with high verbal IQs than them."
ReplyDeleteHoo hoo ha, hee hee hee, ha hoo ha hee!!!! Gimme a break!!!
Jews run circles around Asian-Indians.
"I think the Jewish lobby will have to give way to the upcoming Indian lobby as the most powerful in the land. Indians will eventually take over other areas of Jewish dominance too."
ReplyDeleteYes, that's probably the single best bet for the year 2100: the world will have two superpowers: an Indian-dominated U.S. (with a small, fading Jewish upper class) and China.
I was surprised to see that Time had run a piece like that. The fact that he's been punished for it makes sense. It is great to bemoan the changes to our towns, cities states and nation, but only when evil corporations are named as villian. It is just plain wrong to express a feeling that immigration has any negative effect, even when expressed in a posture of self-loathing for having the feeling.
ReplyDeleteWhy should the Indians be offended? They are the cultural victors of the situation.
"Muslims aren't a big deal in California. I've seen one woman in my life in full chador in California (driving on the freeway, which was pretty scary -- not much peripheral vision)."
ReplyDeleteI've seen a few of those ladies in Huntsville, AL of all places.
Dude, I can't believe you left out Santa Barbara. We have our own friggin beach with couple of hella breaks.
ReplyDeleteHey Steve,
ReplyDeleteGreat article, do you realize that so much anti-semitism is the result of Jewish Behavior? Really, how long can this continue?
...Joel Stein’s recent humor column “My Own Private India.”
ReplyDeleteThat's right: if you don't want your hometown to be overrun by Indians, you must be some kind of comedian. Because that's gotta be some kind of a joke, right? I mean, who could possibly object to having more Indians than you can shake a stick at around? What's not to like?
Endless grievance = Endless entitlement.
ReplyDeleteThis simple equation is the basis of racial politics in America. Indians can hardly be blamed for figuring it out.
Also, there is a clear double standard -- the phone company commercial mocking the two Indian engineers' accents is basically a curry-flavored Sambo joke. If they were speaking Ebonics... Well, you get the picture.
Still, I find it ineffably sad a person can no longer miss his home town the way it was. In what sense is America "home" for any sap born here? That's a double loss... You can't even mourn it.
Steve, since you live in LA County you are unaware that UCI is a hotbed of Muslim extremism, including open Hezbollah and Hamas support, and the usual Muslim attacks on Jewish kids at UCI.
ReplyDeleteThis includes, but is not limited to: Muslim men storming into UCI Jewish organization meetings and breaking them up, Muslim students breaking into Jewish Organization sponsored events to scream threats and abuse, beatings of Jewish kids on campus, threats against Jewish kids published in the newspapers, and so on.
All tolerated by a Campus Administration terrified of offending Muslim students and being the target of their own violence. UCI and Orange County have sizeable Muslim populations, much of them very, very Islamic (it is common for me to see women with chadors, only the face visible, in supermarkets and so on).
You just don't get OC Steve. I've lived her for a long time. Its not lily White. Far from it. Irvine is majority non-White, according the Census Bureau, and I believe it. Just yesterday I saw three separate families of women shrouded in the Muslim chador get-up at the Albertson's on Irvine Blvd. The LAT reports that the Muslim Student Union may be suspended. Pajamas Media has more details, as does The Orange County Register, the latter with pictures of the typical Muslim women I see out and about in Irvine every day. Irvine is only 56% White. The Muslim estimate I can get off the web is 3.1% but I would rate it at least 15%, not the least of which is the large Iranian Emigre community (younger ones turn to Islam) and large Arab community.
China a superpower? Steve have you seen Jim Chanos?. China will have what, something like 20 million men by its own stats in 2050 without Wives (reality is likely worse by a factor of three to four). China built an entire city, or Ordous, that no one lives in (the old city is still going). China has its own ethnic problems with Uighurs rioting and Tibetans. The former abetted by Pakistan armed with nukes (imagine Reconquista Mexico only with nukes). It has Hui Muslims all over the place, a very thin coastal elite making a ton of money as Red Princes, the rest dirt-poor and semi-illiterate.
It will get old before it gets rich, but it will go out and seek war with its neighbors, ruinously, to solve the men without women problem.
Don't know if blogger ate the last comment.
ReplyDeleteBottom line, Steve you're wrong on this. UCI is a hotbed of Hezbollah and Hamas inspired madness:
Here. View the pictures, they are the kind of women I see, out and about in Irvine all the time. Officially Irvine is only 56% White, and only 3.1% Muslim, but I see a lot more Muslim women in chadors all the time in supermarkets in Irvine.
China a superpower? With all the men without wives? Its far worse than the official reports, multiply by about 4 or so, and the riches in China accrue to a tiny few Red Princes, deeply reviled, by a nation that has many only semi-literate at best. China will get old before it gets rich, and will inevitably go to war with neighbors to solve the woman problem.
Meanwhile, it has riots in Urumqi and other places, with Tibetans and Uighurs wanting their own ethno-states, the latter aided and abetted by both Turkey and nuclear Pakistan.
Whiskey is the only Scotch-Irishman I know who seems to know about the goings-on of the Jewish student population of the California state university system.
ReplyDeletehttp://articles.latimes.com/2008/dec/19/opinion/oe-stein19
ReplyDelete"Yes, that's probably the single best bet for the year 2100: the world will have two superpowers: an Indian-dominated U.S. (with a small, fading Jewish upper class) and China."
ReplyDeleteHahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahaha.
Ha!!!!
Cohesivity is the big deal.
ReplyDeleteIf we look at IQs (and without taking into account Jews probably narrower standard deviation), we'd expect that Jewish American, compared to the population of other White Americans, probably wouldn't come to have an equal number of individuals until we reach around 168-170 IQ, but the percentage seems higher even in occupations that don't require anything like this, like pundits (obviously almost nothing pundits do requires anything like a 168 IQ - pundits are fairly dumb).
This is because there is a specific strategy being pursued. Do Indian Americans pursue such a strategy?
The Stein article is pretty funny. He often is though whether this is because he's actually so comfortable on the left that he can joke and criticize or whether it's because he's serious about his criticisms and would go farther if he could is not known to me.
ReplyDeleteAs to the "Jewish leaders" bit, I'm generally the guy here who screams and shouts and gnashes heis teeth about the fact that these guys are absolute NOBODIES in the Jewish community (seriously, go into any shul in Brooklyn and ask around, none of them have ever heard of any of these self-proclaimed "lkeaders" and those are jews who actually dress, act, believe and think the part) but in this instance I'm not sure that they're so wrong.
The "climate" on many UC campuses these days is unbelieveably poisoned against Israel and, by extension against any Jew who might dare to have a relative in Israel, visit for a Bar Mitzvah or make arguments like any that Derb's made in favor of Israel being morally superior to their enemies (in every way possibly imaginable).
I don't know when you've last been on a UC cakmpus but the image of a few dozen asses in the air during five-times-a-day prayers is not uncommon, the image of the israeli Prime Minister, President or supporter of theirs speaking publicly without a riot, is.
Joel Stein's Jackson article is pretty funny. He gets the race-mongering racket. Would he have been crucified if he responded "Fsck 'em if they can't take a joke" to Time's angry Indians? Wouldn't a sizable minority, if not a majority, of people agree?
ReplyDeleteThe Jewish organizations are mad that the black organizations got more mileage out of their recent UC San Diego hate hoax brouhaha.
ReplyDeleteGoogle "antisemitic+hoax" or "swastika+hoax", the next time you have a long weekend and you're all caught up with your chores.
I dont understand how so many Low IQ muslims got into the UC campus
ReplyDeleteIf they attack Jews today they will attack Hindus tomorrow
Every single Hindu organisation is pro-jewish due to being anti-islam
Joel Stein: Then I hoped and prayed that sounded smart.
ReplyDeleteWhat a pitiful, sniveling creature. He might as well apologize for being alive.
It seems bizarre to me that left leaning people would team up with Islamists who favour polygamy, wife beating, stoning gays, etc. But there is no point arguing with them. They are completely irrational. It is if they have been bewitched by the Mohammedans.
ReplyDeleteNihilists instinctively understand one another.
I don't think they even need to verbalize it - it's as though they can sense one another's presence through mere body language alone.
A wink here, a nod there, and before you know it, they're bosom buddies.
asdfasdfaf:
ReplyDeleteNewsweek--guess what I call it?
Oh, I don't know. I bet you have something really hilarious and original up your sleeve, though.
Are you 15 or something?
adfasdfaf:
ReplyDeleteWhat you and I might perceive as harrassment from leftist Jews is in no way similar to the harrassment--most usually threat and infliction of assault and/or injury (and, often, damage to homes, vehicles, or commercial property)--suffered by very many (and completely inoffensive--except for existing) Jews.
Wouldn't tell you that if it t'warn't so. Been there, done that. (And, if i had to guess, it'd be that I've encountered less of that than most who aren't concentrated in heavily
Jewish neighborhoods. I think there's less of that today than formerly but it sounds like the college kids are running into it (and maybe not really prepared except to make complaints).
"Especially if one of those groups are even more business savvy, more educated and equally cunning with high verbal IQs than them."
ReplyDeleteHehehe LOL, you do not know Indians very well, do you?
"Gene Berman said...
ReplyDeleteadfasdfaf:
What you and I might perceive as harrassment from leftist Jews is in no way similar to the harrassment--most usually threat and infliction of assault and/or injury (and, often, damage to homes, vehicles, or commercial property)--suffered by very many (and completely inoffensive--except for existing) Jews."
It may not be similiar, but that doesn't mean it is not every bit as serious or pervasive. George Soros, David Gelbaum, Abe Foxman, Thomas Friedman, and many others, seek to undermine my country. I consider that to be harrassment. That it is done with money and influence rather than rocks, does not make it any less real, and of course, it is far more lasting and effective.
"Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteBTW, what got Steve fired from Buckleyville?"
I think it was his standing athwart history and yelling stop. That's really frowned on at NR.
@ sdfasdasdf
ReplyDelete--
Arthur Hu
Asians vs Jews vs Chinese vs. Indians
If we set Jewish representation at 1.0, the Chinese are
better in some numbers, but only the Asian Indians are consistently
better in almost every categor.
@Anon - However Indians have one drawback against the Chinese. Indians are a switch case, sometimes they do well sometimes not. There is an Indian underclass in Canada and Malaysia but Indians in the U.S.A and U.K are an elite crowd. Compared to that, the Chinese are successful wherever they go. Even in the U.K. the Chinese outdo the Indians in the GCSE.
ReplyDelete--
This depends on the caste blend
Canada imported millions of sikh blue collar peasants
Malaysian Indians are mostly untouchable low caste coolies
UK Indians are 80% middle peasantry of Sikhs and Patels and yes the Chinese do slightly outperform them
Whereas in USA. the top 50% of the Indian diaspora consist of Brahmins and Merchants, and the bottom 50% consists of Patels and Sikhs and in the USA. Indian diaspora is of higher IQ
>completely inoffensive--except for existing) Jews<
ReplyDeleteYeah, like Hillel.
Every time any Christian group tacks up a "come to our church supper" poster on a local campus here, Hillel slams a larger poster over it reading "WATCH YOUR STEP". This is in Tennessee.
Isn't it amazing that the sweetest and bestest people that the world has ever known drive every group that encounters them into a murderous rage?
"If there's no friction, you're not pushing hard enough," one of these godly people recently informed me.
Remember the upshot of the stories about these campus hoaxes: anyone who thinks Israel is wrong about anything is a thug bordering on a Hitler. Watch your step and quit hitting me!
"Hehehe LOL, you do not know Indians very well, do you?"
ReplyDeleteHehe LOL, yes I do not, which is very strange because I am Indian.
Don't worry, Steve, the minority sweepstakes will collapse of its own internal contradictions, hahaha
ReplyDeleteJoel should be assigned a book report on "To Kill a Mockingbird"--which white liberals have belatedly declared the finest bit of scrivening in all history, forever; they are forming book clubs in their tony suburbs to study its refulgent wisdom
@David - Isn't it amazing that the sweetest and bestest people that the world has ever known drive every group that encounters them into a murderous rage?
ReplyDelete---
Hindus like jews the best of any non-Indian religion, both in India and in the west
> "To Kill a Mockingbird" <
ReplyDeleteHeavily promoted with extensive city-wide tie-ins and connections in Knoxville, Tennessee when the Channon Christian-Christopher Newsom Knoxville Horror got hot.
The masses must not think any way but the way the elites want them thinking. It's better they think about fictional characters in a piece of propaganda than about their own sons and daughters.
The masses here are used to that, though. This is, after all, the Bible Belt....
God only knows how many TKAM tote bags were manufactured that telling year.