The College Fix

“There’s not much Indian left in Bobby Jindal.”

That’s what Pearson Cross, a political science professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette who is writing a book on the governor, told The Washington Post about Louisiana Gov. Jindal, a Republican running for president.

The shocking statement has prompted many to weigh in on its inappropriateness.

National Review’s Jim Geraghty, in his “Morning Jolt” newsletter, included a picture of Cross, who is white, with snippets from his bio: “‘Dr. Cross advises the College Democrats and is chair of the Constitution Day Committee.’ No word on what credentials he has as the Indian-American Authenticity Police.”

And in a post in National Review, Mark Wright delved further into this apparent belief on the Left that Jindal is not Indian, or something:

The Post’s thesis: “Jindal’s status as a conservative of color helped propel his meteoric rise in the Republican Party,” but “many see him as a man who has spent a lifetime distancing himself from his Indian roots.” Jindal’s sins are grave: He’s a Catholic convert from Hinduism, as a young child he chose to be called “Bobby” after the youngest of the Brady Bunch, growing up he “ate food that would be familiar to other families in south Louisiana,” and — as his political clout has grown — he has expanded his donor base from a core group of Indian Americans to the wider conservative movement.

As Noah Rothman points out in Commentary, the Left just doesn’t get it: “[T]here is little evidence that Jindal is ashamed of his ethnic background so much as he is proud of his American heritage and profoundly thankful for the sacrifices his parents made in order to ensure that he could call himself an American.”

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