Bigger India
Young Indian-Americans are shaming Trump’s desi allies like Ajit Pai
Pai, under whose leadership the Federal Communications Commission dropped the axe on net neutrality, is not the only contender for the undesirable title of bête noire.
On Dec. 15 last year, Washington DC-based civil rights activist Deepa Iyer sent out a tweet: “On this year’s #desiwallofshame, Ajit Pai tops the list for being on the wrong side of history, for choosing profit over civil rights, and for advancing the anti-immigrant, white supremacist agenda of the Trump Administration.”
Iyer’s voice is one that the progressive South Asian community in the US is familiar with and reveres. For over a decade, she has been attempting to bridge the gaps within the diaspora and leading solidarity efforts with other immigrant communities and people of colour. Her book, We Too Sing America, is a vestibule to the post-9/11 experiences of south-Asian Americans and the attendant discrimination they faced. In Donald Trump’s America, the need for her work has intensified.