J.D. Vance and the Indian-American Dream
Tunku Varadarajan notes:
America has been a place where this ethnic minority has
blossomed. Indians constitute just under 1.5% of the country’s population, and
yet we’ve had two Indian-Americans (Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy) compete
for the Republican presidential nomination this year. Vice President Kamala
Harris, lest we forget, was born to an Indian mother. Indian-American CEOs run
Google and Microsoft as well as Novartis, Starbucks, FedEx, Adobe and IBM.
Some random stats: Indian-Americans have the highest
median household income in the U.S. by ethnic group, almost twice that of white
households and three times that of black households. Two-thirds have college
degrees and 40% have postgraduate degrees. They have the lowest divorce rates
of any ethnic group in the country and own 60% of all hotels. One in every 20
doctors here is Indian, as is 1 in every 10 students entering medical school.
Indian deans are a staple at top-drawer U.S. business schools, including
Chicago, Georgetown, Harvard, Northwestern and New York University.
Usha Vance, wife of Trump’s VP pick J.D. Vance, is
a lawyer and Yale graduate
Usha Vance, the child of Indian immigrants and raised
in San Diego, clerked for Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Judge Brett M.
Kavanaugh and has degrees from Yale and Cambridge.