American-Born Confused Desi

American-Born Confused Desi, or ABCD for short is a term used to refer to Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi Americans born in the United States, in contrast to those who were born overseas and later settled there. The longer form "American Born Confused Desi, Emigrated From Gujarat, House In Jersey" is also occasionally seen; playing on the alphabet theme, it has been expanded for K-Z variously as "Kids Learning Medicine, Now Owning Property, Quite Reasonable Salary, Two Uncles Visiting, White Xenophobia, Yet Zestful" or "Keeping Lotsa Motels, Named Omkarnath Patel, Quickly Reaching Success Through Underhanded Vicious Ways, Xenophobic Yet Zestful". [cite book|last=Das|first=Diya|title=The Evolution of an Identity: Indian American Immigrants from the Early 20th Century to the Present|publisher=Tribute Books|date=2007|id=ISBN 0979504562|pages=60] Among Indian Americans, the term may be considered divisive, as first generation Indian Americans use it to criticize the Americanization and lack of belonging to either Indian or American culture they perceive in their second-generation peers or children. [cite conference|booktitle=Contemporary Ethnic Geographies in America|editors=Ines Miyares, Christopher A. Airriess|title=Asian Indians and the Construction of Community and Identity|publisher=Rowman and Littlefield|pages=287|last=Skop|first=Emily|id=ISBN 0742537722] Writer Vijay Prashad describes the term as "ponderous and overused" and notes it as one of the mechanisms by which new migrants attempt to make second-generation youth feel "culturally inadequate and unfinished." [citation|title=The Karma of Brown Folk|last=Prashad|first=Vijay|page=131|publisher=University of Minnesota Press|date=2000|isbn=0816634394]

References

Notes

Confused Americanized Deshi (CAD) is a related term, which refers to people of Pakisani, Indian and Bangladeshi origin who are both and living in the subcontinent but tends to follow western lifestyle and values.

Further reading

*citation|last=V.|first=Smitha|title=ABCDs: American Born Confused Desis|date=2002-03-05|periodical=Boloji.com|url=http://www.boloji.com/teens/articles/00317.htm|accessdate=2008-04-17
*citation|last=Hidier|first=Tanuja Desai|title=Born Confused|publication-place=New York|publisher=Scholastic Press|date=2002|id=ISBN 0439357624
*citation|last=Kurella|first=Vidya|title=From Confused to Confident: How do you say your name?|date=April 2005|periodical=ABCDlady: A Magazine for the American Born Confident Desi|url=http://www.abcdlady.com/2005-02/art6.php|accessdate=2008-04-17
*citation|last=Hoque|first=Maher|title=A Former Coconut's Guide to Getting Cultured|date=Fall 2006|periodical=Sapna Magazine Online|url=http://sapnamagazine.com/Fall06/articles/culture/f06-coconut.html|accessdate=2008-04-17
*citation|last=Souter|first=Kay|last2=Raja|first2=Ira|title=Mothering Siblings: Diaspora, Desire and Identity in American Born Confused Desi|journal=Narrative|volume=16|issue=1|date=January 2008|pages=16-28|url=http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/narrative/v016/16.1souter.pdf|publisher=The Ohio State University Press|accessdate=2008-04-17
*citation|last=George|first=Sam|title=Understanding the Coconut Generation|date=2006 May|url=http://www.CoconutGeneration.com
*citation|Last=Kumar|first=Satym|title=MyDesiIshq.com A place for Indian-Americans to meet.|date=2008 June|url=http://www.mydesiishq.com