TOO AMERICAN? by Scott Budman
Is it wrong for an American to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas?
Sounds like a crazy question, but it’s actually at the center of a lawsuit that’s on its way to court.
Promila Awasthi is a US citizen, originally from India. She lives in Silicon Valley, and worked for software giant Infosys at its Fremont, Calif. office in 2008.
When she was there, she claims, she was routinely teased by two of her supervisors for celebrating American holidays. “Why, as an Indian, should you be celebrating Thanksgiving?” she says she was asked. “You should not be doing that,” she was told.
Infosys is based in Bangalore, India. Its offices there and in nearby Mysore are magnificent. This is truly a global company, making software that reaches out to all corners of the world. It’s famous not just for its consistent growth, stock price and success, but for being a company that supposedly transcends borders and cultures. But now it’s facing serious charges that strike at the heart of its vaunted ability to rise above cultural differences.
Awasthi, whose children are also Indian-born American citizens, says she was also ridiculed when superiors found out that she and her family celebrate Christmas. She was called “IBCD,” short for “Indian-Born Confused Desi,” a term of insult used to criticize people from India who assimilate to certain American ways.
frivolous lawsuit
Maybe John Edwards’ hair can represent her?
Yet another instance of blatant anti-Americanism. It is not a crime to be an American, to hold its values, and to embrace its culture. Certainly, one must not be subjected to bigoted harassment because one chooses to be an American.
Perhaps these critics of MS. Awasthi are envious of the fact that she is a citizen of the greatest nation on Earth.
I have said a bazillion times, and I think this is particularily true for the Anglosphere (US, UK, Canada, Australia), that problems of immigration, such as assimilation and native hostilty and the like, is NOT the fault of the immigrants. It is almost entirely the fault of the multi-culturalist *spit* left. For decades, nay centuries, such immigrants have enriched the A’sphere with their presence, and have wholeheartedly thrown themselves into being part and parcel of it.
Then, along comes these driveling self-styled “intellectuals” to foster the belief, the meme, not that there is an alternative to “assimilation”, but that the very act if it is some sort of horrifying betrayal, buying into “The Man’s” oppression, betraying one’s culture (that they fled), and all that filthy, scummy nonsense.
THAT is what makes immigration “a problem”, not the fact of the immigration itself.
About this, and about twelve thousand other things….. we had a good thing going once upon a time, until these arrogant punk-a** know-it-all dirtbags came along to destroy it.
There’s got to be more to this story then meets the eye. Weren’t we all immigrants at one time or another? Didn’t we all learn to appreciate and celebrate our American heritage, history and exceptionalism? Something is fishy here. I think most Americans would welcome Ms. Awasthi as an American, recognizing her Indian heritage as well as embracing hew new American heritage.
I feel for the lady, but I don’t think tasteless comments are actionable.
“Internal review”? How would Infosys be any more trustworthy than ACORN on something like this?
@Freeq:
Tasteless comments themselves are not. A pattern of tasteless comments, designed to harass and intimidate, is actionable.
Sounds like another desi just learnt the great American way of filing a lawsuit of harassment against their employee for some easy cash. Never a bad thing in this economy. Cite cultural differences (thats easy to stick on to foreigners), cook up some anecdotal stories, use the tide of anti-outsourcing sentiments to your favour and trust the US media to pick up from there and make it sound like its the prevalent work culture throughout the entire company. Who needs Lou Dobbs?
I am an Indian living and working in the US for many years. I never ever seen or heard any Indian objecting to Thanksgiving or Christmas whether or not they actually celebrate it. Back in India, people celebrate a dozen different holidays a month belonging to different communities. I find it hard to buy this story.
This was a form of ETHNIC HARASSMENT. This was the equivalent of making recist/sexist comments. OR comments based upon someone’s religion. Now if ALL OF THE ABOVE ARE ACTIONABLE IN A LEFT WING WORLD what makes this an exception? NOTHING. So if some of the posters here would use a little LOGIC you could connect the dots and see this lady does have a reason to protest. They were specifically targeting her because of her ethnic heritage. They disparaged her, belittled her, dehumanized her. THEY ETHNICALLY PROFILED. So yes. In the world created by the red wing, THEY SHOULD BE MADE TO PLAY BY THEIR OWN RULES. BIG TIME.
Sounds to me, like she was being discriminated against for being an AMERICAN. Where she was born is irrelevant, she’s one of us by law, and far more importantly, at heart. We need more like her.
@Freeq: do the words “Hostile Environment” sound familiar ? In court, they do, and this was a distinctly hostile environment. . .
Did some of the commenters here fail to understand some of the “supervisors” being complained of may not have been US citizens or possibly working on-site in the US? This is an India-based multi-national firm with various global work sites. It follows that many “supervisors” will likely not be “American”. Including the folks harassing her. They were more likely reflecting a snide world view espoused by many third world “elites”. It will be interesting to see what develops in court on this subject.
Lawsuits as the first and last answer to every problem. Unfortunately, you can’t get any more American than that these days.
Harassment is harassment. Good luck to you, Promila, and I’m glad you and your family made it to the USA.
49er –
My comment above may qualify as one you refer to, so let me (a fellow 49er
qualify…
I actually started out assuming these Thanksgiving critics were American, then re-read the post and began to think otherwise. But I went on to post what I did. Here’s why…
I honestly cannot imagine that Indian (or other professionals, or people in general) living in the US from overseas, would even begin to act in such a manner had not the Western “hip”, “educated”, bien pensant left given them philosophical cover for doing so. An easy way to look at it is this…. If you were living and working in China, and a fellow American who was living and raising a family and making a home there chose to actively participate in Chinese culture… would it even occur to you to act in the arrogant, borderline racial superiority manner described here? Wouldn’t you deep inside feel like some sort of narrow-minded troglyditic caveman if you did, or if you witnessed a friend of yours acting that way?
You and I would never do this as guests in another country, as it would be so rude and arrogant as to be beyond belief….. unless maybe we were marinated in and surrounded by our fellow Americans overseas, relentlessly telling us how superior we were and how inferior the host culture was (which I suppose was the colonial case a hundred years ago), and how for us to think otherwise in any way was beyond the social pale.
That is what “multi-culturalism” has done, taken thinking every bit as stupid and narrow-minded as 100 years ago, carried on it’s basics, and just flipped the target so as to assume moral superiority. I have come to the conclusion that “evil” is not too strong a word for the barbaric vandalism it causes on a daily basis to the root and branch of Western Civilization.