Acts of “Desicreation”: Urban Space and South Asian American Identity in Tanuja Desai Hidier’s Born Confused

Abstract

Saris, mendhi, and bindi¹—pop-culture icons Madonna and Gwen Stefani transformed these aspects of traditional Indian women’s culture into edgy, mainstream fashions available to all in trendy stores like Urban Outfitters and Target.² But does mainstream America know any more about South Asian Americans beyond the character “Apu,” the convenience store owner on “The Simpsons”? According to the U.S. Census, South Asian Americans comprise 1.9 million of the 13–1 million Asian Americans in the United States today³ South Asian communities have existed in the United States since the nineteenth century, yet despite being the third largest Asian ethnic group in the United States (behind Chinese and Filipino Americans, respectively),⁵ South Asian Americans are largely invisible to mainstream America and are marginalized within current constructions of contemporary Asian America itself. Indeed, the rash of hate crimes that this community experienced—particularly Sikh Americans—post-9/11 clearly demonstrate how little the United States knows about the South Asian American. Stereotyped as “model minorities,” “unas- similable aliens,” and now terrorist threats, South Asian Americans remain simultaneously invisible yet hypervisible.⁷ Not surprisingly, South Asian American representation in contemporary children’s literature reflects these same realities.