6 Burst results for "Indian Student Association"
WNYC 93.9 FM
"indian student association" Discussed on WNYC 93.9 FM
"From tell our listeners briefly what it's about Go back to where you came from and other helpful recommendations and how to become American Is about loving a country that doesn't always love you back And how the rest of us are both citizens and suspects us and them and how this country can turn on us on a dime But at the same time it's about how we can move forward as a multicultural country And I hope it is done with humor and it ends on earned hope not some hallmark a sugary confection but earned hope and the earned hope is by working through the challenges So that's the book Just one perspective my perspective but I tried to use my story as kind of a narrative spine to make a commentary about America and connect the dots for the rest of us The introduction of your book comes in hot You start by sharing some of the most offensive letters you've received from readers and viewers And then you write some snarky responses I'm wondering in real life how often do you respond to often racist hate mail or tweets That's a good question I get those emails every single day When I used to write in the comments section and articles my editors always used to turn off the comments section because they're like you don't want to read this And oftentimes it was benign stuff but it was because of who I am my name my ethnicity and my religion that all of a sudden I became a target I'm sure you get it all so you can sit here and talk about potato chips and somehow someone would make it like a racist That's how it is And you kind of take some dark humor with it and I think it depends on my mood and about once a week I'll respond to a go back to where you come from And if someone really spends a long three page emissive which they have then sometimes I have some fun with it and sometimes I share it with the public Because I feel like oftentimes we're asked to be like daffy duck get angry and upset but sometimes I want to be like Bugs Bunny you know If you really think about it right But as bunny's always chilling they're always after him but he always uses their traps against them and sometimes he dresses up as a girl and kisses them and then sometimes he just mocks them but he always gets the last laugh And I want to make sure I get the last laugh in the last word Yeah Bugs Bunny didn't work hard He worked smart There you go He was a smart bunny You know so much of your life changed on 9 11 And a big turning point in the book is that event and what it meant for you going forward I want to go back to that scene because it was very vivid for me as I read it Where were you when you found out about the attack 20 year old UC Berkeley senior undeclared in my pajamas woken up by my roommate in our apartment a mile away from UC Berkeley He knocks on the door and I'm sleeping He's like you gotta get up I'm like come on man It's freaking exhausted I stayed up all night playing NBA two K then ten minutes later I get another knock You really have to get up and see that something's happening So we're both in our pajamas blurry watching the tower on fire Maybe the pilot had a heart attack That's what happened He was trying to land the plane maybe a Laguardia something happened And then you saw the second plane go Once you saw the second plane that's when we realized something this was deliberate And right there and then you kind of do the minority prayer which all minorities know And the minority player goes something like this Please let it be a white guy And if you're white or self identifies white it's not because we want any harm to come to you going full circle with the beginning of this conversation We realize that when it's a white person all of whiteness is not convicted Well the white guy is like this lone wolf who was misunderstood you know Just a dude You know crazy dude did it You want to have white uncles and white aunties in your community having to like stand up like Uncle Sam with flags like waving in the air and saying I love America and let me prove my moderation and come to my churches and won't be investigation and surveillance and hearings right Like you won't be held you won't be interrogated or indicted and have to prove your loyalty or prove your whiteness But for the rest of us we're effed all of us collectively And then when they saw that on the scroll at the bottom suspected Osama bin Laden and Muslims that's when I remember I closed my eyes and I just realized things were going to get really bad And I was a member of this Muslim student association I was elected to the board And I joke that had Muslims known that 9 11 would happen these horrible conspiracy theories which we did not know because Muslims also died that day I would have joined the Indian student association and I would have learned how to do punga or whatever you do though Do not join the sick student association because that poor group got screwed First hate crime after 9 11 was a sick man in mason This shows you how stupid racism is 19 four and hijackers 15 from Saudi Arabia to from UAE one from Lebanon one from Egypt brought down the two towers killed 3000 people And so the first hate crime after America was in mesa Arizona where a white supremacist blamed a middle aged sick gas station owner balbir Singh for the violent acts of 19 foreign hijackers because he was brownskin had a beard and a turban and he was sick Bigots aren't nuanced This country lost its damn mine after 9 11 And so here I was a Muslim student association board member and I had Muslim women born and raised in America emailing me Should we go to school There are hate crimes We're afraid I had my first hate mail Just think about it I'm in California born and raised in the Bay Area to Pakistani immigrant parents and I am being blamed for the violent actions of 1940 hijackers And that's where it all began And I always tell people that was the baptism by fire That was the turning point the fork in the road That was the danger room simulation for the rest of my life and with the rest of my career For my generation You're listening to it's been a minute from NPR I'm Sam Sanders speaking with wajahat Ali We're talking about his new memoir It's called go back to where you came from You know you wrote about how much work you had to take on at Berkeley in the aftermath of 9 11 You and other students and the Muslim student association just took it upon yourself to do a lot of bridge building You hosted Friday prayers for the entire campus You held forums with all different kinds of speakers and groups And you said something that really stuck out to me about that experience and that year after 9 11 you said it was quote training ground an X-Men danger room simulation that would prepare you for the rest of your life Explain Yeah I mean you become overnight the Muslim firemen You become the Muslim walking Wikipedia You become the person if you're thrust in that spotlight where you have to be an expert on the drop of the dime on all things Muslim and Islam McGraw and Sharia are profit Muhammad Hakeem olajuwon Nan Hakeem not Hakeem three Hakeem everything Bollywood hummus Hamas like everything You know here I have this 20 year old undeclared student playing NBA two K next thing you know I'm giving speeches in front of 200 people And as I have the microphone and giving the speech I'm like why am I sitting here giving a speech What's happening And overnight you get thrust like our parents generation You get you know you get thrust into the moment right You have to meet the moment And you have to then play the stupid condemn Nathan game condemning violent accident by violent people you've never met And you've got to be perfect And if you're not perfect not only are you indicted by this nameless judge you're an executioner that 20 years after 9 11 still holds your loyalty aspect simply due to your ethnicity or religion it condemns this whole thing called Muslims and Islam Because after 9 11 the enemy became this thing called Islam It became a civilizational conflict between us and them I'm using the language of our elected leaders at that time The axis of evil And it wasn't just those who were Muslim and I'm glad you mentioned this earlier It was those who looked Muslim Sick Americans Indian Hindus Arab Christians right And so overnight you become an educator you become.
WABE 90.1 FM
"indian student association" Discussed on WABE 90.1 FM
"Tell our listeners briefly what it's about Go back to where you came from and other helpful recommendations and how to become American Is about loving a country that doesn't always love you back And how the rest of us are both citizens and suspects us and them and how this country can turn on us on a dime But at the same time it's about how we can move forward as a multicultural country And I hope it is done with humor and it ends on earned hope not some hallmark a sugary confection but earned hope and the earned hope is by working through the challenges So that's the book And it's just one perspective my perspective but I tried to use my story as kind of a narrative spine to make a commentary about America and connect the dots for the rest of us The introduction of your book comes in hot You start by sharing some of the most offensive letters you've received from readers and viewers and then you write some snarky responses I'm wondering in real life how often do you respond to often racist hate mail or tweets That's a good question I get those emails every single day When I used to write in the comments section and articles my editors always used to turn off the comments section because they're like you don't want to read this And oftentimes it was benign stuff but it was because of who I am my name my ethnicity and my religion that all of a sudden I became a target And I'm sure you get it also We could sit here and talk about potato chips and somehow someone would make it like a racist That's how it is And you kind of take some dark humor with it And I think it depends on my mood and about once a week I'll respond to a go back to where you come from And if someone like really spends a long three page missive which they have then sometimes I have some fun with it And sometimes I share it with the public Because I feel like oftentimes we're asked to be like daffy duck get angry and upset but sometimes I want to be like Bugs Bunny you know If you really think about it right Bugs Bunny's always chilling They're always after him but he always uses their traps against them and sometimes he dresses up as a girl and kisses them and then sometimes he just walks them but he always gets the last laugh And I want to make sure I get the last laugh in the last word Yeah Bugs Bunny didn't work hard He worked smart There you go He was a smart bunny You know so much of your life changed on 9 11 And a big turning point in the book is that event and what it meant for you going forward I want to go back to that scene because it was very vivid for me as I read it Where were you when you found out about the attack 20 year old UC Berkeley senior undeclared in my pajamas woken up by my roommate in our apartment a mile away from UC Berkeley He knocks on the door and I'm sleeping He's like you gotta get up I'm like come on man It's freaking exhausted I stayed up all night playing NBA two K then ten minutes later I get another knock You really have to get up and see that something's happening So we're both in our pajamas blurry watching the tower on fire Maybe the pilot had a heart attack That's what happened He was trying to land a plane maybe a Laguardia something happened and then you saw the second plane go Once you saw the second plane that's when we realized something this was deliberate And right there and then you kind of do the minority prayer which all minorities know And the minority player goes something like this Please let it be a white guy And if you're white or self identifies white it's not because we want any harm to come to you going full circle with the beginning of this conversation We realize that when it's a white person all of whiteness is not convicted Well the white guy is like this lone wolf who was misunderstood you know Just a dude You know crazy dude did it You want to have white uncles and white aunties in your community having to stand up like Uncle Sam with flags like waving in the air and saying I love America and let me prove my moderation and come to my churches and you won't be investigation and surveillance and hearings right Like you won't be held you won't be interrogated or indicted and have to prove your loyalty or prove your whiteness But for the rest of us we're effed all of us collectively And then when they saw that on the scroll at the bottom you know suspected Osama bin Laden in Muslims that's when I remember I closed my eyes and I just realized things were going to get really bad And I was a member of this Muslim student association I was elected to the board and I joke that had Muslims known that 9 11 would happen these horrible conspiracy theories which we did not know because Muslims also died that day I would have joined the Indian student association and I would have learned how to do punga or whatever you do though Do not join the sick student association because that poor group got screwed First hate crime after 9 11 was a sick man and this shows you how stupid racism is 19 foreign hijackers 15 from Saudi Arabia two from UAE one from Lebanon one from Egypt brought down the two towers killed 3000 people And so the first hate crime after America was in mesa Arizona where a white supremacist blamed a middle aged sick gas station owner balbir Singh for the violent acts of 19 foreign hijackers because he was brown skinned had a beard and a turban and he was sick Bigots aren't nuanced This country lost its damn mine after 9 11 And so here I was a Muslim student association board member and I had Muslim women born and raised in America emailing me Should we go to school Their hate crimes were afraid I had my first hate mail Just think about it I'm in California born and raised in the Bay Area to Pakistani immigrant parents and I am being blamed for the violent actions of 1940 hijackers And that's where it all began And I always tell people that was the baptism by fire That was the turning point the fork in the road That was the danger room simulation for the rest of my life and with the rest of my career For my generation Fear listening to it's been a minute from NPR I'm Sam Sanders speaking with wajahat Ali We're talking about his new memoir It's called go back to where you came from.
It's Been a Minute with Sam Sanders
"indian student association" Discussed on It's Been a Minute with Sam Sanders
"Do the writing. But you know, having insurance doesn't hurt. This is a thing. Everyone is like, oh, my parents did. My parents said, even if they're a little too enthusiastic about what they want for your life, big picture, they are concerned about the right things. There you go. Your security. They're trying the best they can. They're trying to love you the best way they know how. They just, you know, they're overzealous. You know how it is. And you know, another I'm a parent, I'm an older, you see things from their perspective. Parents instinct is protection. That's all it is. And for my parents generation, especially that immigrant generation, you have to realize they left with they came all by themselves. They were young kids, there was no community. They had the funny accent. They weren't seen as average that you had to put their head down, they could only do a few reliable, safe, secure jobs to send money back. And so once they made the Concorde American Dream, they wanted to hand that checklist down to the kids and said we don't want you to suffer how we suffered we learned the hard way, go get a stable degree in a stable job and keep your head down and be safe and marry someone who's ate on the hotness skill and get a Toyota or Honda that immigrant vehicle of choice. And there's a love there in a concern there. And the reason why so many of my parents generation, the kind of mocked or ridiculed or didn't invest in journalism or podcast host or writers is because we saw no models of success. So they're like, you just can't expect me to have faith. My faith has to be rooted in something tangible. Show me success. And then maybe I'll invest in this. And when I was growing up, we didn't have Hasan minhaj and riz Emma then Mindy Kaling. Flash forward to now, look at you on national public radio, talking about your book. I can't imagine an NPR 15 years ago. Letting the two of us get a whole hour. Seriously. I think 15 years ago, let's take it back, like, 2006. This would be wild. This would be wild. You know what would happen? This is what would happen. Like the whitest white NPR host probably would have been sick. And then they would have gone to the next two hosts who would have been in a car crash God forbid and healing. And then there was another white person who's never done a radio show. And they got like a panic attack. And then like, Sam, you got to do it. And then with me, like, 17 guests would have like bailed the last second. And we've heard about this war a lot. He has a book coming out. And then that's how we get an hour. There you go. There you go. Up next, how 9 11 changed was reality. And prepared him for the rest of his life. Stay with us. Been baller worked at a record label, but he thought his boss was giving young artists a raw deal. I was like, yo man, it's not like you can't still get rich and they can still eat. I'm talking everyone eat Wagyu. Oh, his boss was Dr. Dre. And he fired me. I was like, look, I'm gonna pivot and do something. All he did was change the game of high end, custom jewelry. Here how? On the limits from NPR. You know, so much of your life changed on 9 11. And a big turning point in the book is that event and what it meant for you going forward. I want to go back to that scene because it was very vivid for me as I read it. Where were you when you found out about the attack? 20 year old UC Berkeley senior undeclared in my pajamas woken up by my roommate in our apartment a mile away from UC Berkeley. He knocks on the door and I'm sleeping. He's like, you gotta get up. I'm like, come on, man. It's freaking exhausted, I stayed up all night playing NBA two K then ten minutes later I get another knock. You really have to get up and see that something's happening. So we're both in our pajamas, blurry, watching the tower on fire. Maybe the pilot had heart attack. That's what happened. He was trying to land the plane maybe, a Laguardia, something happened, and then you saw the second plane go. Once you saw the second plane, that's when we realized something this was deliberate. And right there and then you kind of do the minority prayer, which all minorities know. And the minority player goes something like this. Please let it be a white guy. And if you're white or self identifies white, it's not because we want any harm to come to you, going full circle with the beginning of this conversation. We realize that when it's a white person, all of whiteness is not convicted. Well, the white guy is like, this lone wolf, who was misunderstood, you know? Just a dude. You know, crazy dude did it. You want to have white uncles and white aunties in your community having to stand up like Uncle Sam with flags like waving in the air and saying, I love America and let me prove my moderation and come to my churches. And you won't be investigation and surveillance and hearings, right? Like you won't be held, you won't be interrogated or indicted and have to prove your loyalty or prove your whiteness. But for the rest of us, we're effed, all of us collectively. And then when they saw that on the scroll at the bottom, suspected Osama bin Laden in Muslims, that's when I remember I closed my eyes and I just realized things were going to get really bad. And I was a member of this Muslim student association. I was elected to the board. And I joke that had Muslims known that 9 11 would happen, these horrible conspiracy theories, which we did not know, because Muslims also died that day. I would have joined the Indian student association. I would have learned how to do punga, whatever you do, though. Do not join the sick student association because that poor group got screwed. First hate crime after 9 11 was a sick man in this shows you how stupid racism is. 19 foreign hijackers 15 from Saudi Arabia to from UAE one from Lebanon, one from Egypt, brought down the two towers, killed 3000 people. And so the first hate crime after America was in messer Arizona where a white supremacist blamed a middle aged sick gas station owner balbir Singh for the violent acts of 19 foreign hijackers because he was brown skinned had a beard and a turban and he was sick. Bigots aren't nuanced. This country lost its damn mine after 9 11. And so here I was a Muslim student association board member and I had Muslim women born and raised in America emailing me. Should we go to school? There are hate crimes. We're afraid. I had my first hate mail. Just think about it. I'm in California, born and raised in the Bay Area to Pakistani immigrant parents, and I am being blamed for the violent actions of 1940 hijackers. And that's where it all began. And I always tell people, that was the baptism by fire. That was the turning point, the fork in the road. That was the danger room simulation for the rest of my life and with the rest of my career. For my generation. Yeah. You know, you wrote about how much work you had to take on at Berkeley in the aftermath of 9 11. You and other students and the Muslim student association just took it upon yourself to do a lot of bridge building. You hosted Friday prayers for the entire campus. You held forums with all different kinds of speakers and groups. And you said something that really stuck out to me about that experience and that year after 9 11. You said it was quote training ground. An X-Men danger room simulation that would prepare you for the rest of your life. Explain. Yeah, I mean, you become overnight the Muslim firemen. You become the Muslim walking Wikipedia. You become the person if you're thrust in that spotlight, where you have to be an expert on the drop of the dime on all things Muslim and Islam and.
KQED Radio
"indian student association" Discussed on KQED Radio
"And the morning of 9 11. When I got up, I was that my partner's house and she said, You have to see this thing and I it was on her computer. And we didn't have a TV. We didn't watch TV news. We saw it all online. And there were these videos that kept playing over and over. I think we all saw them and because we were on the West Coast. Pretty much everything had already gone down. By the time we were waking up, and it was so surreal. It was very much like something I had studied in grad school when I was learning about Uh, you know, his reading Jean Baudrillard about the society of the spectacle And you know, um, what it means to have a simulated experience of politics that is totally mediated by By electronic forms of communication. And there we were looking at the Internet and seeing this unbelievable thing and I because I'm a giant nerd. One of the main things I remember after that is just searching for information online about What was going to happen next, and I felt so helpless. And, um, Slava Jacques was writing for, um, the village voice at that time, and he wrote this article about how there was this gap in meaning, and none of us knew what any of this meant. And so that was what I feel like. My next several weeks were about was trying to find that meaning and and I ultimately did you know, I Became much more political. After that. That's interesting, which I had about you. Where were you September 10th and had life change for you. September 10th. I was a 20 year old undeclared major at UC Berkeley, probably trying to figure out what to do with the rest of my life going to the RSF trying to work on my three pointer, drinking chai and playing Dreamcast NBA two K with a bunch of other dorks and then on September 11th because I probably stayed up way too late. Playing NBA two K dream passed. I was in my pajamas in my apartment. When my roommate as I'm knocked on the door and said, You've got to see this and I'm like, Yo, it's like six a.m. Man. Leave me alone. And then he knocked on the door again. You'll really have to wake up and see this. So here we were. Two Children of Pakistani immigrants standing in our you know our living room of our apartment, and I saw one of the towers burning and like most people, I'm like I You know, you were just sitting there trying to figure out what happened. You thought, Okay. Maybe the pilot uh there was some bad coordinates. Oh, my God. You know, maybe they're trying to land at LaGuardia and something happened and then when the second plane hit the second tower Immediately. I think most of us who were watching realized. Oh, God, This is coordinated and then on the scroll at the bottom once they started writing, you know Osama bin Laden or Al Qaeda could be involved. I did. I called the minority prayer and the minority prayers. What many people of color The prayer that many people of color do when there is a terror attack is like, please let it be a white person. And the reason for that is not because we dislike white people hate white people want like anything bad to happen by people is because we kind of realized and students of American history. Whenever there's like a person of color, does it? It's not just the person the individual who is indicted. It's the entire community that gets hazed. And the interesting thing was. I remember sitting there in my pajamas. And I closed my eyes and I could see the next 10 years very clearly. And what I saw was hazing. I saw blood lust. I saw war I saw panic. And as the kids say, FML, Alexis, because I was, uh, a student leader of the Muslim student association at that time, and I, you know, people say all Muslims knew what was going to happen. The conspiracy theory. I'm like. No, no, no, no. If God forbid. We knew what was going to happen, I would have joined the Indian Student Association and learn how to do Ponga Ra. But I remember the next few days so clearly because immediately And you mentioned this. You know, I heard someone say this in a sound club. Even though we were in Berkeley, the mushroom cloud of of of the damage spread. And immediately I got hate mail because my roommate decided to put me as the media contact for the NSA, the Muslim Student Association and so all of a sudden I had to become, and we had to become anyone who was in the space had to become like the cultural ambassador and defender. This thing called Islam and we started getting flooded with phone calls from concern. His hobby students. What should we come to school today? And so that kind of set off? What did you tell him? I mean, we didn't know, man like, Look, I'm a 20 year old undeclared student and all of a sudden now have to be an accidental activist. The defender of this thing called Islam, the chancellor of the university called us in one of the meeting with the five of us of the Muslim student associations, we went meant the chancellor. The chancellor said. Listen, what can we do to protect you? But at the same time they ask. Are you guys planning to do something like in the sense cause some ruckus and we're like, No, no, no, We just want to figure out how to create a safe environment. And the first person I remember this when I went out to Sproul Hall, it was like, uh, just a public You could just feel it like there was a the energy got sucked out of you See, Brickley. It was like a mass funeral. People are confusing in a haze. And then we went to Sproul Hall. People start coming out of sprawl Hall. You know, people started like just organizing. And I remember the first person that reach out to us when we had a tent out, was a member of the Japanese American community from Francisco and she said, We have been through this in World War two We know what's about to happen if you need help reach out to me. And that was a baptism by fire where the rest of us had a political consciousness like an alien grew up, and there was always a fork in the timeline. From that moment on pre 9 11. In the post number. Emily Bazelon did the actual legal regime around civil liberties change immediately or did that take a little while sort of round into place? You know, it changed pretty quickly. I'm not sure how much we were aware of it, but I think the FBI really changed this mission to being One about surveillance and intelligence gathering. And I think you know one of the reason that, um well, God felt all that So acutely, was this immediate sense that there was a threat that it was domestic, Um, that you know, Muslims might have helped or might be helping with something else. Just a lot of in Kuwait Fear And I remember my husband really early on saying this is gonna be bad, like the implications of this are bad, and I said, Why do you think that? And he said, Because when America with all its power Get scared When you combine the fear and the power of the United States. It's always bad like that is just an alarming Set of circumstances because we had so much military strength that we had all this police power that you know, our our freedoms started really quickly to be curtailed and we started viewing other people with suspicion, and it's very easy for that to start to spin out of control. Yeah, we're talking about September 10th 2000 and one life before and after 9 11 with the Jihad Ali, a playwright, columnist at the Daily Beast and senior fellow.
The Daily Beans
"indian student association" Discussed on The Daily Beans
"Tongue in cheek. But i think bold. I hope blunt honest memoir but told as a trojan horse threw a self help book of how you too can become american. I kinda give you these top ten ways but it's it's it's weaved through a narrative and it's it's it. It takes certain stories from my life not to navel-gazing but to to find a kind of cultural specificity. I think in the specificity can with some universal truths about this thing called america. So that's that's why i did it. If that makes sense it does. My entire podcast was created on the idea that we need to break this down. Make it understandable and funny because if we don't laugh will cry and so that is one of the main reasons that i'm really excited for this book and one of the reasons i really wanted to talk to you Tell me about. I mean this goes all the way back to even the aftermath of of nine eleven. And we're coming up on the on the twenty year anniversary here talk a little bit about sort of what you went through and how you went about spinning these things into laughter into gold. You know i mean this is kind of what comedians do. They take traumatic events in their lives or oppression or suppression and they weave them into something relatable that we can all laugh at. Yeah i think it's one of those situations where laughter in itself is very cathartic and we need that catharsis which you let me put on my english major hat for once you know like in tragedy right. What aristotle said. It was like some of the rules of tragedies like the protagonist. The hero has a tragic flop. A hammer chia. If you will that dooms him or her. And i say in the book that i believe one of america's martinez our traffic laws is racism and white supremacy in until we confronted dislodge. It this country will not be able to live up to its ideals and you know a right now. We're have a minor catharsis in catharsis means. A relief are release. Where at the end of the tragedy. There is hopefully this moment of an ignore this a pitney that the character has before they dies but the the audience has to kind of expel the fear and the tension right and breathe an excel. So at the end of romeo and juliet that even though the leaves die you see like type of this through the tragedy. There's an awareness in the and capulets come together in the audience able to breathe for a second right and i feel like laughter that the science shows that when people are laughing it releases these endorphins. That a make us feel better but also it's interesting is when we're laughing you can trojan horse otherwise political social ideas that they are people would otherwise be resistant to hearing like you can just drop them in like like sweden bassin. Let me put it that way. And and i feel like after nine eleven. Y'all was a twenty year old. uc berkeley undeclared senior. All the way in california. And i always joke. That had i known had muslims know that nine eleven was going to happen. I would have not joined the muslim soon association out of joined the indian student association and learn how to spell and get good credit and do it. But i joined the muslim soon association. Because you know. I grew up in the bay area. Oh craft for the first time not the token muslim. there's other muslims raw and they had me as a muslim board leader and the reverberation of that war on terror. Right were felt immediately all across the world the forever war that we're on which by the way in my opinion we lost i. We could talk about that. Also but overnight here i am warn raised in the bay area california the senate box any immigrants and i'm getting e mails back to where i came from. And why did you bring down the towers and overnight. Anyone who looked muslim not just muslims. But anyone who looked muslim me was seen as a suspect and from that moment on it was as if i had to be the cultural ambassador and defender of not only myself but one point seven billion people and fourteen hundred years of slavic civilization. And on the drop of the dime i joke. I had to be an expert like islam. Koran's sharia prophet muhammed accumulate. John like bollywood hamas hamas. Everything if i messed up not only what i be indicted but anyone who was muslim me would be indicted convicted and sentenced by nameless judge during executioner. Who would still hold our patriotism no matter. How many hotdogs ate no matter how many flags wave no matter. How many britney spears songs we sang case in point donald on trump's presidency right. The shadow of the war on terror looms very large and so real quick. I was a student and i was a student. Ishmael reed's short story class. Ishmael reed for those who don't know macarthur genius poet giant of the letters. There's a great year profile. Came on a on a three weeks ago. He's black and he said. I'm watching the news and i think people are going to get hazed for the next ten years. I'm black in the way we fought back is through art and culture and storyteller and so even though you're in the short story class i've seen the dialogue and characters are his strength. Play in fact you ever read these american plays like fences or long day's journey tonight or death salesman. I'm like yes right me something like that. I'm like what and he goes. Yeah you you have two months twenty pages. What are you again. And i'm like undeclared scared you know what you're like cassani muslim. He goes right. Yeah you're right me that story. I've never heard that story. Because the way our people have somehow fought back is through storytelling art and culture. And so that's what kind of inspired this type of rate in the industry telling play writing into media. I into literally having voices hurt and my generation. I remember so many of us overnight. We left the holy trinity. Which was dr medicine engineering and in business and we went to like comedy and activism and storytelling and so it's a strange thing that you know you find last you got me talking about stop talking. You find similarities with those communities. They have endured so much pain and pain and love go hand in hand and sometimes the best ingredients for art irish catholic poetry right like african americans. There's no there's a reason why those groups in particular really kind of have dominated the american cultural landscape and while now you see muslims so if it wasn't for nine eleven i think i might have had a different trajectory. That's really interesting and a very interesting positive way to look at it. I want to ask you a little bit more about some of the earlier times in the book but also about some more recent events but i have to take a quick break. We stay with me. Awesome thanks everybody will be right back..
Before the Break
"indian student association" Discussed on Before the Break
"I think when i even though i loved it all through high school when i got to college. I was like okay. Well what other things do i like. Oh i like all these other things to let me. Just go into that so you went to u. of i. West and So you didn't actually pursue acting in college. You you majored in. You gotta be s in finance nebraska with high honors in theory years. You've is a great school by the way it is. It's a great goal. Yeah i i loved it i It was a good school. I mean it was big. I think there are moments. Where like it'd be nice to have some individualized attention by. I loved being in sort of like that insulated world. Like you know call it. It's like the world revolves around us. It was great college. Did you did you did you do i did i did so. You know. there's a big south. Asian like indian students association in on campus. And there wasn't really a part of it like my my second year there. I had a friend who wanted to put like a dance dance piece together and i did that and so for the third year i was like. Oh i'd like to do that again. But all the kids that i did with had already graduated An adjoined up another group but there was an opportunity to audition so every year. Part of this piece is like there's like little movie that they put together. And so this time. I was like. Let me audition for this movie and ended up being like just like this. Little parody movie was kind of like my big fat. Greek wedding is going to be like my big fat indian wedding like a parody of that. And i got cast as the lead in it so that was literally like my only acting thing. I did in college. So yeah and i continue to love..