It struck me last night how I can't ignore the fact of my mixed race background. I was at a party with my husband, where we were listening to all kinds of mindless drivel, eventually leaning towards jokes of all kinds that WERE funny until some started getting racist. They were harmless until one person decided to talk about Indians, and then I got ticked off.

While I am not your garden variety Indian, the best way to describe WHAT I am is by saying I'm of Anglo-Indian heritage. Simply put, when the British ruled India, and Anglican people were living there, they intermarried with the natives and created a subculture who were raised British. Hence, the term Anglo-Indian. It is not uncommon for us to have 3 or 4 different nationalities, mixed with Indian. Both my parents are Anglo-Indians, but since I was born in the U.S. I'm not exactly sure I can be called that directly. My mom termed it Euro-Asian because let's see...I'm mixed with German, Portuguese, Irish, Scotch, English and Indian. In fact, to my knowledge I only have my great-grandfather on my father's maternal side who was Indian as my closest sole Indian link. Everyone else in my family were mixed back a few generations and had been living in India for years. So I'm not sure just how much Indian I really do have in me.

Because of what I'm made of, the joke I heard last night got me irritated because the person who told it was questioning how someone from a call center in India could be named "John Smith" and that it had to be a made up name. Well, clearly he was misinformed with his knowledge of history and geography. Unfortunately I did not have the pleasure to enter a debate with him on that, because the host of our party did get him to stop the joke after he started it, realizing where it was going, and I didn't want to cause a scene. But here I am today, somewhat insulted on behalf of my family, because I DO have relatives who work in call centers, and they all have anglican names. Only one of my great aunts was married to an Indian and so she named her children with Indian names, but also call them by anglican names. Moreover, despite the fact that there are those Indians who are seen on television as having really long and hard to pronounce names, more Indians than not have regular anglican ones. So take that, Mr. Jokester!

Learn more about this author, Natasha L. Kohlhoff Polak.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

---

Add your voice

Know something about Mixed Races and exciting cultural differences?
We want to hear your view. Write now!