Atul's Quest (Chapters 5 & 6)

Atul's Quest 

Nader Habibi

Chapter Five

Long Summer

The next day, I sent Atul the following letter. For obvious reasons, I did not sign my name at the end.

Atul,

Here are five empirical questions that you must concentrate on. Try to find any kind of relevant information on each one of them. These questions are derived from your own so-called ‘proposal.’ Remember, your recommendations must be backed up by evidence and analysis. Otherwise, they would be worthless.

First of all, you must prove (scientifically) that whites are indeed more beautiful. See if anyone has done a cross-racial survey of physical beauty, perhaps similar to the beauty scale that was used by Hammermesh and Biddle. It would be ideal for your purposes if you found a survey that shows non-whites perceive whites as more beautiful than themselves. If you find such evidence, it will validate your argument. Otherwise,

most people will reject your suggestion and claim that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.

Look for evidence that the lack of beauty has adverse psychological effects at the individual and group level. If non-whites feel unhappy about their looks and if this is a shared feeling, then you must see its expressions in their literature, art and social values. Look for indications of white admiration in non-European cultures.

If non-Euros indeed perceive whites as more beautiful, then it should inspire them to prefer lighter-skinned marriage partners. Lighter-skinned females must be more in demand. Look for skin complexion sensitivity in non-European cultures.

(This is the most important question of your study.) Is there any precedence for your idea of whitening? If your perception of the beauty advantage of whites is indeed a common feeling among non-Euros, then it must have been ad- dressed before. At the very least some intellectuals in developing countries must have made similar recommendations. It is even possible that some countries might have adopted whitening policies to improve their racial beauty. Look for evidence in history of eugenics in the non-European world. You might find more evidence of the desire for whitening at personal level. Search for any kind of evidence in the literature that shows that the quest for intergenerational whitening affects an individual’s choice of spouse in non-European societies. If, as you claim, most non-Euros suffer from  a beauty differential, then some must   have

taken steps to acquire whiter offspring. See if you can find any evidence of this tendency.

If you want people to take your whitening proposal seriously, you should demonstrate that whitening/beautification has significant benefits for socioeconomic progress. You already mentioned some benefits such as increased self-esteem resulting in better performance, higher international popularity and improved conditions for international trade. Try to sharpen your analysis of these factors and look for other connections between physical beauty and development. You might not find a lot of direct literature on this issue, but if you are imaginative you will find ways to link your views to the economic development literature.

Good Luck.

*  *  *

The fifth recommendation crossed my mind at the last moment. I added this one for my own sake, because this was the core question of “Beauty and Development.” I was hoping that Atul would take this point seriously and conduct a fruitful search. Three days later, I got a short email from Atul. He had received my letter. I did not hear from him in July, and I was so busy with my own research that I did not give much thought to Atul’s ideas or to my own B&D (beauty and development) project.

August started on a sad note. In early August, I got a rejection letter from an academic journal that specializes in the economics of government (Public Economics). I had submitted an article to the editor   of

this journal three months earlier. This was the third time that this paper was rejected. I had received so many rejection letters since I had started teaching at Yale that my emotional response to a new rejection had diminished to a short one-hour depression. This time however, the impact was almost as severe as my first rejection, five years earlier. This time I felt both worried and depressed.

Except for highly talented and exceptional uni- versity professors, most academic articles that get published in a refereed journal are rejected at least once or twice before finally being accepted somewhere. However, in academics you either publish or perish. For a university professor, tenure approval, promotion and salary increases depend to a large degree on the quantity of articles that he/she can publish in refereed journals. Furthermore, the quality of journals is not the same. Those that enjoy a higher status are far more competitive and harder to publish in.

The last paper that I was able to publish was rejected four times. I usually submit a rejected paper to a lower- ranked (less demanding) journal. This time, however, a new submission would not have born fruit on time for my tenure review. Based on my past experience, I knew that even if my paper were to be accepted, it would have received a conditional acceptance. This means the referees and the editor of the journal would have asked for lots of modifications and changes before the paper was published. It usually takes several months of hard work to revise a paper according to an editor’s recommendations, and I was up for tenure review in less than five months in December of 1998.

For the first time, I felt seriously worried about my chances for tenure at Yale. The depression began to sink in. Five years at Yale and all I had published were four

articles in second- and third-rate journals. I would have felt a lot more secure if this last article had been accepted. What went wrong? Why was I not able to publish more? My first article got accepted before I graduated from Harvard. When I arrived at Yale, some of the most distinguished members of the faculty considered me the most promising new recruit of 1994. So what went wrong? Perhaps I would have been able to publish more if I had focused on one subject, or, as a visiting professor from Canada put it, “if I had had a signature”.

Successful researchers stay loyal to their field of concentration. I kept jumping from one subject to the next. As soon as I got one paper accepted in one area, I switched to a new subject. Consequently, I had to start learning the background literature from scratch. No wonder that each paper that I submitted, after the first one, got rejected several times before it was finally accepted. The question that I had no answer for was why I lost all interest in a subject after publishing just one paper about it. My behavior was like a professional athlete who spent two years playing football, then the next two years basketball and then tennis and so on. No matter how talented a person is, if he keeps switching from one field to another, he can never excel.

By then, I had been asking myself this question for nearly two years, and I still had no answer. My only general explanation was that, perhaps, like every other behavioral problem, it must have been caused by my childhood experiences.

Well!! Enough about me. This book is about Atul and his dream. He contacted me twice after I sent him the questions, only to let me know that he was working on them with “100%” enthusiasm. On both occasions, I was not in the mood to go into details. Instead, I just gave him some mild encouragement.

In mid-August, Meena (the girl who stopped by to see her term paper when I was talking to Atul last May) came to my office one afternoon. She was wearing a beautiful Indian dress.

“Hi, Dr. H. If I’m not disturbing you, I’d like to see my term paper,” said Meena as she walked into my office. The last time she asked for her paper I suggested she stop by some other time. I was supposed to find her term paper and have it ready for her but I had not looked for it. So I offered her a seat and started searching my class files for her term paper. As I was searching, I complimented her on her beautiful outfit.

“Thanks. It is a traditional Indian dress. As you might have heard, August 15th is India’s independence day. This week, the Indian community at Yale has organized several celebrations to celebrate this  occasion. I actually came to campus today to attend one of these celebrations. That is why I’m wearing this ethnic dress,’’ said Meena. I finally found her paper and handed it to her. She took a minute to look at her grade for each question and handed it back to me. As she was looking at her paper, I recalled her unfriendly inter- action with Atul when she came to my office in May.

“Do you know Atul Divan by any chance?” I asked, as she was getting ready to leave.

“Of course,“ she replied with a sarcastic smile. “Why? Do you need to get in touch with him? “

“No. No. I was just curious if he is also coming to Yale for celebrations that you are here for.”

“I don’t think so. Atul is not the type to care much about Indian festivities or Indian culture. Besides, he lives in New Jersey,’’ said Meena. Her opinionated response gave me an excuse to engage her in a conversation about Atul. Ever since reading Atul’s outlandish Appeal to non-Euros, I wanted to learn more about his personality.

“That’s strange! He took a class with me two years ago and seemed very interested in India’s development issues,” I said.

“Being curious about India doesn’t mean that he likes to identify with the Indian community. By the way, did you say he was in one of your classes two years ago? I saw him in your office last May, and I thought he was your student last semester,” said Meena.

“He wasn’t my student last semester. When you saw him in my office, he was here to talk to me about an in- dependent study course for next semester.”

“I hope he is not trying to work on some of his crazy ideas about the whitening of darker races,” commented Meena. I suddenly felt anxious.

“No. He wants to take an independent course with me about economic development, and that’s all he has talked to me about. What do you mean by  whitening?“ I asked. I felt my heartbeat quicken, but I tried to remain calm. “Well!! You probably won’t believe this, but Atul believes that Indians should stop marrying each other and marry whites to give their children a lighter skin color. Last year, Atul and I both attended a birthday party for one of our mutual friends. As usual, Atul led the discussion to the question of beauty and how we (Indians) are suffering because of our dark skin complexion and lack of beauty. Some other Indian students who were familiar with his views were teasing him, and some were sarcastically agreeing with him. It was good fun until he suddenly said that it is better for Indian girls to buy the sperm of white donors from sperm banks and resort to artificial insemination than to marry Indian boys and produce unattractive    children.

Everyone, especially the girls, felt insulted, and a couple of guys got mad at him and shouted several nasty remarks. Atul realized that he was no longer welcome and left the party quietly.”

“That is so strange. I had no idea he had such a twisted mind. He always appeared normal and, I should say, also very smart. I’m glad the topic of his independent study that I’m going to supervise has  nothing to do with these outrageous attitudes,” I replied.

“Don’t be so sure, Dr. H,” said Meena with a smile and continued: “He will probably talk to you about whitening at some point and might even try to change the orientation of his independent study in that direction. I had a sociology course last year, and the teacher told me that Atul had contacted him to see if he was willing to help Atul do an independent study project on whitening. So you never know what he is up to. On the other hand, since his idea of whitening has nothing to do with economics, he might spare you the burden of listening to his nonsense. “

“I’m sure that teacher turned him down,” I commented.

“Of course he did. I don’t think anyone with a minimum of intelligence and a normal character would ever agree to be identified with such a sick idea. It is true that some Indians are color conscious and show a preference for light complexion, but you rarely find anyone who takes these ideas to such an extreme as Atul has done,’’ said Meena . For a moment, I felt both ashamed and anxious. I simply nodded my head in approval.

“Well! Thank you for the warning. In case he ever tries to shift the focus of his independent study toward so called “whitening,” I’ll be ready for him. However, as you mentioned, whitening has nothing to do with economic development,’’ I said, trying to hide my anxiety.

Chapter Six

Registration

After my conversation with Meena, I became worried. It would have been a big embarrassment if Atul were to mention my name to anyone in association with his racial ideas. However, I was too depressed about my publication failures and too busy preparing for my fall semester classes to take this issue seriously. The registration week for Fall 1998 finally arrived. Everyone was on the move. I had six or seven customers (students) on Monday. Some wanted my per- mission to add one of the courses that I was offering, while others wanted to drop one.

Atul came to my office on Tuesday. As usual he was all excited and full of energy. Either  intentionally or accidentally, he arrived at 4:45 pm, when I did not expect any other students in my office. He was anxious to talk about the project and his summer-long literature search. I, on the other hand, wanted to talk about registration and the need for secrecy. Ever since my conversation with Meena, I had been asking myself if I should cancel the whole thing to avoid the embarrassment of exposure. I had finally decided to go ahead

with it because of its potential benefit to myself and because it would have been unfair to Atul if I had changed my mind at this stage. After all, he had spent several weeks on a literature search already. So I decided to go ahead with it and make sure the cover-up topic that we were going to submit to the department appeared sound and acceptable. That way, if something went wrong, I could always claim that I was only leading Atul’s independent study program on the formal (cover-up) topic.

As soon as Atul started talking about whitening, I stopped him: “Before we discuss your literature search, I want to talk about your course registration and the topic that we want to submit to the department. “ I could see in his face that my remark and my serious expression caught him by surprise. Perhaps he expected me to show more enthusiasm.

“Yes. Of course we better talk about registration first,” he responded with a serious look of his own and continued: “As I recall, we talked about it in May, and you suggested a topic about the socioeconomic  status of immigrants in the U.S. I have prepared an IS proposal on this topic.” Atul opened his backpack and pulled out several large envelopes. He opened one of them and handed me a three-page draft.

“I also got the IS registration form from the department office this afternoon. “ He handed me the registration form, already neatly filled out.

“ Oh. That’s wonderful. Looks like you have been busy today.” I was both surprised and pleased that Atul had already prepared the material for his registration. I took a few moments to look at the independent study request form. As I began to sign it, I looked at him and said: “But remember, this means extra work. You must write three reports on this topic. Do you think you  will

have enough time to work on this and the whitening stuff and your other classes? “

“Don’t worry Dr. H. A good friend of mine who is studying political science at the University of Michigan did a independent study on this topic last year. He sent me all the background literature and his own essays. The proposal that I gave you is actually his proposal. I just made some minor modifications.” Atul finished this sentence with a confident smile. I realized that he was more clever than I had assumed. I responded  with a mild smile as I nodded my head and looked at him. We both understood what we were about to do.

“I can see that you are exercising some ethical flexibility here,” I said.

“But it’s not like I’m cheating and trying to get undeserved credit. I will continue to work hard on the whitening project and I think the credit that I earn will be justified. As we both agreed this is just a cover up. The only unethical thing that I can see is that we are re- porting a false title for my IS.”

“Oh, I agree and I’ll see to it that you work very hard and learn a good deal from this IS course. I just hope that nothing goes wrong. If this whole thing is exposed, we will both be in trouble. “

“I don’t see what could go wrong. I did not mention anything to my friend at U of M. He thinks I wanted his papers because of my personal interest. In any case, I also looked at his two essays. They look very good. One of them is a detailed literature summary and the other one is mostly a demographic study of the flow of immigrants as well as their earnings and occupational status compared to mainstream Americans. I can submit the literature summary without any change or perhaps by adding a few references to the latest publications that it does not cover. The second paper is   also

very well written and I only need to make minor modifications in order to submit it as my second essay. “

“But you still have to write a third essay to fulfill the requirements.”

“That’s right. Basically, all of my extra work is an extra paper which won’t be much of a problem.” At this moment, there was an unexpected knock at the door. It was my TA (teaching assistant) for the fall term. Her name was Elizabeth Jason. She was my TA during the second semester of last year as well, and I was glad that the department had assigned her to me again this term. Elizabeth wanted to return a few photo- copies that I had asked her to make earlier. As she stepped into my office, she looked at Atul, and I could see that she and Atul knew each other. Her reaction to the presence of Atul in the room was somewhat similar to Meena’s reaction when she saw Atul in my office last spring. Atul greeted her with a wide smile and a lingering look.. It was clear that he was very excited to see Elizabeth. She, on the other hand, took a glance at him for only a second and said “Hi” with a cold voice before turning towards me. Her cold response put an end to Atul’s smile. Elizabeth and I talked for a few minutes about the number of students and a few books that I wanted her to put on reserve at the library. As we were talking, I was also watching Atul from the corner of my eye. He was aimlessly looking at different things, but I could tell that he was looking at Elizabeth, sometimes at her face and sometimes at her body. His eyes were moving between various objects around Elizabeth and passing over her in between. All along Elizabeth avoided any eye contact with Atul and, when she left, she did not say bye to him.

As Elizabeth left, I could see that Atul was still looking at her until she disappeared behind the door.

“Sorry for the interruption. Elizabeth is my TA. Do you know her by any chance?” I asked.

“Yes. We were in Professor Martin’s Macroeconomics class. She is very attractive, isn’t she? I wish Indian girls were as beautiful. “

“Well! … As they say, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. I happen to think that some Indian actresses are very attractive, but you probably disagree. I just hope that you don’t make such comments in the company of Indian girls.” Experience has taught me not to become too personal with students and never to comment about a female student in front of another student. (Elizabeth was indeed a very attractive girl with blond hair and blue eyes - Atul’s favorite type.)

Atul was not prepared for my cold and critical response.

“Sorry. I did not mean to ask… I agree with your view about the Indian actresses. But, if you look carefully, you realize that all of these beautiful ac- tresses have lighter skin complexion than an average Indian,” said Atul. There was silence for a few moments and then he continued: “Of course I never make such comparisons in the company of Indian girls.”

“Atul, I know we have talked about this before. But I sincerely hope that you have not talked about your ideas regarding racial improvement and whitening to anyone. Am I right?”

I could see that Atul was becoming a bit nervous and was trying to compose a response. Perhaps he was wondering why I was so concerned about secrecy.

“Of course not. I have always kept these thoughts private. Why would I want to share these ideas with others when I know how they might respond?”

Since I already knew that he was lying, based on my conversation with Meena, the only value of this conversation was to give me a better understanding of Atul’s behavior when he was lying. Most people  show a nervous reaction when trying to conceal the truth, but he looked very calm and convincing. I figured this knowledge would come in handy in my future inter- actions with him. Atul continued:

“You know I was at an all-Indian party several months ago. It was a large crowd of undergraduate students and there was an Indian guy named Rajeev, who was an out-of-town guest. He’d had a few beers and made a comment about white girls being more attractive than Indian girls. You won’t believe how angry some guests became. One guy who noticed how upset his girlfriend was after hearing this comment got into a heated argument with Rajeev. Other guests supported him, and Rajeev was so embarrassed that he left the party immediately. So, I know how unpopular these ideas are, at least on the surface. You don’t have to worry about it. I never talk about these topics to anyone.”

Had Meena not mentioned Atul’s embarrassing behavior at that party, I probably would have believed him. We talked a few more minutes, and I gave him back the registration form and told him to go ahead with registering for the course. The department approved the cover-up topic for Atul’s IS without any question. The department examiner was to be selected in November. Fall term classes began. Yale came to life again.