Some history is not bad, once in a while

A historical perspective of Americans of Asian Indian origin (1790-1997) by Srirajasekhar Bobby Koritala. Very enlightening. I quote the ending lines:

The behavior of visa officers in American consulates in India and immigration officers in the USA who deal with Indians too often reflects terrible racist and ethnic prejudices. From my conversations with an acquaintance who worked as a visa officer for the State Department it is apparent that these people are trained to discriminate against Indians. My own experiences with visa officers and immigration officers confirms this belief. I will do everything within my power to fight these racist policies. It is vital that America not slip back into the sordid policies of its past. Of course, things are much better than they were, but it is important to keep the trend from reversing.

The sentiments I have raised in this epilogue deserve more detailed analysis and I will try to deal with them in separate documents.

Finally, I want to emphasize that I believe America is a wonderful country. I believe most Americans (white, yellow, black, brown, green, blue - regardless of what color or ethnicity they are) are decent people. The purpose of this perspective is not to say "see what the white people did". It is to say "see what mistakes were made by people in the past. Let's avoid them in the future".

How much truth is there in the visa argument? Though I heard of the "fat lady" at the Chennai consulate, I still find it hard to believe that sort of thing happens. Probably, some of my dear readers, who have a first hand experience can help?