Neera Tandon of the Center for American Progress weighs in on the ‘Thank You’ ad over at The New Republic:
The poorly produced ad, which somehow cost Americans for Job Security $900,000, trades in crude cultural clichés and carries the clear implicit message: Don’t vote for that politician who does business with the funny-sounding Indians.
Our society strangely tolerates mocking Indians. There are never, for instance, ads attacking outsourcing to Ireland with Irish actors, even though that country has made a major push to become an outsourcing hub. Or imagine an ad featuring Hassidic Jews and klezmer music and the outrage that would generate. Or remember the storm of condemnation that rightly rained down on Senator Bob Corker for his racially-tinged attack on Harold Ford. Yet, similar treatment of Indians seems to be perfectly acceptable in many quarters.
Read the whole thing here.
(Hat tip, @sepiamutiny)
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I am an Asian Indian living the American dream for almost 40 years. When I first arrived in the US, India was considered a land of snakes and elephants. Indians are now beating us the Americans in our own game. Quality and price shifts the balance. The political ad losing jobs to Bangalore is indeed a compliment to the hard working intelligent Indians and a message to us the Americans that in a globalized world we better shape up and get back into the spirit of competition that seems to have been lost in political battles.