Barkha Dutt: uncertainty

Transcript context

…Plenty of Whites in the United States have resources, education, but is it possible the Brahmins of India who come to America — they’re better at cracking foreign cultural codes, they’re more used to diversity, they’re more used to strange environments? The complacency is taken away once they leave their country. Because it’s not just that they have done well — they have done especially well as leaders in a particular kind of leadership roles. I guess my hesitation in answering your question is that I hate essentialism. It’s the same way that I hate it when people say women are better leaders because we are more empathetic. The problem with essentialism is, the moment you pay yourself a compliment based on gender, caste, religion, color of your skin — whatever — country of your origin — if you’re going to accept one generalization is true, then you’re going to have to suck up the generalizations and the caricatures that aren’t so flattering. I’m just hesitant in going beyond saying certain caste groups — like certain gender groups, like certain religious groups — were more influential in terms of places that they occupied at the top of social hierarchies. For example, maybe exposure to culture among what are so-called upper caste groups was more because income was higher. Therefore, there was a luxury of, let’s say, being also able to be exposed to classical music and classical dance. All of these things are things that flow from how society has treated you. I can’t answer why it will play out differently for, let’s say, the White American male, but I hesitate to reinforce the essentialism of your question. Maybe I don’t know enough, but I’m just really uncomfortable with that beyond saying there’s a coincidence of money, social hierarchy, opportunity, and education. Why is Indian food the very best food in the entire world?…

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