Desis in most dangerous professions

[Mr Fraudia]

Okay let me say it, I am sick of this..

two most dangerous occupations in the US are cab drivers and convenience store clerks. Two jobs that many desis have.

I have two major issues here.

#1- this does not get much attention maybe cuz its little foriegn brown guys behind the counter and not some "poor black guy" who is just doing it to support his family cuz teh system wont let him get ahead....

#2- I am tired of hearing kaloos joke about cabbies not being able to speak english and have cabbies and convenience store clerks be the butt of their jokes. This sucks...this stereotype is portrayed quite a bit in the media.

You know you would think that kaloos cry a lot about racism and stereotypes...and keep making fun of these desis.

these guys...these cabbies and clerks are hard working students putting themselves through college or first generation immigrants supporting an extended family back in Pakistan/India or self made hard working guys who started their own businesses.

So whereas kaloos are gangbangin and living off of welfare, these guys are working hard. I have not seen a desi Bum or a beggar in US to this day.

It would be interesting to see that who makes these 2 professions the most dangerous in the country. I can bet that it would be overwhelmingly kaloos.

Fine go ahead and stereotype desis as geeks with bad accents and working as cabbies and clerks on primetime shows, but then show kaloos as crminals as well.

It is about time that they start showing desis on television as doctors, engineers, IT professionals and executives.

NY I know you will respind with some sort of posting sypathizing with kaloos and their slavery and social mind set and all...but I say just as a friggin group they can complain about goras suppressing their brethren and stopping them from getting ahead, we can complain about our desi bros being killed by these kaloo thugs...

[Asfia]

i must say that it is a nice topic.i have never heard that kind of a joke from any blacks that i know of.
Infact most of the desis, who i know, are pretty rude to blacks and give mean comments to them. one of the issues in my school is the fighting always going on between the two races. i think what goes around, comes around. its from both sides.

In short, its not only the blacks being rude, its the desis, too

[Mr Fraudia]

Hmmmm see a movite titled "bootie call" and how desis are shown. As a matter of fact see any kaloo movie that has desis in it and they are always portrayed in a negative manner.

On a personal level deis may be prejudiced against kaloos but this is not portrayed in our media.

even desi movies filmed in US dont have kaloos as beggars, bums. crack babies, welfare moms etc.

The fact is that as much as kaloos cry about being repressed by goras, they also dont treat other minorities right.

next time a kaloo attempts to make fun of desi accents I will get an ebonics dictionary and slam it on his afro.

[Shafiq]

Salaamz folks;
Cool cool cool...Fraudia jee. First of all there are not two dangerous jobs but another one also is "Security officer" job. Well..I haven't been to States ..so.. don't have much idea about "kaloos". As I acknowledge about kaloos is that they r simply illitrate...who doesn't know how to behave well. I know, to say that 'gora' is a racist is wrong...we all r racist. Now their r different meanings of racism. Even see..in our country....the people say that ..Punjabi's r ruling the country...wut does this mean...R'nt Punjabis are Pakistani. So..don't make complaints about racism...who is or who is not????? Even a simple example ....is that...at this moment of time we couldn't bear even our country men. If u r in a good position...u don't wanna any other ur country men come in the same place.
"kaloo" speaks loud or make fun coz it is his country...he never worry about any thing..he can do wutever he wants. Coz..he doesn't have any future in front of him..he is just spending his days making fun, singing, drinking and doin all fun wut he wants..If he can't bear any gora...then my friend...desi is a far faraway. If..gora can't slam or restrict kaloos then U as desi....forget it.

And as a "desi"...a poor guy who leave, his country, dear ones and come far away ..put his future and life on risk....couldn't speak loud on those issues..coz..afraid of being kicked out. Just working, working and working..without bothering anyone. If anyting happens to this desi..just keeping quiet, having all in his heart. Can't do anything.

Better to pray Allah, HE keep all of us in his Safest.(Aameen)

C ya later

[ghalib]

o.k.. this one hits closer to home because:

-I am orignally from NYC, the hub of cabbies. I've had and still have friends who drive cabs..

-I did the graveyard shift at the 7-Eleven during my izkool dayz..

Pir jee got two issues embroiled in his thread. One for desis occupying some of the most dangerous jobs and two for desis being treated unfairly by kaloos. I'll address the former.

Cab driving and convenient stores clerks are dangerous professions. In both cases, you're interacting with close physical proximity to total strangers - for all your know, this guy could be a psycho out to kill anyone.

But that still doesn't mean that desis are not organized in protecting themselves. NYC has made it mandatory for cabs to have partition between the passengers and driver. WIth the cooperation of NYPD, all cabbs are now equipped with an orange warning light which attracts attention from the local law enforcement authorities. The cabbies have staged result-oriented protests by bringing downtown manhattan to a dead-halt. They blocked the streets in protests for lack of protection provided by the local police.

All these precautionary measures have lowered the murder rates for cabbies which reached an all time high in the early 90's.

As for clerks, well there isn;t much that can be done. All we could do was make sure that the area is well lighted and the interior, especially cash register, is well visible from the outside. Inviting cops for free coffee and donuts is another sure deterent (sp?).

Now, about the kaloos treating desis with no respect: I've worked with desis and koreans. The fact of the matter is that we're no better. I know first hand that I was trained by the koreans, they wanted me to keep my eyes on kaloo customers for possible shoplifting. Everytime a kallo walked in, one person was dedicated to keeping an eye on him until he left the store. There have been occasions where my fellow worker and even my boss wrongly accused a kallo for shoplifting just to make him stop coming into the store in the future.

Its not just these antics. Kaloo customers were treated differently. My boss, when working on register, charged kallos more for things than goras. We tried giving kallos a hard time so they wouldn't return. We just didn;t want their business.

When doing the shifts for x-number of years, I worked by these rules and to some extent, I was o.k. by them. I had my own stereotypes and prejuduces for kalloos. Now that I look back, I know I was wrong with alotta ways I did my work there.

Most Kaloos are aware of these games that foreingers play. The are aware of the mindset of these shop owners and I know it pisses them off. There have been boycotts and rallies against some stores in NYC by the kaloos in protest of these unfair treatments.

Now, I agree that there are trouble makers, and yes, most likely the majority of them are likely to be blacks, but one must consider all factors of the equation. Rage against these foreigners, who are infact minorities along with kaloos, is a big factor in these crimes. Remember the LA riots? Korean stores were the prime target for the looting mainlky because of their track record of unconditonal biases and prejudism against kaloos.

This could drag on for a while... more on this later....

[This message has been edited by ghalib (edited May 03, 2000).]

[Roman]

Well ghalib, one of the things they can do for cashiers' protection (and I have seen this in many places like gas stations etc) that they can have a bullet-proof glass shield covering the cash register area, alongwith video cameras.

[Durr-e-Shahwar]

I never knew NY is so predictable....after all uniquness has to loose its UN some day if it is keep on queueing

[zaraatif]

Wow, Ghalib, that was a really good and honest post (and I don't think there is anything here that we can argue about http://www.pak.org/gupshup/biggrin.gif). Most people would not be able to look at themselves so critically, I think. Thanks for giving the other side of the story.

[Mr Fraudia]

Ghalib

I am not disagreeing with anythign you are saying. My point is that THEIT prejudiced attitudes dont get any attention because they are the "minority supreme" and poster children for all those that are suppressed and held back etc.

I am sick of their whole "oh I am such a victim attitude"

let me give you an example..about 2 years ago, I was working on a project in a Bank..I was very friendly with clerks and administrator type people in addition to the analysts due to the nature of the project we had to understand all the processes.

Either way, one of these clerks was talking to a friend who was manager in their group.
Somehow in the conversation with Karla (the mgr) the topic of my car being a gad guzzler came up. Chrsitine (the clerk) asked what car it was. back then I had a jaguar XJS.
Chrsitine asks "oh can I ask you a question" and I say sure, so she asks" how many 7-11's do you own"

Now would it not be appropriate for me to then ask, can I ask you a question. "why, how many do you want to rob"

I mean I am kidding to some extent, but if you are going to base stuff on stereotypes or some statistics, then others can do it too. Sure simpsons can show an indian 7-11 clerk, wonder when they will show a kaloo bum or thug.

These things may be small, but you know what, we are older and we deal with a different type of crowd.

Its exactly the same premise that kaloos demand that they be portrayed in a better manner on TV shows, and their claims and demands are not even supported by demographic stats. When would ER show a desi doctor? when would they show a major techiw in some show to be desi?

Sure, we have movies showing them as terrorists, and shows showing them as cabbies and clerks. What about showing the huge group that is a backbone for the e-economy...

Its not to say that its not hard to find local desi talent...but talent will only gravitate towards a medium if by its actions and commitments the medium makes it clear that it will have such opportunities for the talent.

As far as why would desi actors not act in american movies. Its a 2 sided coin...they should try and american film makers should pursue them. There have been numerous British movies with major desi actors.

[Jasoos]

Arey Pir Sahib kia depressing channel laga dia aap nay http://www.pak.org/gupshup/frown.gif


Though every thing you said is true http://www.pak.org/gupshup/frown.gif

[NYAhmadiX]

Fraud Yara, I have two objections regarding your post:

(1) the term “Kaloo”, it sounds the same as the “N” word but in Desi lingo
(2) how the hell do you know what my views might be on this topic? (You are one Rohani peer who receives Wahis every morning).

Let me give you a little NY side of perspective (Ghalib did an outstanding job and I will attempt to add a few more facts).

Desi make up almost 70% of cabbies in the City. There have been 9 Cabbie Murders so far this year, and guess what? None of the victims were Desis. Is that a good thing or bad. I would argue that it is bad. As Ghalib noted, that Desis will not go into “dangerous” neighborhoods.

Secondly, it is not a Blacks prejudice against Desi culture, it is just one victim looking for a comfort zone. Every one does that, and it is wrong. Before Desis, all newly arrived immigrants to this city went through their share of victimization. Italian, Irish, Greeks, Jews, you name it.

The race relations in this country are not the best, but by being so harsh on Blacks for being prejudiced against Desis is not the solution.

I have the utmost respect for African Americans and feel for them for being hoodwinked for over 400 years and they still face the worst kind of discrimination and many sectors of the society are still closed on them. We need to learn from their efforts and need to work together with them for equal opportunities for all regardless of one’s ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, etc. We are all together in this.

[X Factor]

x

[This message has been edited by X Factor (edited May 04, 2000).]

[Jasoos]

J


[This message has been edited by Jasoos (edited May 04, 2000).]

[Mr Fraudia]

Two things first, I used the term kaloos to describe a certain group within African Americans. Maybe it was wrong..but I am talking about that particular group not the ethnic group as whole.
As far as having an idea of your views dewd we have discussed enough issues here that we know what people's stance on certain issues could be..ya know.

I have the utmost respect for African Americans who are decent civilized and dont act as if the whole damn world owes them something. I dont have any respect for those who will continue to make excuses for not being able to do anything with their lives.

Its not just limited to blacks. Its includes desis as well. I am tired of desis blaming their failures on the broken down system left by the british.

You know what, If i was a cabbie, I would not go into the dangerous areas myself and would refuse service. I would rather be looked at as a bit prejuduced rather than go and get mugged or killed. So whose responsibility is it? Okay so the cabbies actions would generate a bad image of desis among blacks in general, but what is worse here refusal of a ride from a cabbie to a customer, or some thug attacking a cabbie or store clerk.

So you are quick to point out that blacks may have issues with desis the way they have been treated by some of them. This is exactly the case for them, actions of a few may affect our views towards them..and those actions are mugging and killing people.

As far as the areas being dangerous, whose fault is it? is it the communities fault for letting it get to that level..maybe maybe not, is it the city's fault for not making that a safe area, in my view yes....BUT is it a cabbies fault that a certain area is plagued with crime, violence and lack of security and personal safety?

I have been attacked and mugged by a group of thugs and unless they used kiwi, they all seemed to be kaloos, I stopped going thru that area..it was a shortcut for me bt damn, my life is worth more than trying to save a few minutes on the way to school. One of my pals who used to deliver newspaper to put himself through college was mugged, his car was taken thereby cutting off his ability to make money to put himself through school. So what is he to do refuse to deliver papers in a black area and be considred racist? Or worry about his safety.

We all talk of our experiences. Crime statistics will show that many peoples' experiences with blacks have been unpleasant due to the actions of a particula sort of group in that population. Problem is that subgroup is large enough.

gangsta styling, in your face attitude, all these factors will only further alienate others.

I know their are no clear answers to this
but I would rather not move into a blac neighbourhood, I would rather not send my kids to a predominantly black school and yes if its late and I see a black guy approach me, I would move away. I would lock car doors in an "iffy" area and advise my friends and family to do the same, because you know what.. I am Numero uno, my top priority is myself and my family, and if that means that some people feel that I am being racist, then be it.

The reason I wrote this and the Arabian Nights posts at the same time is the same basic reason. We need to make sure that we are portrayed fairly in the media because that affects people's perceptions to a great extent.

Either way apologize for the long post but this is a rather complex issue and as much as I like to think that I am not prejudiced...maybe I am.

[babez]

hi fraudz...look at me!

meow