The mainstream media are getting away with "despicable, racist" attacks on Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal that would never be acceptable against someone like President Barack Obama,
Mediaite's Alex Griswold writes.
Jindal, an Indian-American who became the 13th
GOP candidate for president on Wednesday, has been accused by MSNBC guest human rights attorney Arsalan Iftikhar of "trying to scrub some of the brown off of his skin." And Vox.com’s Matt Yglesias has asked whether people believe Jindal is intelligent for any reason "other than ethnic stereotyping."
"Or maybe, just maybe, it’s because he’s a Rhodes Scholar who turned down Ivy League offers to attend Oxford," Griswold wrote.
The Washington Post on Tuesday questioned whether Jindal is trying to downplay his Indian heritage "by wearing boots, going by 'Bobby' instead of his given name Puyish, converting to Christianity as a boy, etc.," Griswold noted.
Such observations would have gotten a reporter fired in 2008 if made against Obama, he said.
On Wednesday as Jindal readied his announcement,
The New Republic's Jeet Heer accused Jindal, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and author Dinesh D’Souza of becoming conservatives to erase their ethnic identities.
National Review's Jonah Goldberg equated that to calling them Uncle Toms:
Griswold agreed.
"What it means to be 'Indian' is distilled down to either offensive stereotypes (why on earth is it 'less Indian' to go hunting, or to convert from India’s fourth largest religion to its third largest?) or liberal political views (ask residents of Mumbai their thoughts on Islamic terror)," Griswold wrote.
He then offered a "fun test" in which he took actual quotes made about Jindal and replaced his name with Obama's.
One was a quote from a white college professor, who spoke to the Post for it's story on Jindal. The quote, which was included in the Post's tweet about the story, read, "There's not much Indian left in Bobby Jindal."
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