US Congressman mistakes Obama's Indian-American officials as foreigner

thethinker

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US Congressman mistakes Obama's Indian-American officials as foreigners

Washington: In an extremely awkward incident, a newly elected member of the US House of Representatives mistook two senior Indian American officials of the Barack Obama administration to be from India and asked them questions about "your country" and "your government".

"I'm familiar with your country; I love your country," freshman Republican Curt Clawson told Nisha Biswal and Arun Kumar at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing Thursday, Foreign Policy online reported.

"Anything I can do to make the relationship with India better, I'm willing and enthusiastic about doing so," he continued amid looks of confusion among State Department and Congressional staff attending the hearing.

Clawson, apparently confused by their Indian surnames and skin tone also asked Biswal and Arun Kumar if the Indian government could loosen restrictions on US capital investments in the country.

"Just as your capital is welcome here to produce good-paying jobs in the US, I'd like our capital to be welcome there," he said. "I ask cooperation and commitment and priority from your government in so doing. Can I have that?
"
 

ITBP

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Re: US Congressman mistakes Obama's Indian-American officials as forei

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US Congressman mistakes Obama's Indian-American officials as foreigners

Washington: In an extremely awkward incident, a newly elected member of the US House of Representatives mistook two senior Indian American officials of the Barack Obama administration to be from India and asked them questions about "your country" and "your government".

"I'm familiar with your country; I love your country," freshman Republican Curt Clawson told Nisha Biswal and Arun Kumar at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing Thursday, Foreign Policy online reported.

"Anything I can do to make the relationship with India better, I'm willing and enthusiastic about doing so," he continued amid looks of confusion among State Department and Congressional staff attending the hearing.

Clawson, apparently confused by their Indian surnames and skin tone also asked Biswal and Arun Kumar if the Indian government could loosen restrictions on US capital investments in the country.

"Just as your capital is welcome here to produce good-paying jobs in the US, I'd like our capital to be welcome there," he said. "I ask cooperation and commitment and priority from your government in so doing. Can I have that?
"
So?

Why you care?

They are American and that's all.

http://defenceforumindia.com/forum/members-corner/61980-do-indians-think-about-indians-living-abroad.html
 

thethinker

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ladder

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Re: US Congressman mistakes Obama's Indian-American officials as forei

For a flirting second, when I was reading the article, until the name 'Clawson' appeared, I had a feeling @W.G.Ewald got elected as a congressman.
It's not for the reason, that I believe that no other person can be that obtuse to do that, but because Mr. Ewald has both implicitly and explicitly referred to Preet Bharara as an Indian rather than US citizen of Indian origin.
Posters can go to Devyani Khobragade thread to verify.
 
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hit&run

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Re: US Congressman mistakes Obama's Indian-American officials as forei

He might have done intentionally. This is how they make you realize, from where you have come.
 

Ray

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Re: US Congressman mistakes Obama's Indian-American officials as forei

@WGEwald

So it clears the air now, right?

I thought that American Indians being mistaken as is the real Indians!

and Indian American as still foreign!

Why blame Joe the Plumber or Sarah Palin for being dumb?

Even the best of US education seems to produce dumb Joes too! ;)
 
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W.G.Ewald

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Re: US Congressman mistakes Obama's Indian-American officials as forei

He might have done intentionally. This is how they make you realize, from where you have come.
No he didn't. He is the sombrero of asshats. :-(
 

W.G.Ewald

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Re: US Congressman mistakes Obama's Indian-American officials as forei

@WGEwald

So it clears the air now, right?

I thought that American Indians being mistaken as is the real Indians!

and Indian American as still foreign!

Why blame Joe the Plumber or Sarah Palin for being dumb?

Even the best of US education seems to produce dumb Joes too! ;)
Make of it what you will. Mark Twain said all that needs to be said about Congress years ago.

Fleas can be taught nearly anything that a Congressman can.
- What Is Man?

...the smallest minds and the selfishest souls and the cowardliest hearts that God makes.
- Letter fragment, 1891

Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.
- Mark Twain, a Biography

Congressman is the trivialist distinction for a full grown man.
- Notebook #14, Nov. 1877 - July 1878

All Congresses and Parliaments have a kindly feeling for idiots, and a compassion for them, on account of personal experience and heredity.
- Mark Twain's Autobiography; also in Mark Twain in Eruption
(By the way, I had to stumble blindly across your "Mention" because I am blocked from seeing them, and everything else, on my Profile by your esteemed protegee -- or somebody. In fact, the Profile and Settings for my account have been tampered with so thoroughly I can't imagine anything there ever being properly restored. But I will continue to speak out until DFI bans me entirely -- the existing handicaps are nothing to me.)
 
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W.G.Ewald

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Re: US Congressman mistakes Obama's Indian-American officials as forei

This congressman sez:

"I made a mistake in speaking before being fully briefed and I apologise. I'm a quick study, but in this case I shot an air ball," he said.
The basketball reference you may know. I'll give you another one for briefing politicians, including Obama. It's like Gulliver's "Voyage to Laputa." That would be found in Chapter 3 of Gulliver's Travels, I believe.
 

Otm Shank

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Re: US Congressman mistakes Obama's Indian-American officials as forei

large amounts of white people have never worked with or socialized with an indian or a person from another civilization group (apart from black or hispanic) so usually assume nonwhites are not americans. I chalk it up to lack of experience but thats changing with more first generation indo americans and canadians setting udown roots as well as high profile positions for indians in corporations and politics.

The troubling thing about this ignorant POS clawson is his state has alot of indo people and you have to question his mindset if he thinks one that speaks in an american accent isn't american..how can he competently look out for their interests?
 
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W.G.Ewald

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Re: US Congressman mistakes Obama's Indian-American officials as forei

I don't suppose when Zbigniew Brzezinski testified to Congress at some point, he was asked about Poland :)
 

Otm Shank

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Re: US Congressman mistakes Obama's Indian-American officials as forei

We're discussing indo descended peopke here not polish people W G. Try to keep up.
 

W.G.Ewald

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Re: US Congressman mistakes Obama's Indian-American officials as forei

We're discussing indo descended peopke here not polish people W G. Try to keep up.
It was a comparison for the sake of discussion. Try to open your mind up.
 

Ray

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Re: US Congressman mistakes Obama's Indian-American officials as forei

I don't suppose when Zbigniew Brzezinski testified to Congress at some point, he was asked about Poland :)
I would be surprised if the Americans could pronounce the name ' Zbigniew Brzezinski' or his father's name ' Tadeusz Brzeziński'.

It is said Zbigniew Brzezinski is Polish American political scientist, geostrategist, and statesman.

What they missed out in his biodata is that he is the Father of the Al Quida, for it was Zbigniew Brzezinski who did a yeoman's job in the financing of the mujahideen in Afghanistan.
 
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Otm Shank

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Re: US Congressman mistakes Obama's Indian-American officials as forei

It was a comparison for the sake of discussion. Try to open your mind up.
Lets open up the discussion then.

Going by your example we see that anglo chauvinism affects more than just indos but many other communities?
 

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Re: US Congressman mistakes Obama's Indian-American officials as forei

[MENTION=13833]

I thought that American Indians being mistaken as is the real Indians!

and Indian American as still foreign!
I don't know much about Curt Clawson so it's difficult for me to pin point the underlying thought process which led to this embarrassing gaffe. Hence I'm hesitant to conclude that this had anything to do with the metastatic narrow mindedness, white superiority, and stupidity** that runs through "conservative" American politics these days.



** stupidity among consumers of conservative politics is what makes many of them think/say with a straight face that there is no white superiority behind many of their beliefs.
 

Otm Shank

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Re: US Congressman mistakes Obama's Indian-American officials as forei

" According to
Foreign Policy, Biswal and Kumar were both clearly introduced as United States officials before they began speaking. Their names and jobs also appeared on a list distributed to the lawmakers participating in the hearing."


nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/07/clawson-mistakes-us-officials-for-indian-reps.html
 

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