Interesting Email on Race

Dear Parvez
I read your delightful essay on the Unbearable Whiteness of Being on the
Huffington Post. Yes, White Supremacy is tightly woven into the fabric
of America and I am afraid, that even after Barack Obama gets elected,
that fabric is unlikely to unravel, at least in my lifetime. Much like
the apartheid of caste and class in Indian society, racism in the US
breaths freely and unchecked, under the surface of supposed integration
of the races into the proverbial but imaginary melting pot.
I am originally from India and have lived in the Pacific Northwest for
over 40 years. Much has changed in my lifetime. Racism that was very
overt when I first got here is now below the surface. But the most
profound sea change that I have seen is the rapid increase in the
non-white population and the concomitant change in the master narrative
of what being an American means. That is what Barack Obama represents.
The world has changed. The homogenous has now been replaced by
heterogonous flavors (no pun intended here). White Supremacy will
persist, but we will have an option to build communities where class and
color are happily embraced. I reside in a community of friends of all
colors who are very mindful and informed on the deceptions of White
Supremacy. How do we as individuals, aid and abet the furtherance of
that deceit? Many in our own immigrant Indian communities have carried
our bigotries from the birth country and transmogrified them into a
license to practice unfettered discrimination against African Americans
in this country? Many of us like to be trophy friends in a room full of
well heeled white power brokers. When we are the only people of color
in this room, we need to question our own motives.
I am myself a filmmaker and would like to see your film Jihad for Love.
Please do let me know how I may be able to obtain a copy of your DVD.
Keep up the good work. I look forward to hearing from you
Many Thanks