Indians 'Shocked,' 'Offended' By Joel Stein's TIME Article

Joel Stein says he was going for humor in his opinion piece, "My Own Private India," which ran in Monday's TIME Magazine. But the Indian-American community — members of which serve as the butt of many of Stein's jokes — aren't laughing.

Stein's piece focuses on the cultural changes immigration has brought to his hometown of Edison, N.J. since he grew up there in the 1970's and 80's:

"I am very much in favor of immigration everywhere in the U.S. except Edison, N.J. The mostly white suburban town I left when I graduated from high school in 1989 — the town that was called Menlo Park when Thomas Alva Edison set up shop there and was later renamed in his honor — has become home to one of the biggest Indian communities in the U.S., as familiar to people in India as how to instruct stupid Americans to reboot their Internet routers....

For a while, we assumed all Indians were geniuses. Then, in the 1980s, the doctors and engineers brought over their merchant cousins, and we were no longer so sure about the genius thing. In the 1990s, the not-as-brilliant merchants brought their even-less-bright cousins, and we started to understand why India is so damn poor.

Stein's cracks are not exclusively directed at Indian immigrants — he pokes fun at himself and his (presumably white) childhood friends:

"The A&P I shoplifted from is now an Indian grocery. The multiplex where we snuck into R-rated movies now shows only Bollywood films and serves samosas," wrote Mr. Stein. "The Italian restaurant that my friends stole cash from as waiters is now Moghul, one of the most famous Indian restaurants in the country. There is an entire generation of white children in Edison who have nowhere to learn crime."

Several organizations have responded with outrage, criticizing TIME's decision to publish the article. For example, the advocacy group South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT) issued a statement and online petition in response to Stein's piece.

"Most offensive is his remarkably blasé tone about the discrimination and hate crimes that targeted the New Jersey South Asian Community during the 1980s," the SAALT statement reads.

Both Stein and TIME have issued online apologies, saying they never intended to offend readers.

TIME statement:

We sincerely regret that any of our readers were upset by Joel Stein's recent humor column "My Own Private India." It was in no way intended to cause offense.

Stein's statement:

I truly feel stomach-sick that I hurt so many people. I was trying to explain how, as someone who believes that immigration has enriched American life and my hometown in particular, I was shocked that I could feel a tiny bit uncomfortable with my changing town when I went to visit it. If we could understand that reaction, we'd be better equipped to debate people on the other side of the immigration issue.

Comments

[Than Wu]

12:34 AM on 08/08/2010

I don't understand why this country is losing its freedom of speech. I mean, for god's sake, we can't say a damn thing anymore without worrying being politically correct. Stein is right on.
So what if he made those statements, its not racist, its merely the truth. People say these kinds of things all the time. My friends might say, " that complex over there has been completely taken over by the Vietnamese, now it is a little saigon".. But if you print something like this, then there's an uproar.
If we as a nation start editing and censoring everything people have to say just because it is not politically correct or because it is not the norm, then we are headed toward fascism.
The fact is that after about 1988, east Indians started pouring into the US like mice. And when whole neighborhoods turn into something unrecognizable like Stein stated, people just mention it, that's all. If Indians want to live here, they got to roll with the punches.

[instantwire]

08:57 PM on 08/11/2010

oh.. are you speaking about Chinatown in San Francisco? yeah.. them North Asisans are filling up the place, Than? does it bother you... let's speak some racial slurs on them, shall we?

[lamplight]

11:32 PM on 08/11/2010

what loss of freedom of speech, Mr. or Ms. Than Wu??? Mr. Stein said what he had to say and people said what they had to say. Last we heard, Mr. Stein is still writing freely- he was given no citation or was his career halted (fact is, it's just started for him, based on the publicity).

be prepared to write the n* word, ch*nk word, and dot* word-- and be prepared back for the freedom of speech responses back. this is pure freedom of speech in action.

[Elizabeth Mills]

09:19 PM on 08/03/2010

Isn't this the same guy who flamed out at Entertainment Weekly, and after being given the
"final page slot" for a column was axed after like, 2 articles?

[cloverfarm]

09:10 PM on 07/20/2010

A resident of the New Edison, Valerie Bell, responds, asking Joel to visit:

http://ems.gmnews.com/news/2010-07-20/Letters/Joel_Stein_should_visit_the_new_Edison.html

[jkangora]

10:41 PM on 07/19/2010

Every immigrant group gets heckled - these Indians are hypersensitive. Many among them refuse to assimilate into American culture and live as if they are in India. All this while enjoying all that the United States can offer. They just dont want this pointed out. There are Indians who have joined the mainstream- I'm sure these true immigrants complain privately about the other "immigrants". Nobody wants the bad from other countries here.
Joel Stein was joking and anyone with skin of ordinary thickness can see that.

[Puppets R Us]

01:19 PM on 07/15/2010

After the eerie twilight zone silence from leaders, a few have ventured and spoken up:

1) Jon Friedman, of MarketWatch and Joel's acquaintance speaks (interesting view, for this is the first time someone who knows Joel slightly speaks). And note, TIME stocks went up rather strongly during this discussion time, even when DOW plunged sharply:

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/joel-stein-makes-me-feel-stomach-sick-too-2010-07-15?reflink=MW_news_stmp


2) US Senator Robert Menendez speaks:
http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2010/07/15/us-senator-hammers-times-joel-stein/


3) Edison resident, Peter J. Barnes III (Assemblyman , 18th District, Edison), per Sentinel: (link broken now, no other print of his input online.. hmmmm):

http://em.gmnews.com/news/2010-07-07/Editorials/Assemblyman_responds_to_Joel_Stein.html

[wildlotus]

05:07 PM on 07/14/2010

"Give us your poor, your tired, your huddled masses longing to be free..." "

-> Suggestion to Mr. Stein to remember this line before taking a jab at the most struggling of the immigrant towns .. Edison (little India), like all little immigrant towns, are often of the most poor, struggling and yeaning for the American pie. They may not think or look or talk hip like you, Mr. Stein, but they also have a dream in their heart to make it.

The answer is not to fight for crumbs in a small pie, but to make the pie larger and larger. After all, this is the land of opportunity and freedom.

[Alien from Mars]

11:00 AM on 07/14/2010

Joel, hi there chap!

I’m another NJ Indian-origin immigrant who thought I was American after legal immigration and being many decades here speaking accent-less English and enjoying the Jersey shore and Edison shops, ignored by all my smarter cousins in India. Here is my 2 cents worth about .0000000000002 cents (since I don’t have a TIME author tag to stereotype me as brilliant):

Looks like you are stereotype master! So to try your skill, if I had to judge ‘your kind’ by YOUR behavior, suddenly Albert Einstein would have been an ignorant overrated dude.. and the movie moguls running Hollywood, heralding the new age of acceptance (beauty in all colors) would be closed-minded. To judge your first-generation immigrants, going back to your history, the little immigrant town which often harbors the most poor of their community (like Edison does today)- your type would have little smarts to make bucks, because they had the misfortune to lack an education to have the ‘brilliant’ doctor or lawyer tag.


Yeah, your kickin sterotype humor rocks, man !
This will help us American understand solve our broken immigration issue together... (err…. never mind, not ours.. just yours, I forgot I am not American..).

[goldengold]

07:06 PM on 07/13/2010

The soap opera continues. just when we are cornered as stupid Indians for not gettin that Joel was just makin fun of racists and not us, his buddy Jun Choi clarifies for him.

Tom Scocca wrote of Joel , 'Testimony to the power of the melting pot: he's just another white dude.' Well, Tommy man.. do add Korean immigrants to the white dude list too.... but never never include the melanin-filled Asians one (Indian).

Choi was born in Seoul (South Korea) and moved to the U.S. at the age of three. He is high school buddies with Joel Stein, and a NJ resident. He clarifies for his buddy Joel, in a recent article written by another apparently North-Asian-origin American NJ resident, Kathy Chang:

http://ems.gmnews.com/news/2010-07-14/Front_Page/Community_still_incensed_by_inappropriate_column.html

Mr. Choi states:
“However, if there is any good in all this, I would like to highlight what Joel was trying to say about a very challenging issue we face as Americans — what to do about fixing immigration policy. As Joel found out, it’s hard to be both humorous and make a serious point about policy.”

anyone get the irony in this? so let's get this straight.. Indian-Amerians are not Americans..?

[Puppets R Us]

02:14 PM on 07/15/2010

Yes, the irony is that some legal immigrants are Americans (i.e Korean-American Mr. Choi) and some legal immigrants are still immigrants (i.e Indian-American).

well, it's a GOOD thing that Mr. Choi has at least knock some sense into Mr. Stein.. but the truth of the discussion is anyone's guess.

[wildlotus]

02:49 PM on 07/15/2010

Read the article again.

Mr. Jun Choi has been critical of Mr. Stein's article on the offending part and the pie getting smaller. He is definitely pro-peace, and not siding 100% with Mr. Stein in fact. Just because someone is friends with someone else, they can agree to disagree and base friendship on common grounds.

As a New Jersey Indian origin American resident, I have personally known many Korean-Americans who are INCREDIBLE people to the Indian community as well as all people, and have made incredible contributions to NJ as well.

On a happy note, Mr. Jun Choi has been a mayor of Edison, and celebrated as one of Asian origin. That is the silver lining in all this. Let's hope he gets some positive press on that.

[wildlotus]

02:42 PM on 07/13/2010

fyi: Mr. Menendez has spoken and kudos to him for that !:

http://bignews.biz/?id=891241&keys=Senator-Robert-Menendez-IndianAmericans

[nilpa patel]

09:52 PM on 07/12/2010

In times when we should be uniting as a community, as Americans, I was very disturbed when reading Joel Steins view on the Indian community in New Jersey. I am sure that he has no guts to write the same on the black community, which I am sure he also has some stereotypical views on them too. I am also appalled that the TIME magazine, would accept and allow this to be published. I understand we have freedom of speech, but to create hatred and ill feeling nationally in a so called respected publication is not acceptable. I'm sorry that Joel Stein feels the way he does, and on behalf of the Indian community. I'm sorry his town has changed so he can no longer steal from the local stores. Im sorry that he feels the new Indian American is no longer intelligent. In fact I see Joel's intelligence shine in this articles.

I feel INSULTED for him to make judgement on our country and our beliefs. Disrespecting a color is one thing, but disrespecting the God we worship is another.

Joel stein, should be made to write an apology letter to many people who he has insulted, including himself! One day his medical doctor might just be an INDIAN!

Dr Nilpa Patel

[juancapez]

03:43 AM on 08/17/2010

"One day his medical doctor might just be an INDIAN!"

One day? You mean like today?

[arunabhdas]

01:12 AM on 07/12/2010

It is perfectly understandable that The Steinmeister was trying to be funny but writers like himself are the ones that need to be more sensitive before writing the sorts of things that he wrote in that article. It is good that he feels apologetic and I hope that humorists will refrain from making only race-based jokes. This is the reason that Russel Peters doesn't seem funny anymore. He only makes race-based jokes and they start seeming racist. It may be true that there are places in Mumbai where there's a bad odor but Russel Peters made a statement about how he thought the whole city stinks. It is insensitive to say such a thing even if it were true. So there. Also Joel Stein is forgiven. - Arunabh Das

[Tenjikuronin]

01:32 AM on 07/12/2010

I agree, Russel Peters really isn't as great as people are hyping him. He was somewhat funny when he first hit the scene but has now grown stale....

[Layman23]

01:38 AM on 07/12/2010

He thrives on mocking racial stereotypes all the time. Lame comedians have two ways to make it. One is racial stereotyping and the other is downright vulgar.

Takes a real comic to turn something out of nothing and make it funny.

[lamplight]

10:53 AM on 07/09/2010

To our desi community, it's all a matter of perspective:

If you research Mr. Stein and see his first immigration article in TIME magazine (pro-Mexican in Arizona), you probably would come to the conclusion that he's using the satire of the racial hate that the Indian community once faced in Edison to show what's happening to the Mexican community in Arizona. The point is, he's NOT making fun of us Indians--- he's making fun of racists who are doing the SAME EXACT THING to Mexicans in Arizona with the absurd old sterotypes (Arizonians calling their Mexican country damn poor and stopping those folks from comin... , etc. etc.). The difference is night and day when you see this perspective, is it not?

Thanks. Sincerely, JC

[Suparag]

02:38 PM on 07/12/2010

He did not stop comparing Mexicans with Indians. Majority of Indians (98% or more) are legal immigrants. He cannot make fun of the Mexican's catholic faith, because that would not fly, but he can make fun of Hindu God with multiple hands and elephant nose. There is quite a difference between satire and veiled racism.

May be Stein must be reminded, that when Jews were persecuted everywhere in the world, the only place they were safely welcomed were US and India.

[goldengold]

07:12 PM on 07/13/2010

you're right.. if you read Joel's first immigration piece about Mexicans in Arizona, he has not made fun of their religion at all.. (or even Arizonians and Mexians). fact is , he doesn't take potshots at either side.

ppl keep saying Joel is a satire guy who makes fun of everyone, and we Indians are dumb to not laugh at this joke...

if you read some of his articles on TIME (and can't judge, since have not read all of them).... all he does is makes fun of himself .. where is he making racial , age or gender slurs on other kinds? he seems exceptioally poliically correct in fact to other races, including blacks. he appears to the the type of guy who 'downplays' himself via humor to gain power.

[lamplight]

10:29 AM on 07/09/2010

Another resident of Edison, Peter J. Barnes III - Assemblyman 18th District Edison responds:


http://ems.gmnews.com/news/2010-07-07/Editorials/Assemblyman_responds_to_Joel_Stein.html

[CaliforniaMitch]

01:20 PM on 07/08/2010

I will take the hit on this one but so be it. I'm tired of all of the political correctness that we have to endure in this country. I'm a 63 old American and find if offensive that for ANY kind of talk about any minority (what is a minority anyway?) is racist. If you're white there doesn't seem to be anything that anyone says about you that is racist because if you're white you're already racist. No one can talk about race, religion, sex, or heritage without walking on eggs. You have to be careful about what and how you say anything today.
Stein was trying to make a point which was missed because so many are looking for the deeper meaning behind everything said by anyone about anyone.
People are taking themselves too seriously these days, we need to not think that everything said is meant to be racist or mean. We have to be one people living in one country and stop trying to keep it separated.

[Suparag]

05:32 PM on 07/12/2010

Yes, You are a 63 year old American and I am a 42 year old American. My Parents came to this country 50 years ago, and your forefathers came here a few hundred years ago. I am as much as a American as you. The only thing that makes me a minority is my skin color. Your definition of American is probably "fair skinned European descent" and does not even include Native Americans. Arizona has a high percentage of Native Americans, and pretty soon some Red neck cop is trying to ask one of them to prove that they are "American". That would be the height of irony.

If Stein grew up in the 30 and 40's he would have been treated different because he is Jewish, just the way Italian and Irish immigrants were treated when settled in this country. Stein is being mean and racist, and calling it satire.

[juancapez]

03:45 AM on 08/17/2010

next, you'll be wanting to use the n-word like dr.laura, right?

[american-dolt]

12:41 PM on 07/08/2010

Run on sentences....hard to read.

[indianajane]

09:37 AM on 07/14/2010

no wonder