Today, a fiercely racially divided state, one where virulent Jim Crowe values thrive in the cloth of a fictional Christ, the site of a monumental natural disaster, a place that makes a habit of choosing megalomaniacs, incompetents, and hypocrites for its highest offices elected (by-all-accounts) an astonishingly brilliant and industrious South Asian man to be its governor. In many ways, Bobby Jindal's achievement--and his achievements to date--are staggering. At 24, seeking a post-Rhodes Scholarship challenge, he was appointed to be the Secretary of Lousisiana's Department of Health & Hospitals. At 32 he took Kathleen Blanco to task in a hard-fought gubernatorial contest, losing only because of the color of his skin. A few weeks later, he won David Vitter's congressional seat. And now at 36, he has burnished his conservative credentials, and has become the governor of a sinking swampland.I guess I'm experiencing that same numb confusion that Mexican-Americans felt when they witnessed Alberto Gonzales morph into the President's torture lapdog, the same hollowness of stomach black Americans felt beholding an obviously paranoid Clarence Thomas dismiss institutional racism as the crutch of the lazy. But what does it say about the American dream when the first guy who looks like me to win state-wide office does so after changing his name from Piyush to Bobby, does so after abandoning his parents' Hindusim for a belief system that disallows for abortion even when a woman's life may be in danger, does so after lurching even further right after his 2003 defeat and ceding the black vote altogether, in favor of rural white approval?
Some will say today is a marvelous day for people of my color--the American Dream is reborn with Bobby Jindal. Others know the American Dream is entombed with Bobby Kennedy.
3 comments:
i like that the new york times article on mr. bobby's win repeatedly emphasized how "desperate" louisiana voters must've been to deviate from the black-white script.
vote a rhodes scholar into office?! what has come of this country?!
One thing you have to hand to Bobbybhaiya is that he's straight-up about his conservatism, so being straight-up condemnatory on ideological grounds pretty easy. Which makes the ambivalence that some left-leaning Desis are experiencing (see sepiamutiny) all the more puzzling. This'd be like seeing Dinesh D'Souza come to power. No fucking thank you.
yeah, anon., sepia mutiny's treatment of his candidacy is disgusting. but then again, that blog is better in theory than in practice. the right wing celebrate d'souza, fareed zakaria et al. in a cynical attempt to bolster their brown voting bloc. where's the pride in that?
you're right about jindal's conservatism, but compare the 2007 version of him to 2003's. he has clearly shifted right, in order to counter-balance his brownness. i don't know how straight-up a move that is.
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