The Buddha of Suburbia

The issue of class has a big impact on Changez’s hybridity and shows the divide between his life in England and his ties to his native country of India. Changez demonstrates and seems to embrace the internalized racism prevalent in British culture and looks down upon other Indians/Pakistanis who he perceives to be inferior to him: “’Look at that low-class person…the reason there is this bad racialism is because they are so dirty, so rough-looking, so bad mannered’” (Kureishi, 210). Changez deems anybody he sees on the street with brown skin to be lower-status and expects them to fully assimilate as fully as he feels that he has. He rejects his past in India and spends his time out shopping for fine things and cheating on his wife, flaunting his new-found Westerness to his Indian relations (Kureishi, 210). Bhabha writes that “the migrant is empowered to intervene actively in the transmission of cultural inheritance or ‘tradition’…rather than passively accept its venerable customs and pedagogical wisdom (McLeod, 253). I feel that hybridity allows for migrants such as Changez to choose which aspects of their former and adopted cultures form their own unique identity. This formation of sense of self is definitely not always a conscious decision on the part of the person and is susceptible to all of the prejudices, institutional racism, and feelings of inferiority that come with being a minority in a society full of privileged others.

Dr. Campbell talks about the concept of hybridity in in the above video and explains how immigrants and those of mixed race descent can create their own unique identities. Changez has embraced all things white and has adopted a white identity for himself, even if he is a person of colour and will never be accepted as white by anybody else. He has kept alive the colonial tendency to view the British as superior and in doing so is actively contributing to the remaining oppression against other people of colour. The chart listed below shows how people of colour have much higher unemployment rates than white British do and can reveal the institutionalized racism that leads Changez to believe that anybody with brown skin is low-class and unwilling to assimilate. With 25% of certain populations unable to find work it is not a surprise that some of these people take the low-paying and not glamorous jobs that don't allow them the luxury of being able to purchase fine clothes or practice to speak with perfect diction. Changez deals with his internal feelings of inadequacy by otherizing fellow immigrants and people of colour and embracing the same prejudices and stereotypes that make him hate himself.