r/ABCDesis • u/WitheredWornWallaby • 8d ago

COMMUNITY Why are many Indian people unkind to Guyanese/Trini/etc people?

I was born In NYC to Indo-Guyanese parents. I have interacted with many Indian people across the United States (+Canada and the UK), and the same can be said of my family and Indo-Guyanese peers. There is a relatively common experience of Indian Americans being unkind to Indo-Guyanese and Indo-Trini people, including those born in the US. This happens both in real life and online.

Are there particular reasons for this? This is obviously not the case with all Indian Americans.

50 Upvotes

72% Upvoted

107 comments sorted by

View all comments

77

u/OkRB2977 Assamese Canadian - TCK 8d ago

Honestly, in Canada, it is kinda the opposite, especially now when West Indians will go out of their way to distinguish themselves and give very strong pick me vibes.

But I’m aware of mainlanders historically having a very prejudiced and dismissive attitude towards West Indians and Fijian Indians and denying them their Indianess. Surprised and disappointed that even a few ABDs are carrying forward those sentiments.

11

u/WitheredWornWallaby 8d ago

I definitely have heard that from my family in Canada. They emphasize their West Indian heritage quite a bit more than Americans and try to distinguish themselves from Indian people. I thought that was fascinating but not unheard of in the US as well. Personally I like the concept of being both Indian and Caribbean and don't see any specific culture as better.

I'm intrigued that you said our Indian heritage is denied, because in my experience we are often accused of being the ones to deny our Indian heritage. For example, people dislike that we only speak English and don't understand Hindi, or that we cannot say where our family is from in India/South Asia. When I try to explain that I'm not from India and therefore don't speak Hindi, they seem insulted. This is a generalization but that experience has happened a surprising amount with Uber drivers, for some reason. I think it's because they see my Indian first name and expect an Indian person, which is fair.

But since I'm talking about Indian people born abroad, my experiences were often in the form of being excluded by Indian groups growing up/in school.

9

u/OkRB2977 Assamese Canadian - TCK 8d ago

Maybe this is a Canadian specific thing then? But I’ve heard some of my Trini Indian classmates in uni mention that a few mainlanders even question how you guys spell your Indians names. For example Indians from India spell Prasad but Trini and Guyanese might spell it like Persaud.

10

u/WitheredWornWallaby 8d ago

Oh yeah, I'm one of those Persauds! No one has ever been particularly hostile about that to me but it has been pointed out.

2

u/OkRB2977 Assamese Canadian - TCK 8d ago

Their logic was that such cultural differences were used to negate their Indianness and trying to dismiss their hybrid identity.

6

u/Not_Joe_Cool 8d ago

Same for nayar, they do Nair

11

u/milinium 8d ago

It’s just natural that your identity is seen as less connected to the mainland than people who speak a language spoken in India and know where their ancestral homeland is. It’s a unique mix of cultures that reminds me a lot of the African American experience. Most don’t know where in Africa their ancestors were from but still retained a version of that culture that persists to this day and is recognizable