What was J. J. Singh’s approach to the "problem" of the 3000 Indians already in the US, and why do you think he took it?
-
J. J. Singh’s proposed legislation addressing Indian exclusion disregarded the so-called 3000 “undesirable aliens,” who were mostly farm and factory laborers. Instead, he advocated on behalf of the upper class “Indian businessmen who could not do meaningful business in the United States because they were restricted to short-term tourist visas” (Bald 3). By going to bat for India’s scholars, scientists, and engineers, Singh’s rhetoric appealed to the ultra-American value of neoliberal capitalism by laying out the economic benefits these people could bring to the nation. Indeed, Singh’s ideas heavily influenced the shift of US immigration policy in the 1940’s and 1960’s but “[while] it seemingly put an end to the exclusion era, the 1965 [Hart-Celler Act] essentially maintained the exclusion of working-class immigrants” (Bald, 5). The classism in Singh’s position is reminiscent of the excluding nature of white feminist movements. While discussing Nellie McClung in class, a classmate suggested that one explanation for such disenfranchisement within liberatory movements may be the various categories within a category. Women of color represented a far more marginalized subgroup, and thus far more effort would be required of white feminists in order to understand, integrate and advocate for them. Similarly, it could be argued that the exclusionary nature of Singh’s advocacy comes from a fear of further isolation and a desperation to “get whatever we can out of this,” although this cowardice contributed to the continued subjugation of his kinfolk, migrants whose “stories have disappeared from public memory” (Bald 5).
In a word, Singh leveraged the white man’s perception of the racialized working class to promote a group of privileged and educated Indians that better mimic normative white American behavior. In his song “The Blacker the Berry,” Kendrick Lamar takes a step back from African-American stereotypes and, contrary to Singh, reclaims the narrative instead of propelling it. He raps about how “[they] vandalize my perception” (Lamar 1:24) through “institutionalized manipulation and lies” (Lamar 2:27). In a metaphor, Lamar uses his blackness, which was historically hijacked and repackaged as wicked, to symbolize the evil character of white supremacists by saying “I’m Black as the heart of a f*****’ Aryan” (Lamar 3:40). At the end of the song, the rapper continues to apply black stereotypes to himself, but finally denounces himself as both a victim and an enabler of these beliefs: “So why did I weep when Trayvon Martin was in the street. When gang-banging make me kill a n**** blacker than me? Hypocrite!” (Lamar 4:27)
-
Great point about the parallel between McClung and J.J. Singh.