I’m not gonna lie, I only really started using Reddit so I could ask people in India questions about stuff I was curious about, but when saw that there’s a subreddit for Indian-Americans, I was excited since I thought it would be a funny/relatable space like “brown tiktok.”

Instead, it feels like I’ve stepped into some sort of parallel dimension every time I scroll through this subreddit. Like 9 out of 10 posts aren’t relatable at all to me, and I doubt they’d be relatable to any of the Indian-Americans I know irl.

I don’t want to minimize anyone’s lived experiences, of course, but can you guys seriously relate to the stuff you see here? Like I see a post about the caste system every other day. As an Indian-American, I’ve never heard the caste system being brought up even once in my life. I have no clue what caste I am, my parents never brought it up, I have no clue what caste my brown friends and girlfriend are. It’s pretty much nonexistent for me and the brown people I know irl, but you’ll have people on here talking about it as if it’s some huge issue.

Another one is arranged marriages. I saw a post the other day where people were saying that arranged marriages are common among Indian-Americans, which absolutely shocked me. In my entire brown social circle, I’ve only known 2 Indian-Americans who’ve gotten an arranged marriage, and it was because both of them were in their early 30s and had had little luck with dating. Everybody else I know got into a relationship in the normal way.

There’s also posts about colorism. Again, this is one of those things I’ve never seen being relevant to Indian-Americans. None of the brown people I know irl have ever mentioned or cared about skin color, and if any type of colorism does exist, it’s the American kind, where the Indian-Americans I know prefer tanned/darker skinned girls and guys.

Again, I don’t want to minimize anyone’s experiences, and these may be real issues for many people on here, but they don’t really exist for me as a college aged Indian-American who grew up in a town with a large Indian population and had a good number of brown friends growing up. Can anyone else relate?

Edit: I’m referring exclusively to 2nd Gen Indian-Americans when I talk about this stuff. I know that caste and colorism are a big thing for many Indian immigrants, but I’ve never seen an Indian-American caring about all this.

I have encountered so many desis in the US whose family lived in either South Africa or East Africa before migrating to the US. Dozens. I recognize them as fellow desis either on sight, by name, by context (we’re in a cultural or religious environment full of desis) and sometimes I ask to double check. Something along the lines of “Oh, are you also Indian/Desi?”, as a way to try to connect, or I hear someone else ask them their background and almost every single time they say they’re from South Africa or East Africa (never naming the country in the latter case, don’t know why).

Absolutely nothing wrong with that, I can understand why they would identify with a country they lived in/grew up in/their family lived in for a long time. But they won’t actually answer the question. They are also Indian. Culturally and ethnically they are from a South Asian ethnic background. 100% Indian on both sides of the family. Their family just migrated elsewhere before they migrated to the US (Not talking about anyone mixed). I’ve been able to clear this up in many instances later. I was doing a program with a cohort of people and this other desi woman literally exclusively introduced herself as East African to us. To me, it’s misleading..

I don’t get why no one can just say “Oh, yeah, my family is from South Africa, but that’s right, culturally/ethnically we’re originally from India.” Or “I’m East African by way of India” for another way to say it.

They seem to go out of their way to avoid saying so, even when asked directly by another desi person. It happened again today and I’m reminded of how odd it is. Why is this a thing?

Edit to add: I think having multiple cultures/identities is enriching and should be celebrated and acknowledged. That’s why I’m asking if there’s a reason for the avoidance. I personally find it misleading, but I would be loathe to tell anyone how to identify, to be clear. If someone is not acknowledging that we share some roots, which seems fairly obvious, I want to know the reason for that. To all the people saying it’s not your business how people identify: Really? I’m not supposed to care what people are communicating to me? People can identify however, doesn’t mean others can’t be curious about it. It’s all a part of communication, guys. if they really have a problem with being considered Indian or Desi I want to know why to avoid offending them, but not if it’s just some internalized racism

What are your thoughts on this? I’m typically left leaning but to me it’s a hopeful welcome change to lower immigration for now, especially among tech workers. Thoughts?

Were Sikhs counted as a distinct detailed group in the 2020 Census?

Yes, Sikhs were counted as a distinct detailed group in the 2020 Census. The U.S. Census Bureau made considerable updates to the race and ethnicity code list for the 2020 Census based on extensive research and outreach over the past decade. “Sikh” was included as a distinct detailed population group within the “Asian” racial category, and not classified as “Asian Indian” as it was in the 2010 Census when it was viewed as a religious response.  

I’ve heard this silly argument and others often in reply to abcdesis who think it’s weird this community somehow changed to ‘abroad based confused desis’.

“They don’t think you’re any different from Indians, why do you want to feel exclusive’

Ok, 1. Who cares what ‘they’ think I am 2, there’s so many reasons why desis in the US would want their own sub, one being maybe we’d have more local content relevant to us as American Desis instead of being overrun by non American issues that get way more visibility and bury the former. 3. Please go to therapy for that insecurity complex, noone is actively trying to exclude you from anything, we just want threads and content that cater to us and our way of thinking. This has nothing do with white people. Shit, I’m fucking tired of hearing about Canada.

I don’t mean offense to Canadian desis, but this sub used to be catered to us and slowly, over time it was understood that UK born desis and Canadian born desis were similar enough because of our shared values such as the giving of lesser fucks about dumb ‘India vs Pakistan’ Muslim Hindu tribal bullshit. But now, the Candian clownery is too much, what the fuck is this entire front page. Student visas, meal fraud, Surrey, Brampton. Holy fuck make it stop, I’m tired of learning this dumb Canadian shit.

And now, in the middle of all this Canadian bullshit, we suddenly became more catch-all licatch-all than r/NRI.’ this subreddit is for ALL people of South Asian heritage who have migrated away from South Asia, no matter how many generations ago.‘

Ok, so what is the purpose of this sub then? Who decided this? Who is this really for? Why do you want so much to take over this subreddit? I just feel it impossible to connect with, like, 70% of this sub and I know a lot of american born/raised (or at least anglo born) desis feel the same way. This sub should be filled with niche things pertaining to us but now, it’s the same song and dance you can find on r/india or r/canadianhousing.

Edit: I was banned for not providing ‘proof’ of my claim that I’ve been on this sub for nearly 15 years. Apparently, this is a ban worthy offense to delete old accounts and post from new ones, or to make claims that are hard to verify. But turns out I remember an account I used 9 years ago that’s still active, and I sent it to the mods.

Racism towards indians is definitely prevalent on most platforms, and apart from X I use most of them. I find it easier to avoid on other platforms personally because the algorithm just does not show me the racist content, while in reddit it is never totally avoidable on any subreddit (although instagram and youtube probably have much more racist content, my algorithm just does not show it to me).

But even then, what I have noticed is that ABCDs on other platforms run the gamut from being completely self loathing to being more or less fine. There are also many more south asian content creators on other apps who are fine with being south asian, whilst here on reddit any time I see an ABCD or indian posting outside this subreddit (and including this subreddit to an extent) it is just filled with self loathing. I'm not saying this does not occur on other platforms, but reddit in particular seems to just be self loathing and not much else. Even insta with all its racism has normal indians. I don't really understand why.

I understand the recent influx of immigrants has changed the characteristics of AbCD culture but constant insults thrown about being white washed, bootlicker for not yearning for India, not knowing ‘culture’, getting told your citizenship doesn’t mean anything, that we’re ‘larping’ if caste isn’t a big part of our identity, that your identity is completely worthless and you’re just like everyone else from a place you never even grew up in, are just flat out abusive.

I understand you don’t want to assimilate, feel like you’re being colonized or whatever but man, don’t go around shitting on people who had no other choice or even CHOSE to do so.

This was supposed to be a safe space for us, what the fuck?

Specifically chose r/canada to post from for the 🍿

But this was on all of the Canada based subs I follow. I don’t know how long Diab will last for. Libs are only winning because PP is so unlikable.

Just by going through their likes I’ve found multiple peoples LinkedIn. They’re real people liking this hate.

All we can do is sit back and get discriminated against constantly.

You can get these right wing creators' YouTube videos taken down. I did this once before with another major right wing creator, but it's hard since YouTube doesnt consistently do anything about it.

There's a difference between someone making a documentary, and someone snidely seeding xenophobia and racism, as this guy is doing throughout the video.

The key is to find the most objectionable parts of the video and report those timestamps, stating that they blatantly go against Youtube's rules.

I haven't seen the full video, but reporting at the following timestamps should help:

44:30-44:35- blatant racist charicatures

44:52-45:04- blatantly racist charicature content

46:35- filming people in a private company while they're openly stating they don't want to be recorded

54:27- racist disinformation- he states there's an "India-fication of America"- blatantly inciting xenophobic stereotypes which have zero basis in reality.

56:33- They're pretending to do official audits of random IT employees, entering their homes, and filming their personal living spaces without their consent.

56:45- They interviewed this man and posted his exact apartment address right in the video along with his exact salary. This is major, they're actually doxxing the guy they're interviewing.

(wtf!! ^ )

1:07:46- Oliveira refers to a Mexican female as "a torta", a rude slang term for an overweight short Latin woman.

1:11:24- The interviewee blatantly states "Any of those guys that are simping for the Indians or the immigration lawyers, f*** you, this is America this is my nation, this is my kids inheritance, f*** you". This is an incredibly racist and xenophobic series of remarks. It's explicitly targeting an entire racial group.

Feel free to give other timestamps in the comments if there are others.

Side question: Do you call your SO babe?

Edit: god damn this is a good thread. I even woke the lurkers up. Lmao. Thanks for replying everyone

Like is this subreddit representative of how indian americans think, for example? What are the similarities/differences between this and real life?

While watching an interview discussing Charlie Kirk, they mentioned how the Shillman Foundation was paying him $2 million a year to push their right wing / xenophobic talking points, and then just before he was unalived they cut him from the contract since he stopped being compliant. Here's more information on that: https://thegrayzone.com/2025/09/22/israel-tpusa-donor-terminated-kirk/

Looking into the Shillman Foundation, they fund several major right wing figures: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_J._Shillman Including Tommy Robinson (major right wing figure behind the anti-Desi UK riots), Katie Hopkins, Laura Loomer, Geert Wilders (Dutch) etc.

These people repeat the talking points they're told to repeat by this organization. This is how they make their money. Looking into their talking points, they're solidly anti immigrant, anti Desi, anti middle Eastern, and all of these are linked directly to these organizations paying them in the background.

It's important that people, specifically South Asians, discuss this and are aware of it. Being visible minorities, the Desi community is affected directly by anti-immigrant rhetoric. The organizations spewing this hateful rhetoric should face lawsuits for the shit they're pushing.

https://observer.co.uk/news/national/article/us-cash-turned-tommy-robinson-into-the-poster-boy-of-uk-far-right

https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/43511089/202333129349101308/full

I'm Indian and I've had this combination since I was a toddler and my skin darkened, bronze-brown type 4/5 color skin + green & gold/amber multicolor eyes (green base with ring and flecks of gold/yellow/amber) Its a warm yet striking contrast at the same time, and people been complimenting me my whole life for it. I never got people asking if they're fake though, which is something I hear people with dark skin and light eyes talking about. I think it's because they're multicolor and since light eyes naturally look a little different with Indian genetics. The standard European or Middle Eastern light eyes with type 1 to 3 color skin tend to be a specific shade/color. Best way I can describe it is emerald green and hazel/chocolate compared to the sea green, yellow, amber counterparts in South Asian populations. But the rare occasions when South Asians have blue or silver eyes they look the same color as the ones Europeans and Eurasians have.

Looking up dark skin and light eyes most of the people I see are Black American or South Asian with some darker Middle Easterners. Seems like a lot of them are Rajasthani specifically. I was wondering what percentage of South Asia you think has this phenotype, and approximately how many people. Using Claude I got an estimate of around 7% of India having eye color ranging from light brown/hazel to blue/grey. And 3% having type 4-6 color skin with any shade of light eyes. Which is about 44 million people. I also found a fact that Pakistan might have the highest percentage of amber eye colored people in the world. Does that sound accurate?

Particularly for those who are 2nd and 3rd generation, with family from India.

South, North. Hindu, Muslim. Sanskrit, you name it.

What traditions do you have?

What annoys you about typical representation in Western media?

Music, movies, books. Anything you can give me. I’m trying to write a book featuring a family.

r/Canada is having a great day today. Here’s the next one 🍿

I've been noticing very suspicious comments from accounts with a lot of karma but all their profile history hidden parroting Hindu nationalist talking points and those comments getting upvoted. Has anyone else been noticing this? They say statements very anti-muslim and somehow it is close to the top comment on almost every single post. Very India centric and talks down on any non-Indian issue like Bangledeshi or Pakistani ABCDs.

Makes me think that the BJP IT cell might have its fingers in this community.