Monday, June 06, 2011

NCORE Conference: Scholar Offers Perspectives on Inter-Minority Racism

NCORE Conference: Scholar Offers Perspectives on Inter-Minority Racism: Not only do South Asians and Blacks in this country hold increasingly racist notions of each other in the post-September 11 era, but they, along with other people of color, are increasingly likely to engage in White supremacy behavior, a biracial scholar of cross-cultural relations asserted.

“I’m very concerned about inter-minority racism,” said Dr. Nitasha Sharma, an assistant professor of African American studies and Asian American studies at Northwestern University. “It’s more than just having a negative idea about someone; it’s about oppressing them. Some minorities uphold White supremacy in what has become multiracial White supremacy.”

Her remarks came during the 24th annual meeting of the National Conference on Race & Ethnicity in American Higher Education. As examples of such racism, Sharma cited how some South Asians—which she defined as Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis—unfairly scorn Blacks, while xenophobic sentiments in recent years have led some Black Americans to unfairly typecast South Asians “as terrorists.”