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October 7, 2009
Saying "Namaste" Will Not Make Me Want to Date You
A quick rant to start off the hump day.
About once or twice a month while I'm exiting a grocery store, or getting on BART, or being introduced to my father's fellow yoga classmates, I encounter an individual who feels the need to fold their hands together, bow ever so slightly, and leak out the word "Namaste."
Putting pronunciation issues aside -- most people who have appropriated the word tend to butcher the pronunciation -- this sort of assumed greeting makes me pretty angry and flustered. In a time where the world is getting smaller, cultures are becoming hybridized and new styles of music and artwork are being created. But there's also the "melting pot" component of this sort of globalization.
Dominant cultures view the world as a melting pot, feeling entitled enough to access and appropriate practically any part of another person's culture. Though the word "Namaste" has been a South Asian greeting for centuries, now every yoga student, celebrity and creepy guy trying to hit on an Indian woman thinks it's fine to use it as a way of saying "hey" or "I'm so in touch with what it means to be worldy and spiritual." It's been appropriated, along with cultural and religious Hindu icons, saris, yoga, and Bollywood films, with no credit or recognition to the violent history of colonialism and context from which these things derived.
The presumption that I would feel flattered or respond in kind to the "Namaste" greeting is infuriating as well.
After hundreds of years of British colonialism enforcing English as the dominant language in South Asian government and schools, trying to erase the many facets of culture and history that mark the region, I'm supposed to feel flattered that the dominant culture I live in now wants to start using some sort of "authentic" greeting that doesn't even have anything to do with them? And as a second-generation Indian-American, I'm also perturbed that people assume anything about by my relationship to "Indianness" in the first place: I've used "Namaste" only a handful of times, with South Asian elders who I've never met before.
When majority culture wants to start adopting the exotic, everyone is supposed to just come along for the ride. My mom and I wince a little when we get asked to be the voice of Indian authenticity -- it may be a well-intentioned attempt to appear culturally sensitive, but to me, hearing "Namaste" from complete strangers will always be appropriating and a little racist.
Nina Jacinto is a freelance blogger living in the Bay Area whose writing focuses on issues of race, gender, and media representation. She's a graduate of Pomona College and loves South Asian diaspora narratives, bargain shopping, and the Internet.
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The comments for this story have been closed. Thank you to everyone that participated.
Report this commentBlaarg
Posted by: msn02004 on Oct 7, 2009 6:49 PM
I would also like to add that if you should also never, ever say that to your waitress/waiter at an Indian restaurant. Her/his job is not to indulge "multiculturalness" or educate you but to give you food and take your money.That being said its not just the act of saying Namaste that really gets to me, it's the idea that I should feel grateful? honored? that having some small smidgen of cultural knowledge of an "other" culture is so much more valuable than any level of genuine cultural literacy that the person of supposed Indian origin has.
- » RE: Blaarg Posted by: ninajacinto
Report this commentappropriation -- making the 'grotesque' safe and approachable for a hegemonic center
Posted by: LuLu on Oct 8, 2009 6:34 AM
The broad use of the term Namaste as it has entered into the hegemonic center of Western cultures and been circulated through capitalist outlets strikes me as particularly bothersome. Namaste is an example of and element from the grotesque/marginal/exotic being incorporated into the hegemonic center through various means of control [think contemporary colonial impulse]. Thus, it is not about authentically engaging these cultures at all -- but, merely that in the mainstreaming of this term, distancing it from its origins, and commodifying it in multiple ways -- the exotic, the grotesque becomes acceptable, becomes safe for the hegemonic center to encounter. It becomes safe to use terms such as these precisely because of the distance that has been established between it and its origins.आराम
Posted by: Alden on Oct 9, 2009 5:42 AM
Being a SF Bay Area native, I am well aware of the attitude you convey here as I too have encountered it to no end. And all due respect, but one day you will realize what an immature attitude it really is. Yes, there are annoying New Agers and ethnophiles of even lesser maturity who behave as you describe, but your bitterness derives from a loathing of your heritage that is activated by these behaviors. This is a product of your age, not your ethnicity.I encounter many older Indians who are charmed at my efforts to communicate with them in their native tongue, just as I am charmed by their efforts to communicate to me in mine. There is no pretension in these efforts and absolutely no hostility arises in either of us. Quite the opposite. The same occurs when I say xie xie to the Chinese waiter, or komapsumnida to the Korean grocer, or khob-kun-Ka to the Thai man at the mini-mart, all of whom reply "thank you" after which we share genuine smiles.
What a jerk I would be if I went to India and got miffed that a native would dare *gasp* greet me in English. As I said, one day when you're older you'll understand.
Oh, and no, I don't want to date you.
This "worst possible interpretation" is YOUR choice
Posted by: Ian MacLeod on Oct 9, 2009 10:13 AM
Sometimes a person is simply trying to offer something nice - a greeting that one might hope would be comfortable to the hearer. A way of saying, "I respect your heritage and value the culture it comes from" or something of the sort. Why can you see no possible gentle feeling for an attempt to communicate, and instead interpret a condescending manipulation? That strikes me as rather sad. I've used that word for over 30 years; it was taught to me by a friend from new Delhi. Along with satyagraha. And I thank Korean restaurateurs in their own language - taught to me by them. I also speak German to German friends; same with Cherokee (part of my heritage), Spanish, Japanese and several others. From me, it's a gentle offering of courtesy. I'm delighted by other cultures and languages, and I love learning anything I can. If you can only hear mockery or manipulation, I think you need to look to yourself, not the speaker.Ian
When I'm 80, I guess I'll care less about cultural appropriation.
Posted by: ninajacinto on Oct 9, 2009 10:17 AM
Hi Alden,Ah yes. 'When I'm older' - I get that. I feel like a lot of the things I was so outspoken and frustrated about in college alone, I now feel more understanding about. And that was only 2 years ago. As we get older, we pick our battles. Good for our sanity, bad for blog-posting.
At the end of the day you raise an important point, which is that it's about personal interactions. If you aren't offended, and the people you communicate are charmed, there's really no harm.
I'm not talking about those interactions. I'm talking about the ones where someone is in my face giving me an attitude that says "aren't you flattered by this?" - No agency there. It's irritating - but not it's not turning my world upside down.
I agree
Posted by: Matt on Oct 9, 2009 11:03 AM
I agree with this post.But what's worse is the way that the appropriation of such words is used to reduce people to their race/ethnicity and the way it essentializes others.
Using "namaste" or whatever cultural word does two things. First, it demonstrates that when others look at you, they don't see a whole person; rather they see an ethnicity. Second, they assume that all members of the ethnic group use this word or share in this culture. They don't account for difference within ethnicities.
While these people may have good intentions and what to demonstrate their cultural sensitivity, what they are in fact doing is further otherizing the exotic.
be angry about it if you want...
Posted by: gadzooks5000 on Oct 9, 2009 12:04 PM
...but that doesnt mean the rest of the world has to be angry about it with you:)namaste means the light within me salutes the light within you - what a beautiful and powerful sentiment!
I don't think that cultures own words - like ideas, they are given birth, created, and then free to do and go wherever they wish, like migratory birds. Nobody is entitled to these words moreso than others - that, i believe, is true prejudice.
I, for one, would rather our "culture" adopt such positive sentiments over negative ones.
- » RE: be angry about it if you want... Posted by: boxwine
Report this commentinviting agreement?
Posted by: luzmejor on Oct 10, 2009 10:52 AM
I understand this reaction as I am often greeted by people who say "Hi! I'm a Christian," when it is obvious that they are only seeking to sell something or to collect a donation or a signature on some odious petitions.I used to say, "congratulations!" while walking on by, but another response would be even better. Just tell them, "The Peace of Christ be with you." Maybe "Shalom" would get their attention even more.