“You’re cool, you know, for an Indian.”
“Um, sorry, can you repeat that?”
“You’re cool for an Indian; you’re a cool Indian”
I’m sorry; I’m cool for an Indian? Are you really trying to generalize the “coolness” of a population of more than 1 billion people? Did you really have to tack on the “for an Indian” at the end? What does that even mean?
I know it’s not meant as an insult. It’s supposed to be a compliment. You probably didn’t realize that statements like “You’re cool for an Indian,” “cool Indian” and its peers (You’re *positive adjective* for a *racial group* or “*positive adjective* *racial group*") come off to me as entrenched and grounded in harmful stereotypes and even reinforce them, but they do.
Maybe you don’t think that stereotypes associated with Indians are bad; hey, what could be bad with being part of the model minority? But they are constraining and make me feel pigeonholed. Knowing that my phenotypical self has a voice that speaks for me is a scary reality. It means that before I open my mouth, there are societal expectations of how I should act. My skin tone, dark brown eyes and black hair “tell” you I am docile, quiet, antisocial and smart but not intellectual.
However, a key reason for why stereotypes exist is relatively harmless. Humans have an innate tendency to categorize. On an infinite loop, we see, perceive and classify the infinite stimuli we're exposed to everyday. It's the key way we are able to cope with the world; we create schemas and attach qualitative traits to them. Now, the qualitative traits that we attach are the problem. I blame the social stigmatization of being Indian primarily on media portrayal; the fact is that much of our social norms and ideals are derived from what we see on TV. From what to wear, what we consider beautiful, to what we expect from minority populations.
The fact is it’s human psychology to categorize; it’s how we cope with the world: we create schemas and attach qualitative traits to them. Naturally, we associate qualitative traits to the different categories. Then throw in media’s representation of Indians and there you have it: Indians are either antisocial STEM geeks who have been sheltered by their parents for years and are repressed, lack creativity, don’t get how the world works and will never really make it or we’re 7-11 owners, taxi cab drivers, with thick accents and smell like “curry” (which, by the way, is an outrageously broad term; still unsure of what that means). Think Baljeet from "Phineas and Ferb" or Ranjit from "How I Met Your Mother." There’s rarely ever more depth to Indian characters in Western media; though there have been improvements (shout out to Mindy Kaling’s "The Mindy Project" and Aziz Ansari’s "Master of None") those plots and roles have only been relatively few. I know there are nerdy and one-dimensional white characters too, but there are also several multifaceted ones. For every Sheldon from "Big Bang Theory," there are Marshalls and Teds from "How I Met Your Mother," McDreamies from "Grey's Anatomy" and Nicks and Schmidts from "New Girl." The fact is most actors and actresses are white, so there is diversity in how they are portrayed. You cannot say that is true for minorities.
Why does this matter? While there has been a lot of discussion about how stereotypes form and why they exist, we need to look at how it affects the people who are being simplified. It is wrong to stereotype, but what are its consequences?
I propose that stereotyping affects us severely. We are social creatures and are aware of how others interact with us and what others respond positively to. When my appearance speaks before I do, that is a primary factor in how others may decide to interact with me. This creates a vicious cycle where I feel pressured to behave in a way that fits the expectation. Cognitive dissonance is uncomfortable.
In fact, there have been many psychological studies on stereotype threat proving this idea. When subjects are either reminded of the stereotype attached to their demographic (race or gender) or are not primed at all, they perform roughly the same on exams. However when subjects are told that they are individuals and have the potential to achieve, they perform better. Thus, stereotyping takes its toll. After all, it can feel like the only space in society that you can muster up is the one that’s pre-made for you.
