another voice chimes in on how much joel stein sucks

Physician and writer Rahul K. Parikh, who normally writes about health care for CNN, responds to Joel Stein's "My Own Private Indian" column for TIME, about the large population of Indian Americans in his hometown: Column vilified, insulted Indian Americans. And Rahul calls it out for what it is -- unfunny, xenophobic and racist:

But it's clear that our consciences have been on divergent paths. I try to do just a little bit of good in the world by practicing medicine and writing. You took your pricey education and became ... a humorist ... a satirist ... a pundit? A descendant of Mark Twain, H.L Mencken or P.J. O' Rourke you are not. In the future, please leave satire and humor to trained professionals.

So ... because you weren't funny or incisive, what's your point? Are you trying to make Indians prove our worth to the fraternity that is America? Is your essay part of some kind of hazing? Put up with your callous insults, and we'll be able to live in the frat house?

What litmus test do we all have to pass to become bona fide? Does our God have to wear a big white beard and have only two arms? Do we have to turn in the dots on our foreheads for a baseball cap with "N.Y." stenciled on it? Trade in our samosas and chai for potato chips and Bud Light? Should we make our parents throw their Hindi language newsmagazine in the garbage and subscribe to Time?

If it's about fitting in with your standards of Americana, please, allow me to prove my culture's utility to you.

He goes on to dismantle whatever outdated, nostalgic view Stein may hold of his hometown, where Joel perhaps hoped nothing would ever change, or holds in his mind an alternate universe where the "dot heads" never invaded dear old Edison.