Blog by Sumana Harihareswara, Changeset founder
Twice in the past week, I've seen brown people on…
Hi, reader. I wrote this in 2002 and it's now more than five years old. So it may be very out of date; the world, and I, have changed a lot since I wrote it! I'm keeping this up for historical archive purposes, but the me of today may 100% disagree with what I said then. I rarely edit posts after publishing them, but if I do, I usually leave a note in italics to mark the edit and the reason. If this post is particularly offensive or breaches someone's privacy, please contact me.
Twice in the past week, I've seen brown people on TV using Western or Westernised names. Some subcontinental reporter for the Christian Broadcasting Network, reporting on persecution of Christians in Afghanistan, at last mentioned to the viewer that he was "George Thomas." "No!" I yelled at the screen. "Your name is Sanjay Singh! Sanjay!"
And then I saw a reporter on a domestic [note] news show, Sandhya Patel, call herself "Sandy-uh Patel." No! You are not some ultra-feminine Sandy! You are SUN-dhya! Bah to all of you!
[note] Nandini and I refer to local TV news as "domestic" and to network TV news shows, sometimes, as "international."
