A Racist Poem, Dinesh D'Souza, and Expressions: The Early Activities of the South Asian Student Association

“When I arrived [at William and Mary], I really liked the school. [But]...it struck me how few people there were like me…It was like more pronounced that I was different. There weren't that many people that looked like me.”

At the time, the lack of diversity didn’t seem to bother Abita. She recalled that she was able to make friends with her freshman hallmates in Barrett 1W, regardless of race or ethnicity. However, discussions regarding race and diversity weren’t commonplace back then. Abita recalls how this may have impacted her during her time at W&M.

“One thing looking back that I regret so much was, we all had hallway T-shirts made of 1W Barrett. And each person had to put an image [on the shirt] that represented you. 

“So I don't know, I don't know how the joke started or anything, but someone must have asked me, ‘Do you eat meat?’ 

“And I'm like, ‘Yeah, I meat.’ I guess they had this preconceived notion that Indians don't eat meat and that they worship a cow. 

“So it became like this running joke about how Indians worship cows. It wasn't like serious or malicious or anything, but just that phrasing stuck. And then so my image on that T-shirt was a cow. So now looking back, I'm like, I would not have ever let that happen. So, I feel bad I didn't speak up back then. But, I don't know. I don't know how I could have done it differently.”

To Abita, creating ICA helped foster inclusivity at W&M and ameliorate harmful stereotypes about Indian and South Asian individuals. 

“I thought to myself, UVA had one, so why is not here? I felt like I was creating something for the college that was lacking.”

Summerville’s poem portrays harmful stereotypes about Indian immigrants while also objectifying women. 

Summerville portrays Aboo in a grossly stereotypical way—catching his “turban in the airfield gates,” arriving in America “with only a sackful of curry in hand,” and with “just the ability to weave cloth and cook goat.” 

Summerville also describes Aboo as an immigrant looking to freeload off of United States’ welfare and while picking up white women, stating that Aboo is searching for “Harry Truman’s Free Lunch” and “girls with faces of peaches and cream.” Furthermore, by stating that Aboo is hoping to have a “tall blonde who’ll try on the Dot” and a “big-breasted bride…[who is] stupid and lacking in pride,” Summerville simultaneously insinuates that immigrants are only in search of welfare and white women, while also criticizing white women in interracial relationships.

Summerville’s poem dehumanizes immigrants, specifically Indian men, and also insults working-class people as if those who make their livings as janitors and other “essential workers” don’t deserve respect or worth.

Abita Sachdev '93 and Raxa Desai '92, founders of ICA, published an eloquent retort to Bruce Summerville’s poem, “Ode to Aboo,” expressing their disagreement with Summerville’s racist and xenophobic message. Their “Attack is xenophobic” letter to the editor was published in the Flathat on March 27, 1992.

Sachdev and Desai state that Summerville’s poem is not funny, “but rather a mere mockery of a race of people.” 

They argue that Summerville’s portrayal of Aboo is “based upon a twisted exaggeration and an erroneous portrayal of Indians as opportunistic, greedy immigrants who flee a country of despair and envision stripping America of its wealth while picking up big-breasted blondes in the process.”

However, while it should be noted that their retort still inadvertently suggests that “cleaning toilets for a living” is something to be disparaged, Sachdev and Desai do an excellent job speaking out against Summerville’s problematic portrayal of Indian immigrants.

However, in “Hypersensitivity on the rise,” Matthew Gillen defends Summerville’s poem, as he writes, 

“Could it be that students at the College have lost their sense of humor? Are they wiling to give up their constitutional right to free speech for fear of offending someone...The poem about Hindus was in a magazine that freely admits to wanting to annoy as many people as possible. It was humor.” 

These two conflicting perspectives—the perspectives of ICA members compared with Matthew Gillen’s—illustrate the ideological landscape of W&M students in 1992. Racism and ignorance were openly accepted under “freedom of speech,” while marginalized students had to repeatedly assert their belonging and defend their cultural practices.