Of Blacks & Dalits

Like racism in the US, we have caste-system back home in India.I have found some of Chandhrabhan Prasad's (a dalit himself) commentary very interesting on this issue. He usually implies that more than reservations dalits need economic power. He makes a very pragmatic case by comparing dalits with the blacks of US. According to his study Blacks are doing great in US, sans any sort of reservation.
I often feel that reservation is self-defeating. Especially for the person who uses it. The blacks who have earned their way up are not only confident of their achievements as they have done it without any doles; they actually have the ability to articulate the required parameters for success & thus can help others on their road map.
A person who comes through without merit & through reservation will always carry a feeling of whether he actually earned it ultimately (whatever he has achieved).
And reservations in some sense takes away that satisfaction of achievment from that person.
I know personally a few of my friends from my college who infact could have got admissions in better institutes owing to their cast,but still stuck with merit list & came to up triumphs.
I had great respect for these people. And as it turned out later, they are doing exceptionally well in their lives & carrier, unlike some who took the reservation path. I wish to salute all those of my friends who made it big & showed their middle finger to the existing system of reservations.



Dalits@Blacks-in-US.com

Chandhrabhan Prasad - Pioneer,May-24-2005.

In August last year, the Blacks and other minority journalists held a conference named 'Unity 2004'. Around 8,100 journalists got themselves registered for the conference which was attended by both the presidential candidates, George Bush, and John Kerry. The two were subjected to a Q&A session. The conference discussed in detail the future of the Blacks and other ethnic minorities in America.
India churns out 43,828 publications, including 4,890 daily newspapers. Can we comprehend a situation where Dalit journalists organise a conference, which is attended by the Prime Minister and the leader of the Opposition who subject themselves to a string of questions from Dalit participants?
Recently, I was invited to speak on Dalits and Media in a prestigious institution in Delhi. I spoke about the American experience and described how coloured journalists have made their mark in the US. I also spoke on how the Blacks are visible in all walks of life in the US.
After the conference, a well-informed scholar, while appreciating my viewpoint, put up a caveat. "Have you ever considered the Black population in American prisons?" He was equipped with all the stats.
Of the total male inmates in US prisons, about 50 per cent are Blacks, though they comprise only 13 per cent of the population.
Most Indians feel that the Blacks are leading a pathetic life in the US. They say this either because they are ignorant or have an agenda of their own.
What they mean is that race relations in the US are not as good as caste-relations in India. Finally, they contrast the position of Indian Dalits in society with that of American Blacks.
In India, a Dalit has gone on to become the head of the Republic. Another one became the speaker of the Lok Sabha. There are over 120 Dalit MPs and hundreds of Dalit MLAs in India, many of home have gone on to become ministers, Chief Ministers and Governors.
The moral of the story: It is not the Dalits who should emulate the American model; it is the Blacks who should emulate the Indian model.
However, these people forget that the annual spending power of the Blacks stands at $572 billion, bigger than India's GDP which is $459 billion.
The Blacks give more in charity annually than the combined assets of India's three biggest industrial houses. Top 10 Blacks together can buy the TATAs or the Birlas.
TV anchor Oprah Winfrey can alone buy all of India's news channels. The Blacks are everywhere in Hollywood.
There are Black bankers, suppliers, dealers, contractors and entrepreneurs who are respected in the US for their skills. With around a million Black-owned companies, the American market is changing.
The famous magazine Black Enterprise in its February 2005 edition has come out with a cover story 75 Most Powerful Blacks in Corporate America.
There are 18 CEOs and 13 women in the list and all of them have been profiled.
The top five Black CEOs are: American Express chairman and CEO Kenneth I Chenault ($25.9 billion), Wachovia CEO Reginald E Davis ($24.5 billion), Merrill Lynch & co-chairman and CEO E Stanley O'Neal ($27.7 billion), Time Warner chairman and CEO Richard D Parsons ($43.9 billion), and Fannie Mae chairman and CEO Franklin D. Raines ($53.8). They are running five corporations with a combined annual revenue of $175.8 billion.
That means that these Black CEOs are running businesses whose annual turnover is more than the valuations of 153 Bajaj Scooters companies or eight Reliance Industries Ltd, or six Indian Oil Corporation. To simplify it further, eighteen Black CEOs are handling wealth worth India's half of GDP.
In the edition, the magazine featured over two dozen Black models who have modelled for giant corporations. People are familiar with the clout of the Blacks in sports and music, but they are unaware of their growing clout in Wall Street and America's corporate world. In the last three decades, the community has moved up a long way and occupies a significant space of its own.
So, the two presidential candidates made history when they arrived for the "Unity 2004" conference last August. It symbolised the fact that the Blacks have arrived and no one can ignore them any more.
By 2050, the American Blacks will be a big political force and the Blacks in the US know it.