#DesiWallofShame Targets the Trump Faithful
South Asian Americans (or desis) are well-represented in the Trump administration, and that infuriates some members of the community, which overwhelmingly supported Hillary Clinton. And so the Desi Wall of Shame was born.
The Wall in its current form includes FCC chair Ajit Pai, who helped undo net neutrality, U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, and Raj Shah, a deputy press secretary who defended the president's reported "shithole" comments about African nations.
Anirvan Chatterjee, a California activist who helped create the Desi Wall of Shame, said the campaign "touched a nerve." It's been shared thousands of times on Facebook and made waves on Twitter, too.
If there's a precedent, it would probably be comedian Hari Kondabolu's creation of a viral hashtag a couple years ago, #BobbyJindalisSoWhite.
"We are all in community together," said Chatterjee. "We're aunties, uncles and cousins together. And when somebody in your family does something that embarrasses you, it's not ridiculous to let them know, hey, 'cut that out.'"
Chatterjee compared the Desi Wall of Shame to the outrage felt by some Irish Americans when Steve Bannon was in the administration, or Jewish Americans in the case of Jared Kushner and Ivanka.
Civil rights activist Deepa Iyer also helped create the Wall of Shame. She said the wealthiest members of the South Asian community, in particular, shouldn't feel insulated from anti-immigrant policies or xenophobia.
"I think that we have a tremendous stake in being very clear: Are we going to embrace this idea that we're a model minority, or are we going to understand and stand in solidarity with other communities of color?" said Iyer.
WNYC reached out to those who've been 'shamed,' but only one responded.
"I can only debunk this absurd fake story," responded GOP fundraiser Shalabh "Shalli" Kumar in an email. His inclusion on the Wall stemmed from his organization of a Bollywood-style fundraiser for Trump in 2016.
"Sounds like a shameful story in the face of truth that the left just can not come to grips with," he wrote, "that our founding fathers developed such a beautiful democracy that prevents some from destroying the nation and America can come back."
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