Why I cringe at the word browntown

 Browntown - adj., noun, All South Asian everything
(No, you’re not smart and this isn’t a Lupe reference)

“… browntown. Yeah, it’s easy to get sucked into that.”

At this point in my life, a majority of my friends are South Asian, and I’m still trying to piece together how it became this way.  It doesn’t take long to stalk me on Facebook and realize that there is a large South Asian community presence on my profile.  Almost instantly this makes me browntown.  But, what’s wrong with that? After all, I did choose my own friends.  I made conscious decisions to involve myself in a community and prioritize certain relationships.  Do I regret it? No. Do I wish I wasn’t considered browntown? Yes.

“Before I met you, I thought you were so browntown!” -XX

Jackpot.  Before he met me, he thought I was so browntown. Here’s what I think he believed was true about me:

• I hang out with many South Asians
• I usually only talk about South Asian people, places and things
• I only hook up with South Asians
• I only date South Asians
• I only want to make new friends if they are South Asian
• I watch Hindi movies and talk about my immigrant family all the time
• I’m probably a bio or econ major

Well, only one of those statements really applies to me.  And even if they all applied to me, I don’t need the label.  The second you’re defined by the word browntown is the second that people think they know you.  Just another browntown person.  “The brown kids who hang out with each other are all the same!” Well we’re not all alike, and we’re not all friends.

But my main problem with this word goes beyond your average don’t-label-me lecture. For society, the negative contexts with this word are endless.  To the student masses, being associated with Browntown could mean that you’re boring, socially awkward, or fobby. I’ve witnessed fellow South Asians making active efforts to stay away from “browntown” and mocking it instead. I’ve witnessed South Asians deciding whether they want to “go Greek” or “go browntown” (because God forbid these groups be a little less institutionalized). And, it’s not just the college scene I’m worried about.  I’ve witnessed groups of South Asians getting rejected at bars. If a bar has met its diversity quota for the night, browntown ain’t gonna be allowed in. Why does this concept carry such a stigma?  What is it about a group of South Asian friends that screams: WE LOVE ONLY ASSOCIATING WITH PEOPLE OF THE SAME SKIN COLOR!

But that’s just it— a group of South Asian friends is nothing more than a group of South Asian friends. How and why their friendships were formed is unknown.  Who and what they associate with is unspecified. It doesn’t matter that a South Asian arrived at your party with other South Asian friends.  They’re not “the brown girls crew.” They are not looking to keep to themselves, and they are not trying to exclusively capitalize on their 'exotic' brownness.  They have opinions, they are funny, they are cultured, and they are Americans.

Years ago, Americans learned to look beyond a person’s skin color when creating friendships. If we’re not following the same logic for a larger group, then we’re taking two steps backward. It’s time to look past the fact that some friends share the same skin color and stop writing them off as unapproachable. So don’t tell me I’m browntown because of my friends.  Call us by our names.  Call us your friends.

Note: I cringed all 16 times I typed the word browntown here.