Blog Archive: April 2011

Blog Archive: April 2011

'The Reluctant Fundamentalist': The Assimilation Narrative Goes International

Kirti Kamboj - April 11, 2011

 

On 9/11, within minutes of the attacks, four men chased after a Sikh man who had escaped from the towers and now had to escape once more for his life...[;] in Los Angeles, on September 13, 2001, an Iranian woman was punched in the eye by another woman who wanted to register her displeasure at those who look like terrorists; on September 15, 2001, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, when Kimberly Lowe, a Creek Native American, stopped her car to confront a group of white males who had yelled, ‘‘Go back to your own country,’’ they pinned her down and drove over her till she died.

-Vijay Prashad, How Hindus Became Jews: American Racism after 9/11

This was the environment in which Mohsin Hamid's novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, was released. The narrator, Changez, is a New York investment banker who, post-9/11, becomes disillusioned with his life and returns to Pakistan. Yet strangely enough, his leaving has little to do with the aftermath described above.

Lily Bee and Her Lovely Ukelele

Theresa Celebran Jones - April 7, 2011

There’s only one type of music I love more than hip hop: downtempo love songs by female vocalists. It has been my life’s work to get everyone I know obsessed with my favorite singer of all time, Esthero. I tend to act like an annoying hipster about my love for Amy Winehouse (I got Frank when it was released and liked her before anybody in the US knew who she was!). I tried to keep my love for Corinne Bailey Rae on the low, but cried for two hours when I first heard “I’d Do It All Again,” and then cried for another half hour when I first saw the video. And now I have a new singer to gush about.

Hyphen College Tour: University of Maryland, You're Next!

Lisa Lee - April 5, 2011

University of Maryland, College Park, Hyphen's coming to you next Tuesday as part of our college tour!

Hyphen has partnered up with I.W. Group and McDonald’s in an effort to inform and empower campuses with its unique perspective on Asian American arts, culture and politics. With style, of course. Next Tuesday, I will be heading out to UMD (again) to mingle with the students. Can't believe it has been a year since I last saw you, but it's about time that I get my Pot Belly fill again.

Here's my tentative schedule: