Agreed. It’s actually probably worth pointing out that Jindal hasn’t officially changed his name. I believe his legal first name is still “Piyush.”
Good luck finding any reference to it from him or his campaigns, though. The bio I quoted earlier was from Wiki.
Try his own “about Bobby” page, for example.
Mexicans are Caucasian too, but that doesn’t stop people on the left from screaming “racist” if one voices an opinion opposing illegal immigration.
Some Mexicans are Caucasian, not all, or even most. But yeah, that’s a pretty good example.
Why would you have an issue with it if he himself decided to start going by a new name at the age of four? For Christ’s sake, when he was a little kid, he wasn’t thinking about racial or cultural implications, or strictly segregated boxes of labels to choose from; he just was exposed to and liked the name “Bobby”. I somehow doubt you’d make an issue out of it if he had been white and changed from “Billy” to “Bobby”, but there’s really nothing worse going on here. It strains the mind to think this was a calculated pandering decision on his part, and I can’t see how there’s anything wrong with what he’s done.
Mayor Michael Nutter of Philadelphia exhibits this admirable attitude as well, by his firm support of Hillary Clinton instead of Barack Obama. But, I feel it might be a good time for you to look into Governor Jindal’s stands on the issues in some depth, given that you may have a natural tendency now to see them in a more favorable light than before. There are very good communicators of the Conservative viewpoint and Jindal may be one of them (I don’t know yet) if Rush compared him to RR.
Thank you, by the way, for calling my attention to my misspelling of Senator Obama’s first name.
I thought I’d made this clear, but I don’t believe he did change his name at four. I believe it happened a lot later, and the Brady Bunch story is a contrivance.
You’re right; four-year-olds are much more likely to go with something they picked up from TV than with something calculated for political reasons.
Oh, sorry, I missed that. But I also don’t see any evidence for it.
My natural tendency would be to look askance at anything being sold to me by a politician who has made a conscious effort to hide his roots (which he certainly does, even if both the name and faith are more than just convenient camouflage).
You are going to need to provide actual evidence of this “hide his roots” claim if you are going to be taken seriously. How about a high school yearbook entry showing him as going under an earlier name? How about a friend’s reminiscence talking about “before he was Bobby”?
As to the religion issue, Catholicism is actually a significant imported religion to India and many Indian immigrants to the U.S. embrace it as familiar. (A guy in my parish was asked when he converted to Catholicism and he replied that it was a few years after the Resurrection, when the Apostle Thomas traditionally became the first missionary to India.) You need to show more than the simple fact of conversion–which, being clearly known is hardly hiding his roots; everyone knows what he converted “from”–in order to claim that he is doing anything other than living his life.
I can’t provide any beyond circumstantial/anecdotal evidence, I’m afraid, and now that we’re in GD it might be better to let this go soon.
However, here’s an example of other name-changing Indian-Americans:
The Asian American Hotel Owners Association Board of Directors, which I happen to be passingly familiar with as my stepfather and mother are members.
Here’s a non-random sample of the Board membership:
I happen to know (because I’ve met most of the above at the annual convention) adopted their “quoted” names out of a combination of convenience and a fear of (perceived) racism.
I find it just a little hard to believe that Jindal didn’t do the same.
Lest you argue that, well, “so what if he did, if all these other Indian/Asian-Americans do it too?”, note that most don’t feel the need. Look at the physician directory of any local hospital and you’ll see that the practice is virtually non-existent. Same thing goes for engineers.
How about the Brown University announcement of his Rhodes Scholarship?
I can’t provide the full text because it isn’t available online.
I will admit I was probably wrong about his conversion, since it appears that he participated in an exorcism in college.
This is silly. None of those people are hiding their backgrounds. Do you really think that the typical American would see a name like Billy Bob Prhavadtma and guess that he could trace his roots to the Mayflower or the Jamestown fleet?
I’ve worked with a few of these folks and, for the most part, they seem to change their names to something pronounceable in American English because they got tired of having their co-workers and neighbors trip over the vowels and tones that do not appear in our dialects. (Star Trek made the same point with Spock noting, when asked what his “real” name was, that the questioner could never pronounce it.)
Changing his name to “Bobby Andrews” might have been an attempt to “hide” his background, but as soon as someone sees his photo (without which no one campaigns, these days), they are going to immediately guess that he’s “not from around here,” and Jindal looks Hindu to me.
Interestingly, my wife’s physician and every single engineer (but one) with whom I have worked all go by “Americanized” names in conversation and about half go by “Americanized” names on their phone directories. (And even when they keep their original name, their last name always identifies them as first or second generation immigrants.)
Closer. Although, I had several classmates of European descent whose formal names surprised everyone when they appeared on graduation lists. I’m still not seeing the “hiding” going on.
Holy shit his hands are HUGE.
His accent sounds fake to me, but it’s probably my personal bias. I grew up in the south with a lot of 1st generation Indian-Americans and they all had very neutral accents.
If it ends up being McCain Vs. Hillary their running mates will have a lot to do with who I cast my vote for. As of now I have no idea who I would pick in that increasingly likely scenario. I highly doubt I’m alone.
Yes and no. India has the sixteenth highest Catholic population in the world (higher than Canada, Chile, Ecuador, or Portugal). But on a percentage basis, India is only 1.55% Catholic (lower than Indonesia, Kuwait, Malaysia, or Yemen).
That said, Jindal was born in the United States not India.
I’m having difficulting finding any sort of material regarding his life prior to Brown except four-sentence precises of his early life story.
Of course not - but his name isn’t Prhavadtma or Singh or Mukhesh - it’s Jindal, which is nondescript enough not to register as clearly being tied to any particular ethnicity, at least to the average American.
That said, I don’t feel that this is appropriate for GD, since I can’t find any further evidence; I’m quite sure I’m right - at least about the name - but like the man said, I can’t back it up.
It is in anthropology and genetics. Yes, it has been abused before, but it is a perfectly respectable term with a fairly clear, considering what mutts humans are and considering it includes most everybody from Iceland to Sri Lanka, deliniation. “Negroid” and “Mongoloid” have more baggage and seem to be on the way out.
The claims of a bunch of morons are easily dismissed. Hell, some of them don’t consider Jews, Arabs, and Italians white.
Here’s my take on Bobby:
A college friend of mine went to high school with him. He was going by Bobby before he got to high school, presumably, or he started going by Bobby his freshman year. I don’t recall when he converted to Catholicism, but IIRC, it was before he got to college. FWIW, my friend was a few years older than Bobby and didn’t know him all that well.
I met Bobby at National Airport when he was making his first run for his congressional seat. I said hello and expected only a short chat with him, particularly as I’m not in that district, but we had a long and pleasant conversation. I’ve met other politicians (my brother-in-law among them) and they all have put out that smarmy politician vibe. Bobby didn’t. That, or he’s particularly good at hiding it.
I’m a scout leader and in 2006 my Webelos scouts needed to meet with a public servant as part of the requirements for their citizen badge. At the time Bobby was running for governor. I sent an email to his chief of staff, explained what we needed - - a brief visit with a public servant to talk about public service with a group of eight 10 year olds - - and they made time for us. Bobby came out and spent basically zero time talking to the adults - - those elegible to vote - - and nearly all the time talking to the boys. He could have brought photographers and the like for the photo-op value (the boys were in their uniforms and had been playing touch football prior to Bobby’s arrival) but he just showed up, talked to them, then went on to the Zoo for Zoofest.
He has managed in his first 100 days in office to arm-twist the Louisiana legislature into adopting serious ethics laws that moved us from 50th place (or thereabouts) in the US to the top five. He has other innovative policy programs for a state that desperately needs them. He seems genuinely focused on what he can do to make life better for the people in this state. We dream about how things would have been different if he had been governor during and after Katrina.
Yes, he is a conservative’s conservative, and that should be a legitimate concern for those who are on the left side of the spectrum. Still, it would behoove you to argue against his policies rather than arguing against the man. You’ll find it hard to stick dirt on him. Even Democrats in Louisiana like him.