https://indianpedia.org/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=American-Born_Confused_DesiAmerican-Born Confused Desi - Revision history2026-07-31T23:30:00ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.45.4https://indianpedia.org/index.php?title=American-Born_Confused_Desi&diff=85758&oldid=prev>Sideriver84 at 07:39, 15 April 20212021-04-15T07:39:23Z<p></p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{short description|Cultural slang}}<br />
{{For|the Indian film|ABCD: American-Born Confused Desi}}<br />
"'''American-Born Confused Desi'''" ("'''ABCD'''") is a term used to refer to [[South Asian Americans]] born or raised in the [[United States]], in contrast to those who were born overseas and later settled in the USA.<ref>Radhakrishnan, Rajagopalan, "Diaspora, Hybridity, Pedagogy", ''Peripheral Centres, Central Peripheries'' (ed. Ghosh-Schellhorn, Martina & Alexander, Vera), page 116, LIT Verlag Berlin-Hamburg-Münster, 2006, {{ISBN|3-8258-9210-7}}</ref><br />
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==Neologism==<br />
{{See also|Bangladeshi American|Indian American|Pakistani American}}<br />
"ABCD" or "American-Born Confused [[Desi]]" has become a polarizing factor in the South Asian diaspora in the US, with first-generation immigrant parents and young South Asians of second or later generations.<ref>Airriess, Christopher A., ''Contemporary Ethnic Geographies in America'', page 287, Rowman & Littlefield, 2007, {{ISBN|0-7425-3772-2}}</ref> Though the term was originally coined in reference to Indian-Americans, it has been adopted by the South Asian community at large. The term "[[desi]]" comes from the [[Hindi]] word {{lang|hi|देश}} ({{lang|hi-Latn|deś}}, {{lit|homeland}}). The word has its origin in [[Sanskrit]], {{IAST|deśa}}, and is pronounced ''desh'' in the [[Bengali language]]. "Desi" means "of the homeland" and denotes anything or anyone from South Asia. The term has been commonly known since at least the 1980s. The term "confused" is used to describe the psychological state of many second-generation South Asian Americans who struggle to balance values and traditions taught at home with attitudes and practices that are more conducive to the majority white culture.<br />
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The longer and lesser known form "American Born Confused [[Desi]], Emigrated From [[Gujarat]], House In [[New Jersey|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".<ref>{{Citation|last=Das|first=Diya|title=The Evolution of an Identity: Indian American Immigrants from the Early 20th Century to the Present|publisher=Tribute Books|year=2007|isbn=0-9795045-6-2|page=60}}</ref> The former version of the A—Z expansion was proposed by South Asian immigrants as a reaction to the latter version that derogated them.<ref>Mitra Kalita, S., ''Suburban Sahibs'', page 13, Rutgers University Press, 2005, {{ISBN|0-8135-3665-0}}</ref><br />
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Coconuts is also a term used which basically refers to people who are "white from the inside and brown from the outside".<br />
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==Cultural implications==<br />
Among [[Asian American|South Asian Americans]], the term may be considered divisive, as [[Immigrant generations|first generation]] South Asian Americans use it to criticize the [[Americanization (immigration)|Americanization]] and lack of belonging to either Indian Asian or American culture they perceive in their second-generation peers or children.<ref>{{cite book |title=Contemporary Ethnic Geographies in America |editor=Ines Miyares |editor2=Christopher A. Airriess |chapter=Asian Indians and the Construction of Community and Identity |publisher=Rowman and Littlefield |page=287 |last=Skop |first=Emily |isbn=0-7425-3772-2}}</ref> 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.".<ref>{{citation|title=The Karma of Brown Folk|last=Prashad|first=Vijay|page=131|publisher=University of Minnesota Press|year=2000|isbn=0-8166-3439-4}}</ref><br />
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==Movies==<br />
The term American-Born Confused Desi first appeared in the movie ''[[American Desi]]'' (2001). ''[[ABCD: American-Born Confused Desi (film)|ABCD: American-Born Confused Desi]]'' is a 2013 [[Malayalam]] language movie released in India. The film narrates the journey of two young American Malayalees to their motherland, [[Kerala]], with the title based on the term "American-Born Confused Desi".<br />
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==See also==<br />
*[[American-born Chinese]] (ABC)<br />
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==References==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
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==Further reading==<br />
*{{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|access-date=2008-04-17}}<br />
*{{citation|last=Hidier|first=Tanuja Desai|title=Born Confused|publication-place=New York|publisher=Scholastic Press|year=2002|isbn=0-439-35762-4}}<br />
*{{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|access-date=2008-04-17}}<br />
*{{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|access-date=2008-04-17 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070928122337/http://www.sapnamagazine.com/Fall06/articles/culture/f06-coconut.html |archive-date = September 28, 2007}} <br />
*{{citation|title=Humor: A distinctive way of speaking that can create cultural identity|last=Ojha|first=Ajay K.|page= 161|publisher=Journal of Intercultural Communication Research|id=Vol. 32, No. 3, September 2003.}}<br />
*{{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|access-date=2008-04-17|doi=10.1353/nar.2008.0002}}<br />
*{{citation|last=George|first=Sam|title=Understanding the Coconut Generation|date=May 2006|url=http://www.CoconutGeneration.com}}<br />
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{{Ethnic slurs}}<br />
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[[Category:Indian diaspora in the United States]]<br />
[[Category:Pakistani diaspora in the United States]]<br />
[[Category:Ethnic and religious slurs]]<br />
[[Category:Pejorative terms for people]]<br />
[[Category:Asian-American issues]]<br />
[[Category:Human migration]]<br />
[[Category:Cultural generations]]<br />
[[Category:South Asian American]]<br />
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[[rmy:ABCD]]</div>>Sideriver84