Hindu folks, being “model minority” is derogatory. It means that we as a group of people have been the most successful at climbing the white cultural ladder by minimizing our identity to suit the assimilation culture of the west.

Our right to exist as Hindu tolerated as long as we keep it acceptable for the white protestant culture of the US. It also pits you against other groups. If we are model then by definition others are not. It creates a situation where the dominant culture can ignore real issues within Black and Latino communities by whatabouting “Blacks” and “Latinos”. “Why can’t you be like those Hindu Americans?”

Meanwhile also holding barriers in place so that those communities can't move up the class ladder.

Meanwhile our Hinduness is reduced to "India Festivals" and Samosas. We are still targeted in many spaced for showing up as Hindus but white culture gets to wear bindis as a self-expression. Hindu temples and symbols are treated with great disrespect.

Let me ask you, would you be accepted in the West if you were a Aghori Hindu? A Tantric Sadhivi covered in ash? No! Even the expression of Hinduness is limited here.

Bindis are very nominally accepted in very liberal parts of the country. Wearing Hindu clothes to office would be seen as breaking their codes.

That's what it means to be "model minority". Keep bits of culture as long as it doesn't make the dominant culture uncomfortable. White culture gets to say they are tolerant by pointing to us as examples while never making real change.

We keep quoting Gandhi. But if every Hindu did Satyagraha everytime there was injustice I guarantee you that we would quickly fall from that pedestal of “model”.

Some people may misunderstand this. It’s not anti-immigration, which is driven by many factors. My family came here for economic reasons. Other families come here as refugees. This is about getting Hindus to Think like Free People, as Dr. Indu Voshwanathan says-

(This article has been compiled from the tweet thread originally tweeted by Sneha Rao (@SnehaRao994) on December 6, 2022.)