Laura Loomer, a far-right associate of Trump, said that the White House will smell like curry and that American people will be able to convey their feedback through a customer satisfaction survey at the end of a call that nobody will understand if Kamala Harris wins, in a desperate attempt to redeem the Republican Party after Trump’s fiasco at the Presidential debate.
She elicited criticism from fellow conservative Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, who called Loomer’s comments “appalling and extremely racist.” What ensued was an ugly online fight between the two Republicans.
These racist comments come from a place of deep-seated xenophobia on the part of the Trump camp, as compounded by Trump and J.D. Vance validating baseless rumours about illegal immigrants eating pets and invading Americans’ homes.
In America, Indian immigrants have much higher education levels, higher incomes, higher levels of labour force participation, and are more likely to be employed in the management, business, science, and arts occupations, as compared to the native population of America. Hence, it comes as no surprise that a veritable number of natives are anti-immigration and decidedly racist.
After the commencement of globalisation 3.0 circa 2000, as propositioned by Thomas Friedman in his book The World is Flat, the individual was able to go global. America outsourced accounting work to India like never before, and there was a plenitude of the export of Indian IT professionals to the US. In the early 2000s, Americans enjoyed an economic hegemony over the Indians, impelling them to do the grunge and menial work. Today, Indians in the US are no longer restricted to living in the shadows. Indian immigrants in the US are no longer invisible, cannot be invisibilised, and they have brought with them their concomitant culture.
However, the English language and Western music came to India long before the Americans had the faintest whiff of yoga and karma. India was, along with being a British colony, also ideologically colonised by Western ideas and culture. Indian elites have, since colonial times, yearned for Western validation. Today, crop tops, English rap, gossip about the latest Hollywood scandal, and American culinary practices are the natural way of life for urban youth in India. American influence on India has been systemically naturalised in a way that it is no longer seen as hegemony.
If anything, Indian immigrants in the US are a blessing to their economy and workforce. And curry might just be the best thing to happen to American food.
