The Scripps National Spelling Bee has a new winner. 12 year old Ananya Vinay. Another Indian American. That’s not news anymore.
But Ananya Vinay’s victory made news outside the spelling beehive for a different reason.
It’s easy to call out racism that’s angry and tells you to go back to your own country. It’s much trickier when it comes with a patronizing smile but still assumes that you are really, in some essential way, from another country.