Unruly Immigrants

In Das Gupta’s Unruly Immigrants, one point that I found extremely intriguing was this idea of how important a name can be to a group. On pages 168-171 she focuses on group of people to prove her point, this group is the gay and lesbian community. Gupta explains how names and labels are different depending on where the person being labeled lives, where they are from, or what they were brought up to think about certain ideas and terms. This is especially important in the gay community because of the diversity of people who consider themselves homosexual. As Gupta writes, not every gay and lesbian consider the idea of homosexual as what another gay or lesbian would. She explains how some consider the term to refer to their sexual life; some on how they perceive the world around them, and some do not consider themselves homosexual even if they have sexual relations with people of the same gender. Because of these glaring differences in opinion in the gay and lesbian community, it is very hard for a global group to pick a name that would encompass all the members to their liking. Even though the gay and lesbian community is considered a minority group that is seeking equal rights and other ideals they believe they deserve, it is hard for them to unite under one banner because of the vast amount differences they seem to have amongst them. These are the reasons it seems that Gupta is so interested in this group when it comes to the importance of a name to a minority group. She interviews a few members of different gay and lesbian groups that overall have many similarities but the differences keep them in separate groups. On this issue Gupta says “The issue of naming bears on a lively debate about the globalization of gay and lesbian identities. While some scholars argue that globalization has facilitated the currency in the South of originally Northern sexual identities (“gay” and “lesbian”) and has sparked sexuality-based liberation in that region, others contest the universalization of these categories to ask what they can encompass and what happens when sexual identities and politics flow in the reverse direction… (168)” In this excerpt Gupta tries to communicate her ideas on how others perceive the critical role a name and the globalization of that name play on the groups ability to attain the rights the people of that group desire. I have a very hard time agreeing with the idea that a name and a universality of a group can be detrimental to the goals of that group. It seems like throughout history there are countless examples of how people who are oppressed are able to set aside their differences and come together to fight for one common goal; and these examples are almost always of the groups that are successful at attaining what they had originally desired. Overall, it would be hypocritically or “selling out” to put a name on a group that would simply enhance numbers, however in the world we live in today it seems like numbers talk. Therefore, even though a name may not be completely culturally accurate or exactly what every member wants, if it helps achieve the ultimate goal, it is probably worth the sacrifice.