Indian-Americans' spelling bee win draws racial remarks

[Voldemort]

NEW YORK: The historic win by two Indian-American students at the prestigious national spelling bee contest today drew some flak on the social media with many making racial innuendos about children of Indian-origin having an unbeaten track record at the annual contest.
Sriram Hathwar, 14 and Ansun Sujoe, 13, created history by winning the Scripps National Spelling Bee, the first time in 52 years that two participants have won the contest.
The two clinched the title after a thrilling final in which they almost exhausted the 25 designated words.
This was the seventh consecutive year that Indian- American students have retained the spelling bee title, a trend that was started by Sameer Mishra who won the contest in 2008.
The win by the two youngsters has however led to some US audience making racial comments about how only Indians have been winning the spelling bee for some years now.
"Wait a minute!!! Where is the diversity? Why are there not women or non-Asian minorities winning? Sounds racist to me," a person commented on the Washington Post website.
Another reader said, "How is it that foreigners who are new to America are able to win the spelling bee like this?" while another reader posted, "First they took our beauty queen title then they take our bee. Whats next they take away our jobs..."
A comment on Twitter by one Matt Marzullo said, "We need an american to win this spelling bee #tiredofindiansmatt".
Another said, "The kids in the spelling bee should only be AMERICAN".
Another tweet said "Shocking that neither of the Spelling bee champs have names that sound American #Sriram #Ansun."
However, other readers said parents and families of Indian-American students encourage hard work and learning which leads to such students performing well in these competitions.
"I find the comments here very interesting regarding how 'foreigners' can win these contests. It is so simple it amazes me that everyone doesn't recognise the answer. The families of the winners value and encourage learning and hard work. They don't spend their time blaming others for their problems," a reader said.
"This is exactly why US students are, in many cases, falling behind. The parents do not value and encourage education and all the money and best teachers in the world are not going to educate someone who does not want to learn," the reader said.
The other tweets posted on the microblogging site were "Will an American ever win the #spellingbee", "Where are our American kids?"
"wow that blows the spelling bee ends with a tie thats so friggin un-American no wonder the kids that won it are Indian", another tweeted.
No American sounding names who won the spelling B.#sad#fail
— Lino Morales (@lino_and_louie)May 30, 2014

 

[W.G.Ewald]

Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.

H. L. Mencken
US editor (1880 - 1956)

 

[Ray]

Well, the white Americans should learn their own language and if they lag behind it is their fault.

But then one must understand that the white Americans are not English either. The Germans are the majority.

German is very akin to Indian language using conjugated words and grammar.

They would win the spelling bee in Indian languages if they tried.

 

[Ray]

Well, the white Americans should learn their own language and if they lag behind it is their fault.

But then one must understand that the white Americans are not English either. The Germans are the majority.

German is very akin to Indian language using conjugated words and grammar.

They would win the spelling bee in Indian languages if they tried.

 

[hit&run]

Sore losers, when you can not win by spellings, you win by bullying.
.........................................

Digressing:

The whole white breed participating on social media and different blogs with lock barrel and stock is anti Indians.

I am saying it because when spewing venom on ills of India was given they are doing the same on Indian achievements as well. Indians are modern day punching bags of these punks and the reason is because Indians have failed to develop nuisances value (digital and physical), are rather goody goody soft targets for these losers who only understand the language of power earned via intent and potential of nuisance, if you have any.

The remedy is here for Indians to use: It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of non-violence to cover impotence. Violence is any day preferable to impotence. There is hope for a violent man to become non-violent. There is no such hope for the impotent.-Mahatma Gandhi

 

[roma]

NEW YORK: The historic win by two Indian-American students at the prestigious national spelling bee contest today drew some flak on the social media with many making racial innuendos about children of Indian-origin having an unbeaten track record at the annual contest.
Sriram Hathwar, 14 and Ansun Sujoe, 13, created history by winning the Scripps National Spelling Bee, the first time in 52 years that two participants have won the contest.
The two clinched the title after a thrilling final in which they almost exhausted the 25 designated words.
This was the seventh consecutive year that Indian- American students have retained the spelling bee title, a trend that was started by Sameer Mishra who won the contest in 2008.
The win by the two youngsters has however led to some US audience making racial comments about how only Indians have been winning the spelling bee for some years now.
"Wait a minute!!! Where is the diversity? Why are there not women or non-Asian minorities winning? Sounds racist to me," a person commented on the Washington Post website.
Another reader said, "How is it that foreigners who are new to America are able to win the spelling bee like this?" while another reader posted, "First they took our beauty queen title then they take our bee. Whats next they take away our jobs..."
A comment on Twitter by one Matt Marzullo said, "We need an american to win this spelling bee #tiredofindiansmatt".
Another said, "The kids in the spelling bee should only be AMERICAN".
Another tweet said "Shocking that neither of the Spelling bee champs have names that sound American #Sriram #Ansun."
However, other readers said parents and families of Indian-American students encourage hard work and learning which leads to such students performing well in these competitions.
"I find the comments here very interesting regarding how 'foreigners' can win these contests. It is so simple it amazes me that everyone doesn't recognise the answer. The families of the winners value and encourage learning and hard work. They don't spend their time blaming others for their problems," a reader said.
"This is exactly why US students are, in many cases, falling behind. The parents do not value and encourage education and all the money and best teachers in the world are not going to educate someone who does not want to learn," the reader said.
The other tweets posted on the microblogging site were "Will an American ever win the #spellingbee", "Where are our American kids?"
"wow that blows the spelling bee ends with a tie thats so friggin un-American no wonder the kids that won it are Indian", another tweeted.
No American sounding names who won the spelling B.#sad#fail
— Lino Morales (@lino_and_louie)May 30, 2014

those loser comments really are so amusing !

 

[Kaalapani]

not all are same and racist here is one good comment.

Good job,kid. I wish this news comes out in the front page instead of kim kardashian

 

[Cliff@sea]

Those comments aren't exactly 'racist' in nature,
they sound more like rumblings of disgruntled morons,

Although this particular comment >

"The kids in the spelling bee should only be AMERICAN"

, is especially amusing,

AFAIK , all the participants already are American .

 

[pmaitra]

Those comments aren't exactly 'racist' in nature,
they sound more like rumblings of disgruntled morons,

Although this particular comment >

, is especially amusing,

AFAIK , all the participants already are American .

I think the commentator meant all participants should be either Cherokee, or Navajo, or Apache, etc..



(kidding)

 

[JMM99]

All,

The comments below are more "front page"; and address the "why" ...

Indian-American Students Win National Spelling Bee for 7th Consecutive Year (May 30, 2014, by Dan Joseph) [JMM: frankly, this column could have used a edit by an Indian-American student; but Mr Joseph's hyperlinks are accurate and worth following]

Why Indian-Americans Reign As Spelling Bee Champs (by Tovia Smith, NPR; May 29, 2012)

Why Indian Americans rule the National Spelling Bee (from Learn That Word):

Here are a few things that contribute to the strong presence of Indian/South Asian students at the event:

1 - The American school system and culture has a conflicted relationship with memory-based learning. Indian culture values academic achievement highly and values memorization as well, as a building block of higher-level knowledge. This, by the way, is also the reason why Indian Americans are not only dominating the Spelling Bee, but also produce much more than their statistical share of doctors, engineers and executives.

2 - Indian Americans/South Asians maintain tightly knit family and social communities, and place a paramount value within their community on academic performance. Social expectations around academic performance tend to be much higher than in other demographic groups. Academic success therefor has a big social pay-off.

3 - Last but not least, the success at Spelling Bees is fostered by various initiatives that exclusively support Indian American/South Asian students. North South Foundation and the South Asian Spelling Bee are both set up to support the Indian American/South Asian community of aspiring champions. It's great to win the first prize at the Scripps National Spelling Bee by competing with 10 million students for over $40,000 in prizes. There is certainly more incentive to dedicate the thousands of hours of intense study needed knowing that you can also apply these skills at the South Asian Spelling Bee, where you compete with just a few thousand other kids for a $10,000 first prize. These additional events also build friendships and mutual support within the Indian American speller community.

North South Foundation, Interview with Founder: Dr. Ratnam Chitturi

Study: Asian Americans value hard work, family (by Haya El Nasser, USA TODAY; Updated 6/19/2012)

Indians have the highest share of college-educated and the highest median household income ($88,000) among the largest Asian-American groups. Asians as a whole have a median household income of $66,000 (half make more, half less) compared with the U.S. median of $49,800.

One should not discount the importance of "Mr Green" in the US - although my experience suggests "Mr Green" and his otherwise spelled relatives are global.

Regards

Mike

 

[roma]

those loser comments really are so amusing !

i didn't find the comments particularly racist - it was more like complaining -
pity the complainers didn't realize it's a competition and not a charity event . some people don't know the difference
They want to win without having to pay the price - and that can happen .....in a charitable event .

By the way - no way am i against charity, - in fact i'm all for it
- but a spelling bee might just not be quite the place for it ?

But let's get the perspective right - the USA is still to me the greatest society in the world
it still allows Indians to win - and two in one competition at that - who else would ?