Kids discuss difficulties they faced balancing their Indian identity with their desire to be seen as American
For young Asian Indian Americans, racial and ethnic discrimination can start as early as preschool and influences development of their identities, according to a new study from the Texas A&M University School of Public Health.
Previous studies have found increasing rates of hate crimes directed at more than 3.5 million South Asians living in the United States, including many Indian Americans.
But most previous studies have focused on adult populations, excluding adolescents who are especially vulnerable to discrimination as they explore and form their identities.
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The new study published in the journal Frontiers in Public Health takes a new look at ethnic and racial discrimination that a subgroup of South Asian Americans—Indian Americans—face in the United States, focusing on a younger population than in previous studies.
For their study research team led by Jamilia Blake, PhD, School of Public Health professor and director of the Center for Health Equity and Evaluation Research (CHEER), relied on data from open-ended surveys of nine Indian American adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17.
These adolescents were all classified as second-generation, in this case meaning they were born in the United States and had parents who emigrated from India after the age of 18.
The researchers collected data through individual interviews with participants lasting between 30 minutes and one hour. The interviews covered five hypothetical situations involving discrimination and included follow-up questions as needed to gain an understanding of how each participant viewed the scenarios.
The interviews highlighted the ways Indian American adolescents experience discrimination and how those experiences influence their identities.
The interviewees reported about hate crimes and their experiences with peers at school who made discriminatory comments about Indian culture, language or religion.
“This one kid found a rock and said ‘look it’s your God’,” and “in math class we had like little dots and we would have to… put them into groups… And a white kid was saying ‘is this your God?’ and put it on his forehead,” an Indian-American student said.
Read: Minnesota public affairs school adds caste to non-discrimination policy (September 7, 2022)
“Then sometimes they would say stuff about the food or they would mock an Indian accent like, ‘I don’t like Indian food.’ Some people have said things like ‘it’s gross’ or ‘it’s weird’ or ‘it smells really bad,” he added.
These adolescents also discussed the difficulties they faced balancing their Indian identity with their desire to be seen as American. This balancing act often relies on code switching, where the interviewees spoke and acted differently when with family and at school.
In some cases, these adolescents felt they were seen as fitting into neither group. The interviews also showed that Indian American youth begin facing discrimination as early as preschool or elementary school.
“The word Indian-American, it means you live between two worlds, my experience. I come home, I’m Indian. I live Indian lives, I eat Indian food. I step over my threshold, I become American. Go to school, I’m an American…,” said another student.
“Your parents don’t kind of understand the western world and the western world doesn’t really understand the Indian world. You live between two worlds and you’ve got to be knowledgeable to know how to balance them.”
Read: Young Indian-Americans face race bias as early as preschool, shows study (December 20, 2022)
These findings highlight some of the challenges that young South Asian Americans may face. However, the researchers caution that the study sample was small, from a single geographical area, and with only one ethnic group among South Asian Americans.
Thus, the findings may not reflect the experiences of South Asian American adolescents everywhere in the country. Future research that includes more people from a wider range of locations would provide more knowledge on the experiences of South Asian American youth as a whole.
The research team also included recent doctoral graduate Asha K. Unni and colleagues from Texas A&M University and Davidson College.