Hi! I’m a south asian/desi (Indian) person.
I have heard about the label of Indian being a controversial thing within native communities, but that basically that some ppl feel upset toward a certain term and some feel inclined towards those same terms
However, as an Indian (south asian) person, I have always wondered why native people would prefer an inaccurate (geographical) and therefore confusing descriptor of their heritage, that was given by colonizers.
South Asian people are fine, we don’t need the term only for us, we are completely fine sharing a terminology. I’m definetly not trying to paint us as victims in this situation period. Because we are not. However, it does make for a convoluted conversation sometimes when defining ethnicity and being like, “no I am south asian” and then ppl being like “what’s south asian?” And then finding a new descriptor to describe what I am. And the uncomfortable thing is that a lot of ppl will ask me what kind of Indian I am in kinda an offensive way.
People have asked “are u a dot on the forehead Indian, or a feather Indian”
“Are you a insert offensive accent dingadingading Indian or a insert offensive gesture Indian”
And that has happened more than a few times actually.
That being said, this is obviously minor aggressions compared to what native communities face generally. And I want to emphasize that I’m certainly not blaming native who utilize “Indian” for those interactions.
However, those moments do make me wonder why use a term that is confusing and given by colonizers. And I’m sure yall are having similar interactions too.
I’m sorry if I chose any words wrong, I’m just genuinely curious about how you guys feel and tryna understand the conversation a bit more.
Thank you! 🙏🏽
EDIT: Thank you all for sharing your different experiences with the word and what it means to you in different contexts. I have a much more nuanced understanding now! I really appreciate sharing all the stories you guys did, it was incredibly interesting to read through and learn. This came up for me because I had a conversation that went “dot or feather” recently, and it just made me think, so I asked my family- and they are all south asian and kinda just shared my same confused sentiment. Im glad I asked! Thank you guys so much!