Thread: @WSJ @WSJopinion @almarlatour @DanHenninger. We sent a letter yesterday, urging you to remove the word "Brahmin" from your recent Op-Ed by @ZaidJilani, using a dangerous word coined by @PikettyLeMonde. https://cohna.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Letter-to-WSJ-12-02-2020_final.pdf 1/n

The callous usage of such words amounts to blatant propaganda and a thinly veiled attack on the Hindu community, and promotes hatred and animosity towards Hindus in the US and worldwide. Inserting it into the headline provides a giant megaphone to amplify #Hinduphobia. 2/n

By using "Brahmin" as a disparaging label, @ZaidJilani falsely paints an entire community (completely unrelated to the issue being discussed) as greedy, elitist and oppressive and furthers a colonial and racist narrative. 3/n

While @PikettyLeMonde may be a respected economist, his coinage of a dangerous and offensive term (“Brahmin Left”) is a deliberate and nefarious mischaracterization, which assumes that Brahmin Hindus were the economic “upper class” of India. 4/n

The truth is that Brahmin Hindus were mainly scholars, priests and teachers who were required to be devoid of wealth and power and instead focus on the pursuit of knowledge and enlightenment – quite opposite of the elitist voters being discussed in the article. 5/n

Why couldn't @PikettyLeMonde simply stick to French words such as "haute bourgeoisie," which accurately define his political and economic arguments, rather than "Brahmin"? We don't know, but such Eurocentric misinterpretations of other cultures and people must be questioned! 6/n

Describing the Brahmin Hindu community as part of the economic elites of the world is a cunning and malicious fairy tale that has no basis in reality and which leads to a reinforcement of colonial and racist prejudices against Hindus. 7/n

Such depictions are reminiscent of anti-Jewish caricatures in the late 19th and early 20th century, using bodily features, stereotypes and cartoons showing Jews as corrupt businessmen, usurpers, having too much world power, etc. 8/n https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/implacable-urge-to-defame

Scholars have debated how Shylock from “The Merchant of Venice” has advanced anti-Jewish sentiments by depicting the character as a “stereotypical greedy Jew,” and how the play was a favorite of Nazi Germany. 9/n https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/why-scholars-still-debate-whether-or-not-shakespeares-merchant-venice-anti-semitic-180958867/

Similarly, African Americans were depicted as animalistic, crazed and savage based on pseudoscientific anthropological theories such as the Aryan Theories of the late 1800s. Such theories were used for genocide, oppression and slavery. 10/n https://www.ferris.edu/HTMLS/news/jimcrow/antiblack/

Just as Shylock became a byword for bloodthirsty money lenders, the article uses “Brahmin” as a byword to describe the entitled and undeserving rich. It normalizes #Hinduphobia and creates a motive to use "Brahmin" as a slur against others. 11/n

Such usage advances existing unconscious biases about Hindus within the minds of mainstream Americans and discourages an environment that fosters diversity, inclusion, and mutual respect. It can also lead to bullying of Hindus students, as shown on many occasions. 12/n

Even worse, the next time a person is disgruntled towards the rich and “elite”, what stops them from attacking a Hindu temple or a Hindu community member, thinking that he is attacking a “Brahmin?” What responsibility will @WSJ @WSJopinion @ZaidJilani be ready to shoulder? 13/n

In the postmodern context that drives the discourse today, bringing such deliberate and false associations into your newspaper is dangerous to the secular and democratic ethos of America and is a deep affront to our American values. 14/n

Naturally, the paper would not tolerate devious characterizations of other religious and ethnic communities to drive across a political point. 15/n

Therefore, we demand and expect that @WSJ @WSJopinion @almarlatour @DanHenninger remove the word “Brahmin” from this opinion piece immediately, and issue an apology to the global Hindu community. 16/n