Henna T.

I’m glad you’re able to voice your concerns as we are whole-heartedly on your side. I believe that by spreading enough awareness on this issue, we can make an enough of a subconscious change that this won’t happen again in the mass media. Please keep in touch if you are interested in helping out with ECAASU on this mission.

best,

Calvin

When Arab Money came on, I started yelling at the TV -my roommate thought that I had officially lost it. Apparently, I was heard from down the hall and so my friend came into my room and asked me what was wrong. I simply looked at her and replied, “There is nothing wrong with me and knowing my culture, but there is something wrong with MTV and these dance crews who think that playing the song Arab Money has anything to do with ‘Bollywood’ dance -even when it’s not Bollywood, but rather Hindi Film.” What really annoyed me was the fact that I am a dancer. I do Indian dance, but I explain to those who are not familiar, that there are different types of dance within the Indian/South Asian culture. They understand it and at this point I think they know more from what I have told them than MTV does. While I was watching the show, I realized that the way the crews presented themselves through their dance, you were not able to tell the difference if they were doing Bhangra, Giddhi, Kathak, etc. It all looked the same. If they were in a competition here in New Jersey, similar to the competitions I have been involved in, they would have gotten torn apart. So much for America’s Best Dance Crew -they would not last in a competition in the state.

Henna T.

I believe you are referring to the quote Anjlee Joshi made. We’re still on the same page and we think we should have clarified ourselves better.

Anjlee never intended to equate or confuse Arab directly to being Muslim. Anjlee simply noted that in addition to Bollywood having a diversity of Indian, Muslim, Pakistani, Hindu actors/actresses, there are also actors/actresses who are of Arab origin as well. Thus, Anjlee is perfectly aware of the dangers in conflating Arab with being Muslim, of the presence of both a Muslim and Arab population in India, and that there are many Arabs inside and outside of India that appreciate and follow Bollywood.

However, the main point she wanted to make is that the song, “Arab Money,” is offensive to the Muslim community because of its manipulation of a prayer from the Qu’ran and with so many Muslims that are fans of Bollywood, it makes it a dually offensive to typecast the song as a “Bollywood song.”

Nevertheless, we clarified the quote so that to show we’re on the same page. Thank you for pointing this out to us and we apologize for any confusion we may have caused. Let us know if you have any other comments or questions.

Calvin

What is MORE frustrating however is the assumption made in this post. Specifically, that many Indian bollywood actors are “Arab”.

I think there was a misunderstanding and being Arab was conflated with being Muslim. India is not monolithic in any sense of the term and has a sizable Muslim population, which many in the US forget as the Hindu majority is larger.

Really though — Indian Americans and South Asian Americans (of which IA are the dominant community) need to at least be on top of this before bringing stereotypes and generalizations up as frustrations to the rest of the population. Otherwise…even when MTV turns to its “ethnic diverse workforce” it’ll get the wrong answer.