More Rabri for me, I, guess.

[theotherbaldwin]

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that Joel Stein, in a column full of unfunny sterotypes about how Edison has lots of Indian residents, sounds like an asshole. I mean, after all, he went to J.P. Stevens High School.

OH SNAP! SEE WHAT I DID THERE? Maybe TIME will give ME a column, too!

Comments

[nbda1997]

It's no secret that you and I rarely agree on topics like this. Look, let's face it, we (people coming from different backgrounds) often annoy the living sh!t out of each other. Why is it automatically "hate speech" if we dare to acknowledge that?

Honestly, I think the guy has a right to feel kind of sad about the fact that his hometown is so drastically changing, and to say as much in an editorial.

Why is it so bad for people to vent their frustrations about race? I'm not condoning the use of racial slurs, but what's wrong with being allowed to acknowledging that certain stereotypes or customs associated with a given background bothers you a little? Jeez, it's human to have those feelings! Maybe if that stuff was laid right out on the table rather than kept pent up in people's stomach, we (as a society) could start to get past those differences and get a long better.

[theotherbaldwin]

I didn't say this was hate speech. I said Stein sounded like an asshole.

"Eventually, there were enough Indians in Edison to change the culture. At which point my townsfolk started calling the new Edisonians “dot heads.” One kid I knew in high school drove down an Indian-dense street yelling for its residents to “go home to India.” In retrospect, I question just how good our schools were if “dot heads” was the best racist insult we could come up with for a group of people whose gods have multiple arms and an elephant nose."

That's a good example of how he sounds like an asshole.

Even if this was just a simple observation on Joel Stein’s part of how his town has changed economically or culturally or whatever through the years, he could have done it a lot differently.

He frames Edison in the velvet glove of “good old days” nostalgia, saying that the past was superior to the present. The associations made with Indians - their food, culture, and other ethnic practices - are framed as inferior.

So yeah, he sounds like an asshole.

[namiko]

And then there's lines like "In the 1990s, the not-as-brilliant merchants brought their even-less-bright cousins, and we started to understand why India is so damn poor."

It could have been a bittersweet piece on the changes of his hometown, and how he now finds himself in the shoes of those first few Indians, trying to find a place for himself in a strange culture. Instead he painted Indians as idiots, white kids as criminals, and tossed in some Italian guido jokes for good measure. He's completely entitled, as an individual, to say and think what he wants about the various subcultures of Edison, however racist - but the Times should have held what makes it to print to a higher standard.

[theotherbaldwin]

Yeah-- I mean, I kno pretty much exactly where he's talking about. Oak Tree Road in Edison. I hit the movie theater there all the time in HS. One of my best friends was an usher there. I used to get comic books from the comic shop a few doors down, and then get dollar store candy with the leftovers.

But things change.

And the movie theater that shows only Bollywood now? They also sell fresh samosas. I'll probably check it out myself some day.

yeah i dunno

[pjxb]

I wasn't really all that affected by Stein's piece, even living right next door to Edison and all. There are definitely more Asians in general in the area, although growing up half my neighbors were Chinese anyway. However the population has managed to self-segregate itself enough (even in 2010) that when I was in the CVS with my husband the other day a little blonde girl asked her mother in direct earshot if we were Chinese.

Anyway. I'm not bothered by Stein's piece probably because I kinda feel where he's coming from. I didn't at all get the feeling from Stein that he was saying that the old Edison was better. In fact he tries to show how much of a shithole old Edison was anyway. The sadness, very much ineffable, as evinced by the impotency of this piece, is just the sadness of change. The change just happens to be tied to a particular race/nationality/ethnic group, which makes it all the more difficult for him (or anyone) to address.

Re: yeah i dunno

[theotherbaldwin]

He came across it in such a clunky, ham-handed way that he may have been going for the three point shot, but he ended up going alll airball for me. He couched so much of his "things change" sadness in particular, kinda troublesome shots at an entire group that it just came off as assholishness to me.

Except for Pizza Hut )seriously, we're in NJ where we can get real, delicious pizza) I do get the bummed-out feeling of not seeing favorite business around anymore. Shanghai Goodies, Rocco's Shirts and an ice cream shop in my nexk of the woods all closed down between the time I moved to TX vs the time I moved back up.

Re: yeah i dunno

[erf_]

One thing I do agree with Stein about: The sadness over seeing my favorite ice cream and bagel places go away is mitigated somewhat by the fact that all of a sudden there is all this great Indian food. I'd rather see Easy Video and Steak and Ale be replaced by Bollywood video shops and Bombay Chaat House than have them replaced by Blockbuster and Bennigan's (like virtually every other suburb in America). Edison doesn't have the same unique flavor as it did fifteen years ago, but at least it still has a unique flavor. And the new flavor isn't bad--just a whole lot spicier.

[taktukbrightsea]

What a privileged asshole. I could say more, but the post in a community I'm in on JournalFen already said everything I'd have to say, and more eloquently.
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