Model Minority: Uniquely American
By Nidhi Shastri
Model Minority: Uniquely AmericanDec 29, 2020
Punam Saxena | The U.S. South - Immigrant Tales #6
Punam Saxena talks about the parallels between religious intolerance in America that she’s experienced, and the religious intolerance plaguing India at the moment. She also shares stories from her childhood in Alabama and Georgia and what it was like for her and other people of color and religious minorities in post-segregation America.
On Losing Our Tongues
*Please hit the FOLLOW button to help support my work!*
In January, I sent out a request asking listeners to send in clips about what language means to them - regardless of if they can speak their native tongues or not.
And YOU all delivered!
In On Losing Our Tongues, we're hearing diaspora folks from over a dozen unique ethnicities in Asia, Africa and the Middle East share what if feels like to struggle to speak their native language, or to be unable to speak it altogether.
Some themes in this episode include:
- How monolingual people in the diaspora relate to the English language
- Being bilingual in English & Spanish but being unable to speak your native tongue
- Having to use Google Translate to communicate between generations of family
- How immigrants process trauma and share family histories in the face of language barriers
- The science behind language erosion and the impact of that on a person's relation to their culture
- The story of Bangladesh: the first country to fight a liberation war around language
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A very special thank you to everyone who sent in clips or interviewed with me for this episode:
- Abhinav Das, Shukri Ideis, Sophia Fel, Victoria Li, Annie Tan, Tommy Souravong, Farzana Haque, Marzia Chowdhury, Samantha Reyes, Stephanie Botchway, and Zamzam Dini
This is an episode made possible from viewers (*eh hem* I mean listeners like you ;), so please give this a share to help support my storytelling.
Shukriya, thank you!
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Listen/read my 4-min story on NPR/WBEZ: How a Queer Therapist is bringing bilingual (Mandarin Chinese to English) Mental Health Resources to people of color in Chicago!
- It aired on National Public Radio (NPR) and Chicago Public Media (WBEZ 91.5FM), and is part of a series on what home means to our communities!
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Image credits: Dall-E
Music & Sound credits: CC Creative Commons & freesound (all artists are listed on our website!)
On Loving Our Language
*Please hit the FOLLOW button to help support my work!*
In January, I sent out a request asking listeners to send in clips about what language means to them - regardless of if they can speak their native tongues or not.
And YOU all delivered!
In On Loving Our Language, we're exploring the benefits of being bilingual in a non-western languages in the US (i.e. having access to unique forms of media and television & the ability to connect with others) as well as some barriers (i.e. facing discrimination or forgoing access to healthcare or government aide).
We'll be looking at the stats about who in our communities are bilingual and what resources they are (or aren't) given. We also busting open the American Myth of Bilingualism - i.e. the idea that teaching your kids a second language + English will cause them to struggle with English.
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Check out Ahmed Ali Akbar's podcast Radiolingo here!
Listen/read my story on How a Queer Therapist is bringing bilingual (Mandarin Chinese to English) Mental Health Resources to people of color in Chicago!
- It aired on National Public Radio (NPR) and Chicago Public Media (WBEZ 91.5FM) last week, and is part of a series on what home means to our communities!
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If you sent in a clip and didn't hear yourself featured here, stay tuned! This episode is the first half in a two part series called "On Loving and Losing Our Tongues" so please keep an eye out for the second-half featuring even more clips coming up in about a week. In this two part episode, we're hearing from listeners and friends of over a dozen unique ethnicities in Asia, Africa and the Middle East share what their native language means to them.
Part 2, On Losing Our Tongues, will cover what if feels like to struggle to speak your language, or to be unable to speak it altogether.
A very special thank you to everyone who sent in clips or interviewed with me for this episode:
- Daniel Lin, Ahmed Ali Akbar, Shruti Shah, Mukta Deia, Brian Chen, Meghali Mazumdar and Helen Li
This is an episode made possible from viewers (*eh hem* I mean listeners) like you, so please give this a share to help support my storytelling.
Shukriya, thank you!
Image credits: Dall-E
Music credits: CC Creative Commons
Zamzam Dini | Somalia - Immigrant Tales #5
(Please hit the follow button for this show on Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, to help support my work!
For Zamzam Dini, growing up in Seattle where there was little diversity meant having to endure ignorance from students and professors alike about her Somali heritage.
In this 6-min clip, Zamzam shares how her identity has shifted based on her environment - in Seattle, she was identified by others as Black first, then Muslim, and then Somali. Upon moving to Minneapolis, MN - which has a strong Somali community - she noticed a flip, where she was seen as Somali first, then Muslim, and then finally as Black.
Zamzam's family are refugees from Somalia. Towards the end of this clip, she recounts story about her and her sister during the time of the war.
Give Zamzam's research a read: Immigrant Family Financial and Relational Stressors and Coping Strategies during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Follow Zamzam's work: LinkedIn | UM Website
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Immigrant Tales is a sub-series of Model Minority: Uniquely American, aimed to be an immersive narrative from our communities' immigrants about their life stories. If you have a story to share, email me at modelminorityua@gmail.com. Please be sure to follow this podcast, and share this episode. Shukriya!
Sameer Gadhia of Young the Giant
Welcome to Season 2 of Model Minority: Uniquely American!
As the launch of Season 2, we sit down with Sameer Gadhia, lead singer of Young the Giant, to discuss his heritage, thoughts on the American Dream, and the meaning behind the album American Bollywood.
When Sameer Gadhia and his bandmates started the band Young the Giant, few people in the alternative rock music industry knew of the influence of South Asian culture and rhythms on the genre. Since then, Young the Giant has released major hits such as Cough Syrup, Silvertounge, and Mind Over Matter, played shows at festivals like Summerfest & Lollapalooza, and performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live.
As the child of Indian immigrants, Sameer Gadhia grew up like many of us - caught between his two identities. He left Stanford University in order to forge his own path in music, one that stems from a long history of musicians in his family. With the band's latest album, American Bollywood, Sameer has shed a direct light on his culture and background, and in the process, gave so many third-culture kids a home within his music.
Check out Sameer's Op-Ed in The Rolling Stones Magazine that we referenced in the episode.
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Give Sameer and YTG a follow: IG - @SameerGadhia & @YoungtheGiant | Spotify | YouTube
Follow Model Minority: Uniquely American: IG - @minority_model | Facebook | Spotify | Apple Podcasts
A Request
I'm back!
Excited to announce Season 2 of Model Minority, and am so grateful for all the people who have grown to love this show.
A quick request: I'm working on an upcoming episode about language, and I want to hear from YOU! Email me a 30 second - 1 min clip about what your native language means to you.
Email your clip to: modelminorityua@gmail.com
Anyone is welcome to submit (including if you can't speak your native language or struggle with it) - your voice could end up in a future episode! Some themes you can talk about are:
- fears about being unable to speak or pass on your native language
- thoughts about the effectiveness of communicating in your mother tongue (i.e. expressing some ideas or themes more strongly in another language than in English)
- how English plays a role in our lives and identity in the U.S. as people of color
- your colonial history with English or another Western language
If you don't have anything to share, pass this episode on to a friend who might! Some easy ways to record a voice note are through the voice recorder app on your phone, or through Facebook messenger to my page Model Minority: Uniquely American.
So excited to be back, and even more so to hear from you! Cheers!
- Nidhi S
Documenting Our Histories
Stories. Histories. What differentiates one from the other? And, why are they so important to document?
With so much going on right now - India’s coronavirus surge, the free Palestine movement, BLM, Stop Asian Hate, and so much more - sharing and saving our stories are more important to presenting history fairly, than ever before. In this episode, Nidhi speaks with the people who are documenting Asian, African and Middle Eastern stories in real-time. Join us as we meet the storytellers, the change-makers and the documenters of the world.
Catch the people featured in this episode and their work using the links below:
- Malek and Anwar are documenting Arab American stories on their podcast, CommuniTea in Arabic, and just kicked off Season 2!
- Hana Baba is sharing stories from the Black diaspora and celebrating Black joy and diversity on her podcast, The Stoop.
- Jaki Yi’s studies have been published (woohoo!) , check them out here and here.
- Sangay Mishra’s book Desi’s Divided is on Amazon and also available at the University of Minnesota bookstore.
- Lakshmi Sridaran and the team at South Asians Leading Together (SAALT) have published new work here
- Randy Kim’s podcast, the Bahn Mi Chronicles, also just kicked off a brand new season centered on SE Asian LGBTQ+ stories.
Thank you, shukriya, for listening. Please share this podcast episode with a friend if you enjoyed it, and give us a follow on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter !
Credit to Corky Lee’s full interview goes to BRIC TV (check it out here) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgRBKLSi_3k
Image credits: "Community" by niallkennedy is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0
Shiwei Zhang | China - Immigrant Tales #3
** Model Minority stands against the recent attacks against AAPI communities. Please consider sharing this podcast on social media with the hashtag #stopAAPIhate to show your support and uplift Asian voices during this time.**
Shiwei Zhang moved to the U.S. from China at a young age. But, she quickly realized it wasn't all that she dreamt it'd be. Her mother, who worked as a nail technician at a salon in Chicago, found that the degrees and credentials that she worked so hard to attain in China were deemed meaningless in America. Meanwhile, she faced ostracism from her classmates about her culture and accent.
Things took a turn for the worst when she and her mother were questioned by Chicago police - a group that should exist to "serve and protect." In this episode, Shiwei recounts the frustrating and terrifying situation her family was in and explains how it gave her more insight into the struggles of other minority groups in the U.S. Listen to the third edition of Immigrant Tales to hear her tell the story firsthand.
Are you an Asian, African, or Middle Eastern immigrant or first-gen with a story to tell? Reach out to me on my website or through Facebook and Instagram to share your story.
Namah Vyakarnam | India - Immigrant Tales #2
Namah Vyakranam was born in Hyderabad, India. Her family traveled back and forth from India to the U.S. before eventually settling around Chicago, IL. After that, Namah found herself grappling with internalized racism surrounding her South Asian identity, which was often misrepresented in American society.
It all boiled over when she began to see the racism against South Asians in a post-9/11 America more clearly. Listen to the second edition of Immigrant Tales to hear Namah's story firsthand.
Are you an Asian, African, or Middle Eastern immigrant or first-gen with a story to tell? Reach out to me on my website or through Facebook and Instagram to share your story. Thanks! - N.S.
In Conversation w/ Karan Mahajan
In the first episode of our new mini-series "In Conversation," Nidhi sits down with novelist, essayist, and critic writer Karan Mahajan. They discuss how Karan pursued writing as someone from a conservative Indian background, terrorism as a theme in his novels, the broader Desi diaspora, South African apartheid, and more. Then, he reads a bit of his piece "The Two Asian Americas."
Karan's writing has been featured in The Believer, The Daily Beast, the San Francisco Chronicle, Granta, and The New Yorker.
The Two Asian Americas was in the Top 15 most-read pieces of the New Yorker in 2015, and his novel, the Association of Small Bombs, was named one of the New York Times Book Review's "10 Best Books of 2016." Check out his website for more info.
Chu May Paing | Burma - Immigrant Tales #1
Welcome to the first episode of Immigrant Tales, a new subseries of Model Minority: Uniquely American!
Chu May Paing is a PhD student and Burmese immigrant who first came to the United States through a visa lottery ticket. Despite having all her immigration papers and status in line, she found herself facing a multitude of barriers when she tried to find employment in the United States, with discrimination coming from both within and outside of the Asian community.
In this story of adversity and resilience, we are invited to challenge our definitions of "success" and "equality" for Asian immigrants. Through Chu's eyes, we can see how even when people coming to America do everything "right," they face experiences that can be only be described as - troublingly - Uniquely American. You can find more about Chu's work on the Southeast Asian community her website here.
Introducing: The Immigrant Tales
This clip opens with an excerpt from the author and essayist Karan Mahajan's piece in the New Yorker titled, The Two Asian Americas. Followed by that, we hear a bit more of the piece read by the author himself, who Nidhi interviewed earlier this year.
I am so excited to announce a sub-series of Model Minority: Uniquely American called Immigrant Tales. This series will consist of "mini" episodes that recount stories of success, struggle, and the journey to call this country "home," for immigrants in our model minority community. Stay tuned for these stories, along with some interviews from impactful voices in our community, such as that Karan Mahajan.
As always, shukriya for listening, and I'm glad to have you here.
One Jump Ahead of the Punchline
Media. Film. TV Representation.
For the model minority community, where do WE fit in?
Model Minorities in media is an issue of more than just “not enough representation.” For some of us, it’s about bad representation too. It’s about how our countries are depicted, how we are seen in society, and the duality it causes between who we are construed to be, and what we really are. And, it seems we’ve always ended up, just one jump ahead of the punchline, or sometimes, as the punchline itself.
I’m Nidhi Shastri and this is Model Minority, Uniquely American.
In this episode, we discuss the issue of media representation with the case study of Apu and Disney Channel's usage of Desi characters. We look at how East Asians are often equated to whiteness in films such as "Get Out." We also examine cultural appropriation in the context of Japanese culture and anime, and then talk about the "yellow filter" placed on African, South Asian, and Southeast Asian countries.
"Aladdin" by thecmn is marked with CC PDM 1.0
In Sickness and in Wealth
COVID-19 spread quickly, but not as quick as the racial discrimination Asians have faced with its arrival. In addition to this, the wealthiest nation in the world — the U.S. — has seen its healthcare system crumble under the demands caused by COVID-19, leading more Americans to speak up about how long the nation has been living in sickness even before the pandemic.
In this episode, first, we uncover some stats and hear some stories from people who were affected by the anti-Asian rhetoric plaguing the country. Then, we speak with some medical professionals about how the U.S. Healthcare system is broken, how the cost of that falls on Asians and other minorities, and what it will take to fix it for all of us.
Cover art for this episode is Healthcare" by Wolfman-K is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
Reframing the Rāga w/ The Indian Jam Project
In 2014, Tushar Lall banded with two friends and released a cover of the "Game of Thrones" theme song on YouTube. He did so with a twist; he arranged the piece using his knowledge of Indian classical instruments, featuring tablas (South Asia hand drums) and a bansuri (a South Asian wooden flute) to supplement his keyboard part.
353K YouTube subscribers and over 20 musical covers later, Tushar has been named one of the "Forbes Top 100 Celebrities" of India. He joins us today on Model Minority U.A. to tell us his story, how it all started at The Indian Jam Project, and the value of Indian Classical Instruments.
Check out Tushar's work here.
If you liked this episode, be sure to follow both Model Minority and Tushar Lall on Instagram!
My Patreon: www.patreon.com/modelminority
Enigma: The Political Lives of Asian Americans
Join Model Minority: Uniquely American and Project Voice this week for a very special collaboration: Enigma - The Political Lives of Asian Americans!
In this episode, we explore reflections on why the political lives of Asian Americans are... somewhat of an enigma, or puzzle. We examine the ways in which Asians are left out of the political narrative, and how we can work to ensure we aren't simply pandered to with no benefit, or sometimes even fully left out of our country's political decisions.
The team at project voice conducted interviews with Helena Berbano of the New American Leaders in NYC, and CeCe Horbat - a student studying environmental justice in Michigan. Nidhi at Model Minority: Uniquely American produced, wrote, and narrated these interviews into story form. Shukriya/thanks for joining us on today's episode of Model Minority: Uniquely American! Follow this podcast and Project Voice on Facebook and Insta for more great, impactful podcasting!
Image: "Puzzle" by Felix the Cat is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
The Racial Wedge
The Model Minority Myth is often used to wedge Asian Americans between Black and White America. In this episode, we explore how that is a problematic ideology, and why we need a new approach to understanding race. We also address how African immigrants are wedged between racial groups in the same way.
This episode features Mo Sibyl - a fellow podcaster - and Jason Chu - and Asian American rapper. Furthermore, we look to LA Race Riots as an example of racial tensions between Blacks and Asians, and try to see what we can learn. I'm Nidhi Shastri, and this is Model Minority: Uniquely American. The intro clip is from an interview done by Asian American activist Grace Lee Boggs.
All music is from the CC Creative commons. Art: "Thick encyclopedias with colorful hardcovers" by Horia Varlan is licensed under CC BY 2.0
Crazy (Not So) Rich Asians Part 2
In the second half of this episode, we explore some excerpts of stories of struggle, adversity, and resilience in our community. We also dive into the stats of ways in which Middle Eastern, African, and other parts of the model minority diaspora face economic oppression.
I'm Nidhi Shastri, and this is Model Minority: Uniquely American. If you liked what I do and want to support, you can find me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/modelminority. Thank you/shukriya for listening!
All music in this episode is licensed to the public under the cc creative commons license. The image is "Vasudhara, diosa de la abundancia [oct 17]" by JavierPsilocybin is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Crazy (Not So) Rich Asians Part 1
We've all heard the idea that ALL Asians/ Model Minorities are wealthy and economically well off in America. But, if we dig into the stats and stories of our community, how much of that ideology is actually true? And for those who DO make it, at what cost is success?
In this two-part episode, we explore the socio-economic status of Asians, Africans, and Middle Eastern Americans, and work to tell some of the stories of those who perhaps, haven't quite "made it." Part 1 features the voices of Helena Ku Rhee, author of the book The Paper Kingdom, and Andrew Kung, an Asian-American photographer whose work focuses on Asian identity and masculinity.
I'm Nidhi Shastri, and this is Model Minority: Uniquely American. If you liked what I do and want to support, you can find me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/modelminority
All music in this episode is licensed to the public under the cc creative commons license. The image is "Golden Fortune Cookies" by shaire productions is licensed under CC BY 2.0. Thank you/shukriya for listening!
The Invisibles
What gave Asians the nickname, "the invisible minorities?" Hi, I'm Nidhi Shastri, and in this episode, I dig into how the Asian demographic got this name and the factors within the model minority myth that erase us in the larger American narrative. Come join me in exploring how factors such as the black and white binary, the U.S. Census, and immigration patterns have led to us being named, the Invisibles. As always, shukriya for listening, and I'm glad to have you here!
All music is from the CC creative commons, census clips from CSPAN licensed to the public, and Dr. Lauretta Ross's talk is from the non-profit Western States Center's public recording. Model Minority: Uniquely American is written, produced, and hosted by Nidhi Shastri. Cover art is: "Invisible Man Sculpture, Harlem, NY" by Tony Fischer Photography -- licensed under CC BY 2.0
Busting the Model Minority Myth
Welcome to Model Minority: Uniquely American! I'm your host, Nidhi Shastri, thanks for being here. In today's episode, we're exploring what exactly it means to be a "model minority," and the baggage that comes with it. All music is from the CC creative commons, and the theme song Cafe Connection is by MorganTj.
If you enjoyed this episode, PLEASE share it with others! Shukriya, and stay tuned for more coming soon. Want to help make it happen? My Patreon is: https://www.patreon.com/modelminority
Introducing Model Minority: Uniquely American (Trailer)
My name is Nidhi Shastri, and I’ve created a podcast to discuss what being a Model Minority in America really looks like, the good, the bad, and the invisible. In an effort to break down these biases and shake up our views, I'm discussing poverty, race, education, sexuality, and more in the Asian, African, and Middle Eastern diasporas. Hiding who we are and displaying who we are supposed to be, has often been a survival tactic for model minorities in America. And it's not just about our actions. Many of us feel the need to conform and stand on this painfully constricting pedestal. I’m excited to bring my work to you all. The discussion does not end when my episodes do, so feel free to ask questions and share comments right here through our page. As always, shukria, and thank you for being here. I’m glad to have you. And welcome to Model Minority… Uniquely American.