Letters to the Editor
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This was not a "screw up."
Mr. Roy has got it dead wrong. Ms. Viswanathan's story should not be seen as anything reassuring but as a warning to her and the other Stephen Glass's and James Frey's of the world. In a world where everyone wants to be rich and famous, we have forgotten what it means to be honest, tallanted and hard working. She wanted the fast track to fortune and probably a nice little tidbit for her Harvard application. She got both and now, she's paying the piper.
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Racist Author
Wow, what a creepy, racist article. I have to wonder if Sandip Roy has ever spent much time conversing with any of the "second-class minorities" or "less worthy," presumably non Indian-American children or adults in this country because he is utterly incapable of even attempting to mask his racism and contempt for other racial groups.
I commend the accomplishments of the Indian-American community in this country. But for Sandip to attribute these accomplishments to genetics (as opposed to say, a culture of high expectations and a strong work ethic) reeks of Social Darwinism. The article also betrays a total unawareness of and insensitivity to the historical subjugation of Native-Americans, African-Americans and Mexican-Americans in this country that has had a crippling effect on the ability of these groups to pursue the "shiny achievements" that Sandip pursued so vociferously.
As I read the article, images of Sandip advising his school age child not to pick a black child as a lab partner because he/she was sure to be stupid/lazy immediately came to mind.)
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Sarcasm?
After reading this article I was skeptical about Roy's intent. Is it supposed to be subtly ironic or is the author genuinely sympathetic to the plight of the plaigiarizer who was subjected to parental pressure that is supposedly unique to Indian-Americans? Reading the comments I noticed that others were also uncertain, while a handful insist that the article was written in jest and imply that the rest of us are too stupid to recognize that. Concerned that I was missing something, I read Roy's article again. It does seem that the commentary about the "model minority" is a somewhat tongue-in-cheek mocking of the "shiny brown prototpye." However, I have to say I really think the sympathy and self-pity are genuine. As is the sentiment that pressure to succeed is somehow unique to Indian-Americans. I love sarcasm as much as the next person, if not more... but it's difficult to pull off in print without a great deal of skill and it's only effective if the reader knows about it. Combining sarcastic commentary with genuine commentary (if that's what is going on here) is very tricky.
I notice that this article was originally published by New America Media. Based on the (few) comments in that forum, it seems that the readers interpreted Roy's sympathy for himself and Viswanathan literally.
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Read the article again
When the quality of the articles went down (I miss Eric Boehlert), I wondered if I should end my subscription. I am glad I cancelled (but I still occasionally peek). Publishing every letter has been illuminating. I always imagined Salon readers to be thoughtful, intelligent and capable of understanding nuance and wit. The reality is that most Salon letter writers are just as loud, racist, and blathering as the screamers on the cable channels. Please, try to move beyond the concrete thinking and knee jerk emotional reactions. Salon used to be a great magazine- it is sad that it has been brought down by appealing to the lowest common denominator and the letters sadly confirm this.
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We get it...and we're still offended.
I think I speak for most of the offended readers when I say that Sandip's attempt at irony and sarcasm were not lost on us. The irony & sarcasm just came across as a feeble attempt to mask his prejudice and contempt for other racial groups, as well as an excuse to boast about the academic and professional superiority of Indian-Americans.
You know, kind of like the shmuck who follows up every insult with, "Aw, come on, you know I was just kidding...Get a sense of humor!"
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Am I the only one worried about this girl?
Agree with most letters, she being from India has nothing to do with this. Plagiarism crosses all bounds, all religions, even experience.
But I wrote a letter to Little, Brown that someone there she be on her side. Can you imagine, for all she did that disgusts us, being so young and so imfamous. I hope there are sympathic editors who will give her the TLC that will get her over this overly publicized event. However one comports oneself at 18 or so, it's far to young to be knocked around publicly. Harvard has its share of suicides with students who simply felt inferior or were mentally deranged. Harvard too should comfort her, so that she lives to write her own book, one future day.
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Right, because all other parents are just chill
What struck me about Sandip's article is that it just doesn't seem like he gets out much. I went to a pretty homogenous university, but even there there was enough diveristy to talk to people from other backgrounds. And if you bother you do that, you find out that most east Asian immigrants (Chinese, Taiwanese, Japanese, Thai) push their children to the extreme, indian and pakistani parents do the same, as do jewish parents, russian parents, many many kinds of parents.
That's what's stunning -- does sandip only hang out with other desis and ABCDs?
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Gaming the system
There has been a lot of boohooing on this site about racism, etc., but it's all a lot of hooey. This writer cheated, gamed the system, and got caught. She and her presumably adult enablers deserve all the scorn that has gone their way. Ironically, she may have benefited from benign ethnic stereotyping or a type of reverse racism. When news of her achievement was first published, I remember scanning the news articles and being vaguely surprised that a young person who had endured the rigors of the Ivy League admittance process had had the time and energy to produce a marketable book. I then noticed that she was Indian-American and thought, " so that's all right then, everyone knows how smart and hardworking Indian kids are." ( I know some people will be upset I even thought this.) I was astonished to read the charges of plagiarism, but the line-by-line comparisons are pretty damning. (A Harvard writing instructor has pointed out that she kept the identical sentence structure and content, but changed the nouns; standard practice evidently for plagiarizers who want to evade Google searches.) She also was directed to her literary agent by the $20,000-a-pop college "adviser" who was helping her package herself for the ivies. I know that college packaging services occasionally like to include " writing a book" on their client's resumes, but I had no idea many of them actually got published. My heart goes out to the writers and artists on this blog who mention their own struggles to find publishers and audiences. I think the problem here is the confluence of sleazy publishing commercialism and personal failings. The fact that this young women is a cute Indian-American is beside the point or even protective. Believe me, if her name were "Joe Smith" and she was a Mayflower descendant, the venom would have been as harsh, if not more so.