Rina Shah: Part 1

Republican Strategist
Founding member of the Indian American Conservative Council

Bonnie Erbe, host of the PBS show To the Contrary had her usual panel of women discussing politics today. Here is the full video.

Below is her panel, with a short bio for each member.

To her right, Erbe has put:

1. Avis Jones-DeWeever



DeWeever starts her argument with:

Any time you find that in every city in this nation African Americans are much more likely than whites to live in areas where there are high concentrations of air toxins, I don't think there can be anything but [environmental racism].

And later on:

People who are more well-endowed economically are better able to lobby for themselves and for their neighborhoods to be able to say, "not in my backyard." But for people who are more economically vulnerable, who are disproportionately people of color, it's harder to have that same sort of political might to protect their neighborhoods in that way. And so as a result you end up with in situation where you do have high concentration of people of color who are economically vulnerable and environmentally vulnerable.

Erbe presses her with:

But is that more a matter of race or of class? Because there are surely plenty of poor white people living in those neigbhourhoods as well as we saw in that explosion with that plant in Texas, fertilizer plant. There were plenty of white people living right near that plant.

Weever:

That is true. But there's a lot of studies that suggest that even when you take out the economic factor and hold that constant, race still seems to be a driving force behind who tends to be more vulnerable in terms of being physically closer to different environmental hazards...

Writer. Speaker. Change Agent. Avis Jones-DeWeever Ph.D. is an authority on race, gender, the economy, and issues of privilege, power, and policy in the U.S. She is the author of numerous publications focused on policy issues of particular importance to women and the African American community. [Source: New Visions: New Voices]

Jones-DeWeever is introduced as Dr. Avis Jones-DeWeever on Erbe's show. As soon as I saw that, I wondered if this PhD (she is clearly no medical doctor) earned her title with a degree in sociology or education. Here is her doctoral qualification:

Dr. Jones-DeWeever received her Ph.D. in Government and Politics from the University of Maryland.

More information here:

Avis recently defended her dissertation which assessed three universities' post-affirmative action strategies. Guy's dissertation examined the influence of black state legislators on welfare reform implementation.

Yes, I was right. Education, or at least, the discrimination in education against blacks.

Here is some background on her dissertation thesis, and on her academic career:

[T]his dissertation assesses student opinion concerning the issue of affirmative action in higher education and examines the post-affirmative action realities experienced by three major institutions: the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Texas at Austin, and the University of Maryland, College Park. [Avis Jones-DeWeever's] research is funded by the Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship...In addition to her extensive research experience, Avis has also served as an Adjunct Professor at Bowie State University where she taught an upper-level undergraduate course in Urban Politics and Policy Analysis. Her current teaching and research interests include the following: The Politics of Education; American Welfare State; Urban Politics; Black Politics; Public Policy; Political Economy; Political Psychology; Critical Race Theory; Race, Class, and Gender Influences on Public Opinion and Political Behavior; and Survey Research Methods.

2. Amanda Terkel:



Terkel introduces her approach to the topic with:

Studies have shown that environmental policies affect people with economic, gender, racial disparities and more attention needs to be paid to that.

She seems as militant as DeWeever. Later on in the show she says:

Minority communities often tend to be more in poverty than white communities,and people who are poorer tend to have less of a voice, whether it is to lobby Washington or if there is a plant going up in their town nearby. Who's going to complain? Are they going to go Washington, lobby and complain? Are they going to be able to get in the media?...You're not going to hear from those people, and that's why a lot of times lets put something there because it's an open space, no-one there is going to complain...And a lot of these people are affected more too because they already do not have enough access to health care, for example. So these changes in the climate, these toxic plants that are going up will affect them more.

The perfect spokesman for Obama, and in a disjointed, garbled way where climate change gets lumped with toxic plants, the voiceless, and impoverished minority groups.

I noticed as she talked she kept referring to "these people." She means of course blacks. They are clearly not "her" people, and her lobby for them seems purely for a political agenda rather than to help blacks.

Another thought that has occurred to me is that Asians rarely identify with whites, other than for the women to marry white men, and these white men themselves have subtly abandoned their whiteness (or allied themselves with non-whites) by moving out of their racial community and marrying these non-white women. Terkel and her ilk consider themselves "minorities." Yet it is a distorted alliance. When cornered, they will admit to being more in alliance with non-whites than whites.

I tried to find out more abut Terkel. Her biography doesn't give out any information about her personal background. But Terkel is a Jewish name, and I will bet my bottom dollar that she is married to a white, liberal, Jew.

I wonder if DeWeever associates with Asians like Terkel? I doubt it. And how many blacks friends does Terkel have? None, I'll bet. So all this "speaking up" for "people with economic, gender, racial disparities" who "tend to have less of a voice" is likely a political, ant-white, agenda rather than a genuine desire to help those in real need.

Asians are becoming some of the most anti-white members of society. And I think it stems for their own inferiorities, complexes or otherwise.

To her left, Erbe has put women who have similar perspectives:

3. Jennifer Marshall



Here is information on Marchall:

Marshall collaborates with Heritage colleagues to explore how moral values and civil society relate to issues such as limited government, a strong national economy and foreign policy. One recent hallmark of her team’s efforts is “Indivisible,” a 2010 collection of essays in which prominent fiscal conservatives write on issues normally associated with social conservatives, and vice versa.

Marshall contributes a regular column on issues of faith and family to the McClatchy-Tribune news wire, placing her perspective in dozens of the nation’s best newspapers and affiliated websites. She has spoken at national and international forums, testified before Congress and appeared on numerous radio and television shows, among them C-SPAN’s premier talk show, “Washington Journal,” and PBS’ “To the Contrary.” [Source: The Heritage Foundation]

Marshall says:

Justice is about right relationships among people and the world around us, so yes, it includes proper stewardship of the environment. We need policy to put people first as the most precious and unique resource, and to inspire people to be good stewards of the environment.

4. Rina Shah



There's an interesting addition to the panel. An Indian woman is presented as: "Republican Strategist."

The fashion magazine Marie Claire has this about her:

Rina Shah, 28 Washington, D.C.
Occupation: President/founder of Rilax Strategies, Inc., a political consulting firm.

There is not much on her background, except that she grew up in West Virginia.

Here is something on her interests, which associates her with her Indian ethnic background:

Rina spent the past few years on Capitol Hill as a senior Congressional aide. A native of southern West Virginia, she has completed studies at West Virginia University and The George Washington University. Her background also includes work in TV news and as a freelance writer. She is a founding member of the Indian American Conservative Council, serves as a DC GOP Precinct Chairwoman, and is an alumna of Running Start's prestigious "Next Step" political professional development program. Rina is based in Washington, DC where she enjoys dance choreography and performance opportunities.

She is

...a founding member of the Indian American Conservative Council

And

...keeps her life-long love for dance alive via performing in a local East Indian fusion dance troupe.

Money for Lunch, a talk radio site, profiles her thus:

Rina Shah is a political strategist based in Washington, DC. She's a first-generation young Indian-American woman who was born & raised in West Virginia. Her background includes work in TV news and as freelance writer. After spending the past few years on Capitol Hill as a senior aide to two Members of Congress, she successfully launched a boutique consulting practice through which she advises on Republican congressional races across the United States. Rina delivers bi-weekly political commentary on various media outlets.

Her section (from 26:39-38:45) is worth listening to, only to see how "American" she is.

She was a

...top five finalist in the Ms. India D.C. Pageant in 2004

And she says about the pageant:

"The pageant was a truly unique experience for me. I was able to gain confidence and a renewed sense of pride in being a young Indian - American woman."

Yet she knows of this Indian identity only through her parents. Her father came to the US in 1973 to do his medical residency, and then opened his own private medical clinic in Beckley, West Virginia. She was born ten years after in 1983. It is not clear if parents were married in Indian, or if they met in the US. Her mother is listed as the secretary of Shah's medical clinic, as Hina Shah, with an Indian name. In any case, their daughter is American-born, yet like many second generation Indians of immigrant parents, her identity is tightly associated with this India that is kept alive quite probably in her home, growing up.

This is remarkably similar to another "Indian American" I wrote about here: The Daughter of Third World Immigrants, who's family background is also Indian, and who despite growing up in America, nonetheless couldn't identify with America.

This is the legacy of multicultural America, where communities are allowed, no, encouraged, to maintain their original cultural identities. Yet, the problem is bigger than cultural assimilation. What do these immigrants assimilate to? Where is the frame of reference for an Indians to live like Americans? Where are the gods, the dishes, the clothes, the music, that resemble what they consider their culture?

This is why multiculturalism is dangerous. It is subtly, imperceptibly, changing the American culture. People don't realize this since they have accepted the fundamental rightness of multiculturalism, and thus have put blinkers around their eyes hoping that things wont go too far (in usurping their culture). By the time the dust has settled, in a few short years, far shorter than anticipated, everything has changed.

I will write a more detailed post on Rina Shah, where I will include her apparently assimilated life, yet which is strongly linked to her Indian background.

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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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