ABCD: American Born Confused Desi

On this episode, I interview Sree, one of the four co-founders of SASMHA (South Asian Sexual & Mental Health Alliance). This organization created a popular Instagram account @southasiansmh which made a post that stated "If you are Desi American and your family immigrated here after 1965, you owe that to the Civil Rights Movement". In this interview, we explore how Desi Americans benefited from the Civil Rights movements and address anti-blackness in the South Asian community. At the end of the episode, we discuss how we can speak out about these topics and facilitate difficult conversations with our family and friends. SASMHA Anti-Blackness & BLM Resources: https://www.sasmha.org/blm-resources [https://www.sasmha.org/blm-resources] SASMHA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/southasiansmh/?hl=en [https://www.instagram.com/southasiansmh/?hl=en]

This episode explores the origins of colorism in Indian culture. Colorism is the discrimination of darker skin tones within the same racial group. I explain how skin tones were perceived in Ancient India and during British colonial rule. I interviewed Pratyusha Pilla, a medical student who presented a TEDx speech about colorism in 2016 and the winner of Miss Austin in 2018. I also feature Swarnaa Rajalingam, a colorism advocate based in Sydney, Australia. You can follow her on Instagram @thelifeofasocialbutterfly to learn more about her work!

Indian-Americans are a product of their surroundings and the rich culture and heritage of their ancestry. Sometimes we struggle to find a balance between our Indian and American identities. In this episode, I explain the historical context of the Indian-American identity and share the struggles of understanding and accepting our culture.

I’m Upasana Prabhu, a student based in Austin, Texas! I’m creating a new podcast series that focuses on Indian-American experiences. Sometimes Indian-Americans are called ABCDs and are labeled as confused. My goal for this podcast series is to make the Indian-American experience less confusing for young people!