08-12-2020, 06:33 PM
(08-12-2020, 06:19 PM)BmorePat87 Wrote: Everything I've read or listened to has "comma-la" as the correct sanskrit pronunciation. She was raised by her Indian mother, visited family in India throughout her childhood, and would go to her mom's Hindu temple as a child.
I'm not sure how that's pandering.
Trust me, as someone who knows the samskrita pronunciation, and having spoken that word many times, it's "kuh muh LAH", not "comma lah". The word lotus has many words, and this particular one AFAIK, has never been pronounced that way. It's also the name of the doctor who handled my delivery, which, is just coincidental, but just another example of where I have heard that name being said.
I'm aware of her mother's origin and her visits to India as a child, but her life as an adult seems to indicate a strongly western, African American bent. Nothing wrong with that, and she chose to live out that part of her heritage, and given that she's a black woman and in America, I do not begrudge her choices. But, honestly, I don't see any cultural aspects of her life that resonate with Indian culture. I've said before that I'm not well versed in her history or background, and am totally willing to change my disposition given new information, but it seems her ties to any Indian culture have gone since the passing of her mother. I would say that if any cultural connections should really be emphasized here, it's her black/African American one, and anything else is a bit of political theater. Is she Indian, yes in the biological sense. I don't believe so, in any other sense.