Cultural Implications
Among South Asian Americans, the term may be considered divisive, as first generation South Asian Americans use it to criticize the Americanization and lack of belonging to either Indian Asian or American culture they perceive in their second-generation peers or children. Ajay K. Ojha argues that ABCD "is a distinctive way of speaking, as it is humorous among mainstream Asian Indians, but can be taken as offensive or challenging to Asian Indian Americans." Writer Vijay Prashad describes the term as "ponderous and overused" and notes it as one of the mechanisms by which new immigrants attempt to make second-generation youth feel "culturally inadequate and unfinished.". The second-generation Indians, nonetheless, have treated first-generation Indians as "unpolished" and "villager-types". These segregations on both sides have led to the term ABCD and FOB being used.
Read more about this topic: American-Born Confused Desi
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