Desi Manifesto Blog: The Forum for South Asian American Men

All this AND it’s American Owned? Pull over!

[Blogger: S.I.] While visiting Houston recently, I passed a low rent motel. Draped over the entrance, a dingy banner proclaimed that the establishment was “Proudly Texan and American owned.”

Ostensibly, the banner is just Texas being Texas. Loud, bawdy, and oozing with unnecessary patriotism. But below the surface, something more sinister lurks.

Maybe my opinion is tainted because of scant coverage I read months ago regarding this topic. But that twinge I felt was too preternatural to be manufactured. And, according to Time.com, I wasn’t the only one. However, to be clear, I only read the Time article after my experience.

A motel that says “American Owned.” Considering we are in America, that statement implies two things: 1) the owners of this particular motel are American and 2) there’s a need to establish this fact. How many other businesses in the US are marked “American Owned”? I’d assume most businesses in any given country are owned by citizens of that country. Why are motels different, to the point that an “American” owner would be the exception, rather than the rule? And who are these “other” owners, those who are not American, who comprise the seeming majority of moteliers?

Well, that’s easy enough for us to answer: desis. The brown people make up roughly 60% of the Asian American Hotel Owners Association, and the majority of those brownies are indeed Patels. And, if you like sketchy sources, this wikipedia entry on Indian Americans claims that “Indians own 50% of all economy lodges and 35% of all hotels in the US, which have a combined market value of almost $40 billion. Source: Little India Magazine.” Those numbers are corroborated by the AAHOA in USA Today online, which says that about 43% of hotels and motels nationwide are Indian owned. We’ll go with those numbers.

So, back to the motel in Houston. By putting that banner up, those owners said they were American, and that fact needed to be advertised. That only leads me to the assumption that most hotels are not owned by Americans, but by “others.” Furthermore, that sign suggests that I’d prefer to patronize this establishment based on the owners’ nationalities (or because they’re not other nationalities). I guess when faced with a choice, consumers would prefer to support Americans, rather than non-Americans, even if both are running seemingly honest operations. It also suggests that people’s definitions of who can be “American” differ greatly from mine.

I know it’s Texas, but I considered whether people really thought that way. Is it a shame that hotels are owned by brown people in a white country? I didn’t know that lodging was an industry that was supposed to be dominated by the descendants of Europeans. Should any Chinese restaurants owned by non-Chinese put a sign outside to let me know? In the case of PF Chang’s, I’d already assumed that fact, by the way.

To be fair, it’s not like I went in the motel. I don’t know what color the proprietors are. I only called, and the underling working the desk told me that they were “Americans” who lived in Florida. Regardless, at the end of it all, I can’t find any reason for that sign other than bigotry and racial tension. If your hotel is losing money, should it matter whether those earning more are white, brown, or other? If someone’s running an honest business and working hard, does his or her success have to do with race? So why should you use it to your advantage (or to someone else’s disadvantage)? I suppose all’s fair in business, especially if it actually sways a customer. Maybe subsidies for minority-owned businesses have others up in arms. But do subsidies book rooms, clean the toilets, and work the desk? As far as I can see, those banners are based on xenophobia.

I broached the subject with some of the local Indians I knew, and they acknowledged the notion of underlying bias. They did, however, recount an interesting related tale. They said there was a successful motel in the area that was owned by Indians. They had come to the US, worked hard, and done well, all while living the “American Dream” and enjoying and contributing to this country. After many years, they took the final step in their quest: they applied for citizenship. And on the day they earned the right to call themselves citizens, they proudly hung up a banner at the front of their motel.

It read, “American Owned.”