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cbabe

(5,937 posts) Sun Nov 16, 2025, 12:48 PM Sunday

'Call is coming from inside the house': Why some MAGA leaders are targets of 'open racism'

https://www.alternet.org/maga-indians-racist/

'Call is coming from inside the house': Why some MAGA leaders are targets of 'open racism'

Lesley AbravanelNovember 16, 2025 | 08:44AM ET

Indian Americans are increasingly finding themselves the targets of racism by far-right Christian nationalists, and those who identify as MAGA Indian Americans who work in President Donald Trump's administration aren't immune to the vitriol, reports Harmeet Kaur in Newsweek.

When FBI director Kash Patel wished his followers on X a Happy Diwali—a holiday elebrated by Hindus, Jains, Sikhs, and some Buddhists across the world—"far-right Christian nationalist and white nationalist accounts flooded his post with bigoted memes and rhetoric," Kaur writes.

Similar hostility followed Diwali greetings on X from former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon, as well as posts about the holiday from the White House, the State Department, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders," Kaur notes.

Some Indian Conservatives, she writes, are shocked by these reactions, including one who is known for making his own racist statements. "After one X user said that the existence of Indians disgusted them, Dinesh D’Souza, the right-wing commentator who has peddled racism against Black Americans for decades, mused: 'In a career spanning 40 years, I have never encountered this type of rhetoric. The Right never used to talk like this. So who on our side has legitimized this type of vile degradation?'" Kaur notes.

… more …

(Are hypocrisy and irony dead yet? Nod to Orrex.)

4 replies

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Highlight:

'Call is coming from inside the house': Why some MAGA leaders are targets of 'open racism' (Original Post) cbabe Sunday OP

You've got a real riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma there, Dinesh. tanyev Sunday #1

Eh dalton99a Sunday #2

He is a Christian so probably doesn't mind newdeal2 Sunday #3

Meanwhile, Alternet perpetuates the lie RandomNumbers Sunday #4

tanyev

(48,320 posts)

1. You've got a real riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma there, Dinesh.

Reply to cbabe (Original post)

Sun Nov 16, 2025, 01:08 PM

Sunday

Good luck figuring it out.

dalton99a

(91,205 posts)

2. Eh

Reply to cbabe (Original post)

Sun Nov 16, 2025, 01:49 PM

Sunday

newdeal2

(4,490 posts)

3. He is a Christian so probably doesn't mind

Reply to dalton99a (Reply #2)

Sun Nov 16, 2025, 01:54 PM

Sunday

Doesn’t see the connection between racism and oppression of one kind lending a hand to other kinds of oppression that affect him.

RandomNumbers

(18,995 posts)

4. Meanwhile, Alternet perpetuates the lie

Reply to cbabe (Original post)

Sun Nov 16, 2025, 02:19 PM

Sunday

that the only reason to oppose H-1B (as it currently exists) is "racism", and only white people are harmed.

I am so tired of people pretending they know what they are talking about, to accuse others.

The big lie is bolded. (excerpt from the link in the OP)

Kaur says that Indian immigrants and Indian Americans are "the latest target of a growing anti-migrant movement in the US and around the world" and "the most consistent anti-Indian bigotry online focuses on the H-1B visa program, of which Indian nationals are the biggest beneficiaries," she writes.

"The program, which admits highly skilled foreigners into the US to work in specialized fields, has sparked infighting among Trump supporters, with visa opponents such as deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller accusing India of 'a lot of cheating on immigration policies,'" Kaur writes.

The far-right has taken aim at Indian Americans, saying they are the ones depriving other—read: white—Americans of good paying jobs.

No, it does NOT only admit "highly skilled" foreigners. It does admit a few of those, but it is by accident, as long as the lottery system is used, and the standards are so low. The standards are low, presumably because the people writing the program details wouldn't know an actual highly-skilled software engineer from a first year comp sci student.

Meanwhile, what entry level jobs remain in IT, are rarely if ever filled by black Americans. It is not only white Americans who are crowded out by the cheaper, indentured servants imported via H-1B.

Democrats really ought to stop seeing racism in places where it's not (or at least where there are legitimate good reasons to oppose something), and consider the people being hurt by a policy, then do something NON-RACIST to address the harm - like, maybe, making the program ACTUALLY for ACTUAL HIGH-SKILLED workers? And perhaps doing a better job of limiting H-1B hiring by any single company? (Right now it is a race to the bottom and the winners are those who are best at scamming the broken system.)

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