canadian content... so i got to comment.

quick profile - majumder is hades - brought up by mum when dad took off - doesnt have much by way of desi roots except for binder who's a convenient foil - is a newfie - relates more to folks swigging moonshine down by the bayou than latte-sipping techno-geeks - you should have committed a fixation on screech and the cbc dude would have been sold on your alter-ego - about his work - one of the not so fine productions he hosts is a battle of humorists on radio called master-debater.

he hosts is a battle of humorists on radio called master-debater.

huh, huh you said "master-debater"

Are you thrreatening me!!?

....do I really look like that?

I say head to Canada..what do you have to lose? :)

Given the predominantly gora audience here, maybe it’s cuz all us brown dudes look alike?

To me, many browns look alike. All Bollywood actresses look alike. All whites look alike, all blacks look alike and ditto for all asians. It's a serious problem. That's why I love movies where everyone is clearly recognizable (Departed, for example).

Binder isn’t quite a desi media role model.

Yeah, any man who shoots a mock suicide video (look on his professional website) doesn't earn any respect from me. Let's hope your semi-resemblance ends with the one headshot.

Anyone know how hard it is to get a Fake ID up there?

Oooohhhh eyecandy...yummy. Sorry you said something about TV and technology?

I always thought you looked like my favourite anchorman Ravi Baichwal, yup another Canuck... maybe a lil older version of you, but definetely a great to watch anchoring live news. I miss Vancouver, and as far as fake id's... just head onto the basement of UBC's CS building... you should get them for $20 max, more than that and they are ripping you off :). And who knows maybe when you are up there in Vancouver you might find your Sonja Nordahl :)

since it is love your canadian day... here's another one for the ladies.

here's another one for the ladies.

Oh my all these chocolate and cinnamon boys...love it.
Though I still think Vinod looks the best of dem all!

Really good and important post, Siddhartha. Amazing how almost disorienting it is to see the Global South focus on the Al-Jazeera web site. No wonder we can't watch it in the U.S. yet. It might just get people thinking about what the rest of the world is up to...including what 'they' think of 'us.'

Really good and important post, Siddhartha. Amazing how almost disorienting it is to see the Global South focus on the Al-Jazeera web site. No wonder we can't watch it in the U.S. yet. It might just get people thinking about what the rest of the world is up to...including what 'they' think of 'us.'

Hehe...wrong post :-)

You guys look totally like each other - is cool! makes me think about all those 80's hindi movies about siblings getting lost in childhood and reuniting when they are adults.

makes me think about all those 80's hindi movies about siblings getting lost in childhood and reuniting when they are adults.

Like this one?

Sorry but your look-alike (facesake ? ;)) sucks. Raj Binder is no Borat. It's just a lame attempt at milking Apu's fame.

Just proves my point that everybody has an identical person somewhere in the world...

My celebrity look alike is Andy Pettite but he's got 60 pounds and 5 inches on me. I can't pitch either.

Wasn't that him playing Kumar's doctor brother in the scene in the hospital?

Yes he was definitely Kumar's pasty lookin' older brother.

I didn't think he was pasty. Stop hatin' bidi!

Try this test of face blindness http://www.icn.ucl.ac.uk/facetests/

As an extension, take some more insightful tests here:
https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/selectatest.jsp

Yes he was definitely Kumar's pasty lookin' older brother.

I didn't think he was pasty. Stop hatin' bidi!

y'all stop picking on bidi. he's a good guy. :-)

i dunno about you but i hate garlic in the context of racial profiling.

Thanks for the Ian pic, hairy_d! That man has The Best Broadcasting Voice in TV history...

Ahahaha :)

sorry i mean to say "i hate side-by-side comparisons in the context of racial profiling." i don't know why i said garlic. hm.

Hey Vinod - I'm sure you've heard, but just in case - Milton Friedman died today

Naina,

I was just pointing out his sincere lack of class and civility in mentioning Shaun Majumder's complexion. It was derogatory and quite unnecessary.

Quite right. I can imagine the outcry on this blog if someone made a similarly derogatory remark about a dark-complexioned South Asian. It would probably (correctly) trigger a stream of responses accusing the commenter of racism, along with the offender quite possibly finding his post deleted and himself banned.

There's a little too much tolerance for the reverse situation on SM these days. No double-standards, please.

I suppose we can only hope that the SM moderators and fellow readers don't buy into the 'ligher skin = more beauty and respect' and therefore subconsciously do not take offense to such a comment. For some, perhaps that way of thinking is so ingrained into their psyche that they even tend to be bitter and resort to insults. And no one seems to flinch!

Naina, unfortunately that's exactly what it is (in the case of many commenters here, if not necessarily the moderators themselves). These things have been known to get pretty nasty here. It's understandable that some of the more unpalatable aspects of "traditional" desi culture have obviously been unfair to some people, and no doubt many commenters here have also been adversely affected by that on a personal level if they've been on the receiving end of such behaviour too.....but it's not right to replace one form of racism with another. There is such a thing as excessive overcompensation in such matters.

I think the most disturbing part of the entire situation is that a racist comment is being delivered with such a dualistic undertone. I would venture to guess that if one were to confront such a comment, the response would be, "What, like being called 'pasty' or 'light-skinned' is such a bad thing?" The same goes for thin women who are called "anorexic" by others, and expected to not take offense, since thinness is supposedly such a coveted body type.

I've mentioned this before to some other commenters during previous SM conversations on the same topic. This appears to be something specific to desis in the US -- I'm from Britain and this kind of behaviour generally doesn't happen here. There have actually been bloggers/commenters from some British desi blogs who've quietly observed the past fireworks on SM and they've found it all quite bemusing too. Possibly it's because of the whole "brown" thing -- non-existent in the UK, at least not in the same sense. Desi guys in Britain tend not to think of themselves in terms of their skin colour, apart from having a general awareness of it. (Some of the women do, though).

There have been some efforts recently to redress the balance, most notably the thread about that Persian model, but yes in some quarters of SM's commenting populace the attitude is indeed "light skin = bad, dark skin = good". It's okay to glorify darker complexions and comment favourably on the latter, but it would be very unwise indeed for someone here to make equivalent comments about the lighter types (especially if it's a woman).

This stance is understandable considering the historical/traditional negative attitudes within desi culture concerning such matters, and if the viewpoints described above are part of an effort to (finally) redress the balance, but it is possible for the pendulum to swing too far in the opposite direction and to take political correctness to unnecessary extremes. Racism is racism, regardless of whether the prejudice is against darker people or lighter individuals.

(especially if it's a woman).

Meaning, if the person they're talking about is a woman.