Atuls Quest

Atuls Quest
Nader Habibi

*Disclaimer: All the characters that appear in this story are fictional. None of them represent any real individual that I have ever met. The story is a work of fiction, and in no way is it intended to provide an account of the lives or attitudes of any specific individuals or groups. Nader Habibi

Copyright January 2003, Nader Habibi First Edition Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book. Published by Aventine Press, LLC 45 East Flower Street, Ste. 236 Chula Vista, CA 91910-7631, USA www.aventinepress.com ISBN: 1-59330-007-7 Printed in the United States of America ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Acknowledgements

Im grateful to many individuals who have assisted me with the background research for this book or have reviewed the manuscript and provided valuable comments and suggestions. I like to thank Sumiko Otsubo, Gaiutra Bahadur, R.A. Vasavi, Timur Kuran, Kevin Paglias, Peter Kilby, Jeffrey Nugent and Warren Samuels for their comments in various stages of this books preparation. They are not responsible for any errors and shortcomings of this manuscript. They do not endorse any of the unorthodox ideas that are discussed in this book either.

Preface
Lets face it. Whites are more beautiful.
The quote that appears above was written by one of my students at Yale. His name is Atul: Atul Divan. He not only wrote, Lets face it. Whites are more beautiful. He truly believed in it, and spent the last six months of his undergraduate life at Yale reading and theorizing about the moral recommendations that follow such a belief.

Chapter One
Independent Study Proposal
It was a Friday afternoon in April of 1998. I had just returned from a two-hour lecture that ended at 4:30 p.m. and was too tired to do anything. I was sitting in my office on the third floor of the economics department at Yale. (Im not used to going home early even on Friday nights.) So, even though I was practically brain-dead and could not even find the energy to casually surf the Internet, I decided to relax for a few minutes and try to spend at least two hours on my research before heading home. The department of economics and its associated research centers (like most other offices at Yale) are spread around in four old buildings around Hillhouse Avenue in New Haven. Unfortunately, being a junior faculty member, I had been condemned to a small and rather uncomfortable room on the third flood of the main building that also hosted the departments offices. My office was no larger than 9X8 feet and had a small narrow window that did not have much of a view, even if you stood directly in front of it. Another building about 20 feet away blocked the view. However, if you

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stood to the right of the window and looked to the left, you could see some trees and the intersection of Hillhouse and Trumbull streets. That afternoon, I was doing exactly that, except that I was sitting in my chair. I was aimlessly looking at people who came into my line of vision for only a few seconds. Five minutes into this exciting way of recovering from two hours of lecturing, I heard a quiet knock at the door. Yes. Its open. Again, there was a knock. This time, I raised my voice: Come in, please. The door slowly opened. It was one of my former students who had taken a course with me the previous semester. Hello, Dr H. I hope you remember me from your Public Choice class last term, he said in a polite voice. Yes I remember you, I Im sorry. Im very bad with names. But, please, come in. He was one of those attentive and smart students who stand out within the first few sessions. He sometimes asked very tough questions. Nonetheless, when you teach 50 to 70 new students every semester, it is hard to remember their names after the term is over. Oh, Im Atul Divan. Do you have a minute? Yes. Yes, Atul. How are you? Have a seat. Atul was trying to catch his breath while sitting down and putting his large black backpack on the floor. He was a short fellow - only 5.4 - and very skinny. He must have been a second-generation immigrant, because, while he looked like a typical person from the Indian subcontinent, he did not have an Indian accent. His face was bony, and one could not help but notice his large cheekbones. The good thing about having your office on the third floor of an old building is that you and anyone who comes to visit you get a good

Atuls Quest

workout. Noticing that he was still breathing heavily, I commented : At least its good for your heart. Isnt it? Then I waited for him to tell me the purpose of his visit. My guess was that he was here to ask for a recommendation letter, since ex-students rarely contact their former teachers for any other purpose. Dr. H, I was wondering if I could take an independent study course with you next fall? My answer was going to be negative, because I was very busy back then trying to complete my latest research paper. And besides, I did not have a good experience with supervising individual studies (IS) before. Last time I supervised an IS course, the student did not want to do the required readings. She didnt do a good job on her term papers either. At the end, she filed a complaint against me and claimed that I expected too much. However, I thought it would be impolite to reject Atuls request immediately. Besides, he might take another course with me in the future and give me a bad teacher evaluation. So I asked if he had a specific topic in mind. Yes, I do. It is a rather unusual topic that I have been thinking about for a long time. I would like to show that non-whites should improve their racial beauty through marriage with whites. I believe this is the only way that non-whites could overcome their socio-economic rejection and achieve full integration into American society. I was taken by surprise by this idea, especially since it came from an Indian-born student whose own skin color was dark. Atuls complexion was even darker than that of most Indians. Could you run that by me one more time, I said, as I leaned forward in my chair.. Did you say you want to show that non-whites should improve their

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racial beauty?!! I asked with a polite smile. I wanted to tell him that this vague idea was not an economic topic, but first I wanted to know what the topic was exactly. I understand this is a controversial issue, but Im very curious about it. What I mean is that, when it comes to beauty, whites enjoy a comparative advantage relative to other races. While everyone talks about overcoming discrimination and achieving racial equality, I have never heard any talk of racial improvement. The fact is that, even though there are no proven differences in the physical and intellectual capacity of different races, the level of physical attractiveness is higher among some races than others. I want to show that it is good for those who are less attractive as a race to improve their physical beauty by biological intervention. Atuls face was very serious throughout this explanation until the last few words about biological intervention. He said these last words with a meaningful smile. I had wanted to laugh much earlier, but did not think it was appropriate. So, as soon as I saw the smile on his face, I started laughing, and Atuls smile turned into laughter in conformity. I told you its an unusual topic, said Atul, while trying to show that he was not disturbed by my laughter. It is a very unusual and, I should say, a very sensitive issue, I responded while nodding my head in approval and continued with a more serious tone: I think you must talk to one of the professors in the sociology or psychology departments about this topic. They would know a lot more about these issues. Unfortunately I dont have enough knowledge in this area to be able to guide your study. It is not uncommon for professors to reject a request like Atuls by

Atuls Quest

referring it to other departments and trying to sound encouraging. I agree with you that this issue is not directly related to economics. I contacted one of my professors in the sociology department last week, but he was not interested. He said it was offensive to minorities and there was no scientific proof for my argument. Im glad your reaction is not as harsh as his. He only gave me three minutes of his time and advised me to drop the idea altogether. I also contacted a professor of ethnic studies who is from Latin America. His reaction was even worse. He said such ideas would give racists added ammunition to abuse non-whites and ridicule them. I came to you because, of all the professors that I have taken courses with here at Yale, you are the most open-minded one. Also, you were always interested in the sociological and political aspects of economic behavior, and I figured you probably must have had formal training in one of these areas, said Atul. I was not about to change my mind because of Atuls flattering remarks about the range of my knowledge. I did not need this distraction at this point in my life. I have to agree with the concerns of these two professors. This is a very controversial issue, and some people might even find it offensive. I dont think I can convince the department to approve a noneconomic and sensitive topic like this one for independent study. As you might be aware, when an independent study course is approved, the department assigns another faculty member, in addition to the supervisor, as a reviewer. Students must write at least three term papers for an independent study course, and these must all be approved by the reviewer as well. Even if I accept your argument, I doubt that another professor would agree to put his approval signature on

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a paper whose basic assumption is that some races are physically, I mean from the standpoint of beauty, inferior. Im sure you are well aware of the crimes that have been committed in the name of racial superiority throughout human history. So Im afraid I cant help you with this idea. However, if you have other topics in mind that are related to my field of concentration, we can talk about them. Atul understood that I wanted to end the conversation. It was clear that he was disappointed. He picked up his bag and stood up to leave. Then suddenly he looked at me and said, What if I rephrased my idea so that it involved economic concepts. After all, I have taken so many economics courses that, subconsciously, I look at the world through an economic lens. Would you be interested to consider it then? This topic means a lot to me, and I dont think anyone else would be willing to help me. His persistence was understandable. Students who choose to do an individual study project are often very religious about the topic, or they would not insist on it. However, I was not about to say yes. If I agree to supervise an independent study project, it has to be on a topic related to my own research. That way, I could use the student for literature search and statistical assistance. Cynical as it might sound, this is a tradition in academia. Again I politely declined: I cant see how this issue could be related to economics, but I suggest you do a little bit of literature review and organize your thoughts in a more scientific format. For starters, you are simply making a few normative statements about the beauty differential among races and then making a moral judgment that nonwhites should engage in interracial marriage to improve their racial beauty. I hope you remember the difference between normative and positive concepts.

Atuls Quest

Science is primarily about observation and positive statements. Rather than making value judgments, you should try to prove your points. First of all, how do you know that whites are more beautiful? Do non-whites think that whites are more beautiful, or is it just the ethnocentric perception of whites themselves? How do you measure beauty to begin with? Besides, even if you show that whites are more attractive, you have to demonstrate why any group of people will give up its traditional method of reproduction, meaning marriage, to reproduce eugenically just for sake of changing its physical appearance. Atul raised his hand as a request for interruption. I paused. Excuse me. What does 'eugenically' mean? Atul asked. See. Thats just what I mean. If you are interested in this topic, you should do a lot of reading about race and the history of race relations. Eugenics is the process of selective breeding and other activities that are intended to improve a race or ethnic group based on a predefined criteria, I replied. I thought you did not know anything about these issues,'' said Atul with a smile. I know very little. Eugenics is common knowledge. It was a popular topic before World War II. I have read a few articles about it in popular magazines. If you are seriously interested in this topic, I suggest you look into it. Atul wanted to drag the conversation, but I was too tired and I did not want to commit myself further. Still standing and slightly bending to the left under the weight of his backpack, he asked if he could stop by again and talk about this issue further, after doing a little more reading. I guess if you stop by during my office hours, its fine. But I cant imagine how I can be of further help. I could have helped him - if nothing else, at least by

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giving him general guidelines on how to formulate his thoughts. I was not as ignorant about the topic as I wanted him to think either. But I had to avoid all distractions and concentrate on my own research. Getting one more paper accepted for publication was crucial for my tenure approval. I promised myself to be nicer to students after I was promoted to associate professorship.

Chapter Two
Change of mind
During the next few weeks, I was almost buried under the pressure of teaching and statistical analysis for my own research. It was the last month of the spring term, and I had to spend more time with students as well. So, I had almost forgotten about Atul and his ideas. Back then, I was working on how government spending was affected by the change of political regime in developing countries. One afternoon, I went to the social science library, which was very close to my office, to make a copy of an article on government spending that was published in the December 1994 edition of American Economic Review. As I was looking through the table of contents to locate the article that I was after, an article by Daniel Hammermesh and a co-author attracted my attention. It was entitled Beauty and the Labor Market. I had read a summary of this article before. It was about how a persons beauty affects his income and career. The conclusion of the article was that, after accounting for all other factors, beauty plays an important role in a persons career success and level of income. The idea

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is hardly new, and most people agree with this conclusion based on their personal experiences. However, the fact that Hammermesh, who is a prominent labor economist, had proved this fact in a formal and scientific study attracted a lot of attention to this article, and it was even discussed in popular magazines. I usually promise myself not to get distracted when Im browsing a journal for a specific article, but I never succeed. The title and the abstract of this article reminded me of Atuls idea. I decided to read the introduction and the conclusion of the article. The more I read, the more I enjoyed it, and suddenly realized I had spent almost an hour reading the whole article. The analysis in this article was based on three large interview surveys: two conducted in the US and one in Canada. What was interesting about these surveys was that the interviewers who conducted the face-to-face interviews were also asked to give each interviewee a beauty score on the scale of 1 to 5. These categories were: 1) Strikingly beautiful or handsome, 2) Above average for age, 3) Average for age, 4) Below average for age and 5) Homely. Overall, the survey included more than 7200 women and 5300 men. They had used this large data set to show that beauty mattered in the labor market. More attractive men and women got better jobs and earned higher incomes. They also hinted at the idea that it is rational for people to invest on improving their looks. One thing you learn as an academic is that you must always look for new research ideas. You try to capture ideas from conversations with colleagues, watching a television program or reading an article. After a while, this search for ideas becomes second nature. As you read an article, you constantly search for ideas that either help enhance your current research or could

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serve as the initial idea for a new research project. So, as I read the Beauty and the Labor Market, a game of word association got underway in my mind: physical beauty, market, development, economic growth, personal beauty, group beauty. If personal beauty could lead to more income, is it possible that the average beauty of an ethnic group or nation could affect their economic development? What if a nation could become more beautiful? Would an increase in average beauty help it grow faster? What if a minority group becomes more beautiful? Would it be able to improve its socioeconomic status? The game of word association continued: beauty and market, beauty and growth, beauty and development, Beauty and Development, Beauty and Development, yes!!! Beauty and Development. What a wonderful phrase. If an article entitled Beauty and the Labor Market could capture so much attention, imagine how the academic community would react to the idea of Beauty and Development? The first thing to do when a new idea comes to your mind is to write it down, and thats exactly what I did. A new research topic: Beauty and Development. This idea occurred to me half way into reading the article. From then on, I was reading with a clear objective: to try to pick up any ideas and references that could be relevant to my newly crafted research topic. While Hammermesh was only concerned about how personal beauty affects a persons economic success (income), I began to think of other connections between beauty and development. Beauty could lead to development, but development could also lead to more beauty as people enjoy a better diet. Beauty might have an indirect effect on development by having a positive effect on a countys trade partners

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Then I suddenly remembered I could not afford to get distracted from my ongoing research. Another thing that I had learned the hard way was that spreading my resources too thin on too many research projects was futile and unproductive. This idea was very appealing, yet I did not have time for it back then. What to do? What to do? Slowly but gradually, I heard a word in the back of my mind: Atul, Atul, Atul. I had found the answer. I would use Atul to do the initial literature search for this project, while I was completing my current research on government budget. What a clever idea. What Atul wanted to work on was related to my idea of Beauty and Development, and, even if it wasnt, I could gradually lead him in the direction that I wanted to. I had suddenly found a reason to accept Atuls request for an independent study project. As soon as I returned to my office, I looked at a list of students in the class that Atul had taken with me and found his email. I sent him a brief email.
Atul, If you are still pursuing the topic that we discussed earlier for an independent study course, you might find the following article interesting:

Then I added the reference to Beauty and the Labor Market. I did not want to give the impression that I had agreed to supervise his Independent Study.

Chapter Three
The Cover-up
The next day - Tuesday May 12 - was the last day of exams, and I did not expect any students to come to my office. I had given more thought to my new research idea in the morning, and I was convinced that it was worth pursuing. The campus was relatively quiet. It was a cloudy day with mild temperatures. Around 3:30 in the afternoon, the phone rang. It was Atul. He wanted to know if he could see me in my office. I asked him to stop by around five. While I was working on my project between Atuls call and our five oclock meeting, I did a quick cost/benefit analysis of agreeing to supervise his independent study project. The benefit, obviously, was that he could help me collect all the background literature that I needed for the B&D (Beauty and Development) project. The cost was the time I had to spend supervising his own project. One has to minimize costs and maximize benefits to make a profit. Atul arrived on time, breathing heavily. He was holding a copy of the Beauty and the Labor Market article and looked very excited.

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Thank you for recommending this article. It is very informative and Im glad that it reaffirms some of my beliefs, said Atul. What do you mean, it reaffirmed your views? It doesnt make any recommendations for race-mixing, does it? I asked with a smile. I dont mean in that sense, he responded. What I mean is that they show how important beauty is for an individuals economic success. Since all ethnic and racial groups have to compete in the same national labor market, any ethnic group that is perceived by others as less attractive will suffer from wage discrimination and will be denied certain job opportunities that involve personal interaction with customers. Once I can establish that a race is less attractive, then I can use these findings to justify my recommendations. Another interesting point in this article is that there are certain standards of beauty that are common all around the world. As people see more and more images of other ethnic and racial groups through the media, their attitude toward beauty converges even further. Interesting observations. Have you read any other books or articles on this issue since we met last time? No, Dr H. I have been very busy with my exams and term papers. Im going to start reading about it over the summer. Ill be staying with my parents in New Jersey, near Princeton, and I have access to the Princeton library. Im only working part-time for a local software company and can spend 15 to 20 hours a week on the literature search. But, first, I need to find a professor who will agree to be my supervisor for this project. I did talk to a couple of professors in the department of sociology, as you had suggested. But neither showed any interest. So when I got your email, I thought I should come to see you and find out if you

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have had a change of mind. Reading this article by Hammermesh and Biddle has aroused my curiosity even further. I would be grateful if you agreed to be my supervisor. I did not expect Atul to repeat his request for my involvement so directly and quickly, but I was glad that he was still passionate about it - the more passionate the better. I have not changed my mind. I just remembered you when I came across this article by accident. As I mentioned before, Im not familiar with the topic, and I still dont think the department would approve an independent study course on Race and Beauty. I wanted to see how enthusiastic Atul really was. I also wanted to make sure he got the impression that, if I agreed to supervise him, I was only doing it as a favor to him. Before Atul could say anything, there was a knock at the door. It was a female student named Meena, who was from India and was taking my public expenditure class that term. From the way Atul and Meena greeted each other, it was obvious that they knew one another. As Meena entered my office and stood about three feet away from Atul, he seemed a little nervous. It appeared to me that he deliberately put the article, which he was still holding in his hand, face down on the table to prevent Meena from reading the title. Sorry to disturb you, Dr. H. I was wondering if you have graded my term paper yet? No, not yet. Why dont you check back by Wednesday if you are going to be here? Unfortunately, Im leaving tomorrow, but I can call you if you dont mind. I gave her my phone number and resumed my conversation with Atul after she left. Okay, where were we? I asked.

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You were saying the department might not approve my topic, said Atul, who seemed relieved that Meena was gone, and continued: Perhaps we could choose a more reasonable topic for my study that is more related to economics. We can report this topic to the department and get approval for it. Once the department approves an IS, I dont think they are going to check to see what is really being covered in detail, as long as you report that Im making good progress. Its not that simple. Arent you forgetting the outside referee that is appointed by the department?" Oh. You are right!! I remember you told me earlier that I would have to write three term papers which will be evaluated by a department appointed referee, said Atul. I nodded my head in approval, and we were both silent for a few seconds. Then Atul said: Looks like whatever topic we choose and report to the department, I have to submit three satisfactory papers on that topic. Will you have any influence on the choice of the department referee? If you do, then perhaps you can choose a friend of yours who could be more cooperative. Based on this comment, I realized that Atul was more practical than I expected. This was good because I was also very practical. However, his suggestion was infeasible. Unfortunately for you and I, the chair himself appoints the referee and, if anything, he will try to make sure that the supervisor and the referee are not close friends. Besides it is extremely unlikely that any faculty member would risk his career by participating in such a cover-up. I did not tell Atul that, in addition to these concerns, I also did not have any friends in the department. People are so competitive and so busy that you are lucky if you can make even simple acquain-

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tances with anyone. So I suggested a more practical solution: I think the only way you can do this is to come up with a research topic that is acceptable to the department and is not too demanding. Then you can work on your racial improvement topic and this topic at the same time. As long as you submit three term papers on this topic, you can study racial beautification to any extent that you want. However, it means extra work. I was waiting for Atuls reaction. Does this mean that you are willing to supervise my independent study project if I can gain the departments approval for a straightforward economics topic? I cant promise anything now, but, after you have done some reading on this beautification stuff, we can talk about it. I will consider your request again a few weeks before the fall term, I responded. Thats wonderful. It means a lot of extra work for me, but Im willing to do it as long as you agree to be my supervisor. Unfortunately, I cant think of any other alternative. However, if we can come up with a topic that is closely related to your concept of racial beautification and at the same time has a more acceptable appearance, then the two topics will have a large amount of overlap, and your additional work might only be 25 to 35%, I said. He agreed that it was a practical solution. But do you have any specific topic in mind? he asked. Not right now. This strategy just occurred to me. Why dont you and I both think about it for a few days and see if we can come up with a good one. Just keep in mind the two criteria. First, we want the topic to have as much overlap with racial beautification as possible. Second, we want to make sure it is acceptable to the department.

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Atul stood up to leave and it was clear that he was very happy: Thank you so much. I will think about it and email you a few ideas. We can keep in touch by email over the summer. No Atul. I dont think it will be a good idea to discuss this issue by email. Its best to talk about it over the phone, I said. Atul smiled and nodded with excitement: You are right. Email is not as secure as it seems. We better be careful. After Atul gave me his New Jersey phone number and left, I began thinking about the cover-up topic for his IS. I wanted the cover-up topic to be related to my own research idea of Beauty and Development as well. This way Atul had to do my literature search in order to earn a credit for his independent study. I felt very clever about the whole thing and the cover-up. What was it that I needed Atul to do for me? First, I wanted him to search the literature to find out if anything has been written about the connection between beauty and development. Second, I might need him to do a survey of opinions or collect some observations similar to what Hammermesh and Biddle had done. One alternative was to choose a title directly related to my own research objective: The Interaction of Physical Beauty and Economic Development. This would give me more power to use Atul as a research assistant. But the danger was that, first of all, if this topic was indeed a good idea, someone else on the faculty might grab it. I have never had any illusions about the intelligence and capability of my colleagues at Yale. They are always looking for new ideas. Who knows? Maybe Hammermesh and Biddle picked up the initial idea for their work in a casual conversation with a faculty member or a student. Besides, if the topic is exotic, the chairman usually appoints a referee

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who has worked in that area or at least has shown curiosity about it in the past. Such a faculty member would have some knowledge of the literature and could give Atul a hard time by questioning his methodology and demanding high quality work. Over the next two weeks, Atul and I spoke on the phone several times. I had decided against a topic that might give a hint about my own agenda. So I waited for Atul to come up with something. As we talked about various ideas, I realized that I still did not have a clear idea of what it was that Atul wanted to accomplish. Talking to Atul gave me the impression that he himself did not have a clear idea either. The best way to clear your mind about a research idea is to write it down. When you write, you are forced to organize your thoughts. Atul agreed to start reviewing the literature and write a three- to four-page explanation of why whitening is important and how he plans to study it. Since he did not have to register for the fall term until mid-August, we agreed to select the cover-up topic after Atul had prepared a proposal and a clear outline of the reading material that he wanted to cover.

Chapter Four
An Appeal to Non-Europeans
In mid-June, only a few days after our last phone conversation, I received an envelope from Atul. In it, he had enclosed a brief note and a five-page article, which he said was his independent study proposal. Hi Dr. H, Since you didnt want me to send anything by email, I decided to send my study proposal by mail. Ill contact you after you have had a chance to read it. I have already been to the Princeton library twice, and I have found a lot of useful stuff. Yours, Atul Divan

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An Appeal to Non-Euros My fellow non-European people of the world, What Im about to propose in this essay might seem offensive to many of you, but I urge you to read this appeal to the end before passing any judgment. Rather than wasting your time by a detailed and perhaps confusing introduction, I will get to the point without any further delay. Ever since the end of colonialism and imperialism, we noneuros (the Non-white people of Asian, African, Pacific and native American origin) have proved that we can compete with Euros (the white people of European origin) in scientific and technological fields. The old racist theories of European superiority have all been rejected in athletic, artistic and scientific competitions. It is now clear that the poverty of nations is due to the lack of collective intelligence, which is a function of organizational culture. At an individual level, we are not less intelligent or less capable than Europeans. Yet, there is one dimension in which we suffer from a genetic inferiority, and that is physical beauty. Lets face it. Whites are more beautiful. It is true that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. However, the standards of beauty are universal. More often than not, what is viewed as beautiful in one human community is also praised as beautiful by others. Not only whites perceive themselves as more beautiful than others, but we, the non-Europeans, also see them as more attractive. Beauty matters, and it matters a lot. The lack of physical beauty often causes emotional

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trauma. The lack of beauty in people who constitute ones community is equally painful. In such a community, members of other communities are perceived as more beautiful. How frustrating it is for a young man to realize that the women of his own ethnic/racial group, with whom he can socialize and from whom he eventually chooses a marriage partner, are not as beautiful as the women of other groups, who are beyond his reach. How lucky is the person who is beautiful and has a beautiful partner! How unfortunate is he/she who is less attractive than the person who is the object of his/her desire! How unfortunate is a community of people who find themselves as a group less attractive than another people! Beauty is inherited from ones biological parents. For those who are born in demographically stable communities, it is a gift from the communal genetic pool. Just as the relative beauty within a community matters, the absolute beauty level of a society also matters. Sure, an aboriginal woman in Australia can claim to be more beautiful than some others, but any fair- minded observer admits that aborigines of Australia are far less attractive than Europeans. It is both rational and just to call on relatively less attractive human communities to improve their physical appearance based on the ideals of their own community. It is a fact that, in most corners of the modern world, where Western movies bring the beautiful Hollywood stars into the homes of billions of people on a daily basis, people of European origin are viewed, by members of most communities, as the most attractive people. Enter the

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private room of any teenager in the Third World. Chances are that the walls are filled with pictures of blond women and blue-eyed men. The popular magazines in Third World countries are filled with pictures of beautiful European models. Why would the profit-hungry magazine owners print these pictures if they werent sure that these images were popular? An even stronger piece of evidence is the fact that endogenous TV and movie stars in the Third World usually have lighter skin than those in the population in general. So lets face it, and lets admit it. Whites are more beautiful. And lets do something to close the gap. Hear my appeal For sake of improving your emotional, social, cultural and economic conditions, I appeal to you to invest in the physical beauty of your offspring and reduce the beauty differential that will be a cause of suffering for future generations as it has been for us and previous generations. Beauty is one of the most valuable bequests that you can leave for your children. This investment is more crucial for those who have closer contacts with Europeans and hence suffer more emotional stress as a result of their beauty differential. The groups that suffer most are non-European minorities who live in Western Europe, Australia and North America. Because of their relative lack of beauty, these people are rejected and marginalized by the majority European population. If it were not for their own perception of unattractiveness and physical infe-

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riority, they would not have suffered so much emotional trauma in the face of Euro-rejection. Furthermore, they have to compete with Europeans in the labor market, where, believe it or not, beauty is an important criterion for hiring and promotion. As we approach the new millennium, it is time to break our silence and take corrective action. Why should our future generations suffer the genetic curse of ugliness? Why should they be condemned to feel depressed and envious of Europeans? We hear each others envious expressions about the beauty of the white race in private and frank conversations all the time, but assume that there is nothing that we can do about it. If we have enough courage, we can do something about it. Admitting that we have a problem is 50% of the solution. We can take action as individuals, and we can work toward collective action. The solution is to produce half endogenous/half white offspring. Nothing to be ashamed of You might think of my proposal as shameful and humiliating. Several factors might lead to such a reaction. First, engaging in racial beautification is an admission of racial inferiority. Second, in male dominated societies, the impregnation of local women from imported sperm is extremely humiliating and totally unacceptable. In such societies a child whose father is a citizen and whose mother an alien is far better accepted than a child whose mother is a citizen but the father is an alien. A third concern is that the mixed children will be drawn toward the Western

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culture and the society will loose its independent cultural identity. In response to the first concern, I must say that, when the intention is good and what is being proposed does not harm any one, the only thing we should be ashamed of is shame itself. Individuals and nations admit to their weaknesses all the time and try to find solutions. In fact, a major cause of the military and industrial strength of Western democracies is their capacity for self-criticism, which allows them to identify their weaknesses and take corrective measures. Down in the Third World, politicians and intellectuals openly admit to their industrial and technological inferiority and ask the international community for help. No one feels ashamed of being underdeveloped. Rather than denying it, most underdeveloped nations have accepted their backwardness in recent years and have imported technological know-how and machinery to industrialize. Historically, those nations that have refused to accept new technologies and ideas from abroad, for the sake of national pride, have not improved their economic condition as much as others. In agriculture and animal husbandry, farmers continuously import genetically modified seeds and animals to improve the quality of their livestock and increase crop yield. Coming closer to our main subject, every year, millions of non-Euros, mostly women, spend billions of dollars on plastic surgery to change the shape of their nose and eyes and other facial structures in the hope of looking more European/beautiful. Do you think they should feel ashamed?

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If you are not convinced that investment in long-term racial beauty is nothing to be ashamed of, then you should at least concede that it will be a one-shot humiliation affecting only one or two generations. Without beautification, every generation of an unattractive race must go through the humiliating and painful realization of its beauty deficiency. You should think of the generation/persons that invest in racial beautification as sacrificing their pride and facing the potential humiliations that might follow for the sake of the future generations. The humiliation and suffering of the beautifying generation will help future generations achieve higher levels of relative beauty and suffer less in the future. Turning to the second criticism, it is a wellknown fact that most non-European societies and cultures are patriarchal and, because of their masculine bias, are extremely sensitive about parental bloodline. The prevalence of masculine bias is unfortunate. Such a bias leads to the rejection of the least costly method of whitening namely the importation of white sperm. Biracial children whose white gene comes from a paternal line (imported white sperm) will face more rejection and harassment than others. This attitude, however, will be subject to change through education and public debate. The alternative of importing white female eggs or employing white surrogate mothers will be far less humiliating in masculine societies. This latter method is more practical for affluent male non-Euros who undertake the whitening process at an individual level.

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Finally, Im not convinced that mixed children will necessarily abandon their culture because of their half-native blood. Cultural identity is acquired from the environment and, since the social environment of these children will not be any different than that of purely endogenous children, they will not have any higher tendency towards Western culture. It is unlikely that these children will experience mistreatment and alienation. On the contrary, mixed persons of endogenous/European marriage are usually very popular in developing countries. (In India, many of them are recruited into the movie industry or politics and achieve stardom.) Because of their popularity and warm acceptance, they remain loyal to the domestic culture and contribute to its preservation and betterment. Racial Beautification has many benefits The benefits of racial beautification outweigh its costs, even when the cost of humiliation is high. The direct benefit of beautification is obvious because of the intrinsic value of human beauty. At the individual level, beauty leads to higher rates of social acceptance and popularity. As a result, the individual will enjoy more selfesteem and will be more successful in his career. Various recent studies have shown that more beautiful people face better opportunities in the labor market. However, racial beautification could have many indirect benefits as well. In the long run, culture is the most important determinant of development. An unattractive people will suffer from low self-esteem as a group. Just

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as an individual who lacks self-esteem cannot realize his full potential, a society that is low on self-esteem will find it more difficult to grow. As mentioned earlier, widespread low self-esteem leads to prevalent feelings of anger and resentment towards other members of the group. These negative feelings will arise not only because of the intrinsic feelings of inferiority but also because of the insecurity that each member of the society feels when coming into contact with more attractive races. Therefore, even marginal improvement in the average level of beauty will help reduce the feelings of anger and self-hatred in a society. The relative position of a racial/ethnic group in the international community matters. As a nation or race becomes more beautiful, its relative position improves, and the rest of the world will show more goodwill towards it. More tourists will visit the country, and their attitude towards the endogenous people will be more cordial. The community and its members will receive more support from others, and, hence, each member of the community can achieve its goals at a lower cost. If you are dreaming of migration to the West, the lighter the skin color of your children, the higher their chances of entry and success. I assure you: there are millions of couples in China, India, Pakistan and elsewhere who share this dream. For some, this dream begins in early adulthood as they learn more about the security and pleasures of living in the West. Others inherit it from their parents, who have no higher wish for their children than to see them migrate to the

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West. For anyone whose heart is burning with the migration quest, whitening is a valuable investment. It is as important as scientific knowledge and intelligence. It takes hard work and talent for a foreign student to get a graduate degree in the U.S. But once a young, foreignborn graduate starts searching for a job, his/her degree of whiteness plays an important role in his success. Needless to say, the quality of life of an immigrant and his acceptance in white social circles will also depend on his skin color. Racial Beautification is Practical The difficulty of achieving racial beautification varies from group to group, but it is practical under all circumstances. Racial beautification could be achieved through collective action or individual initiative. At the individual level, it is most practical and least costly for nonEuropeans living in the West. All it takes is a man or woman with a strong desire. Main options for men are: a) Marrying a white woman (or at least a member of a lighter-skinned minority). The drawback to this option is the limited number of white women who might be willing to marry nonwhites. b) Employing a white woman as a surrogate mother. C) With the recent advancements in reproductive science and technology, it is even possible for a couple to buy an egg from a white female, fertilize it with husbands sperm and plant it in wifes womb. This way both husband and wife have a claim to being the natural parents of the offspring.

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The options for women are even less costly: a) Marrying a white man. (Again it might be difficult for less attractive non-European women to find a willing and interested partner), b) Becoming pregnant from a white man (same difficulty with regard to finding a suitable partner), c) Artificial insemination after obtaining suitable sperm from a sperm bank or other sources. In a non-European society, individual initiative towards whitening is very difficult. Rich people could go abroad to obtain white sperm or white eggs. But for others, it might be a big problem. Besides, it might result in a very negative social reaction. In these countries, collective action is more practical. The government or some non-governmental organization should take the lead if there is significant support for such a policy. There is a high possibility that, with future advancements in genetic engineering, a couple could alter the physical attributes of their offspring. They could choose the skin color, eye color and the facial features of each child. Once such techniques become available and affordable to non-Europeans, beautification will be more popular, because it will no longer involve sperm or egg importation from an alien gene pool. Final Comments I sincerely hope that my appeal has left a lasting impression on you. As a non-Euro, I am one of you, and I share your historical experience. In response to the European expansionism that began five centuries ago, our

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various communities have put up a strong resistance. The age of colonialism is over, and non-Europeans living in Western countries have successfully fought against many types of racism and prejudice. Many non-European countries such as Korea, Malaysia and China have overcome their economic backwardness and are rapidly catching up to the West. Even more importantly, the Japanese have achieved parity with the West on technological and scientific performance. We have many reasons to be proud and to look to the future with hope and optimism. Yet, now that we no longer view the white people of European origin as oppressors, now that we have demonstrated that we are not inferior to them in any performance criteria, the time has come to bring to the surface our deep sense of admiration for the beauty of the Western European race. The time has come to admit that beauty plays a major role in our happiness. Just as we invest in the health and education of our society, we must also invest in improving the physical beauty of our people and reduce the existing beauty gap between the Europeans and ourselves. As we enter the 21st century and face the images of Europeans through travel and the Internet and other advanced technologies in the waiting, the time has come to put aside our shame and our silence and exchange views on how best we can reduce this beauty differential. The methods that I have proposed to you for racial whitening and beautification might not be the best methods available. If we initiate dialogue and investigate this issue openly, perhaps more practical and

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more efficient methods will be discovered. So lets face it. Whites are more beautiful. However, if we take corrective action now, there is hope for our future generations. * * * After reading Atuls proposal (which I will refer to as the Appeal from here on), my first reaction was a sense of relief that he did not send it by email or fax. It would have been a huge embarrassment (not to mention trouble) if anyone had seen this article and associated it with me in any way. I could not imagine any minority or anyone from the Third World seeing this article and not being offended by it. At least Atul had enough sense to admit at the beginning that most people would find his suggestion offensive and shameful. Why did Atul send me this piece? I had asked him for an independent study proposal. Did he misunderstand my request and think that I wanted him to put his ideas about whitening and racial beautification in a propaganda-style essay? One thing that was clear from his writing was that Atul was a lot more religious about his racial beautification dream than I had initially expected. The content also raised a question in my mind about the character and personality of Atul. What kind of life experiences would drive a 21 year-old student of Indian origin to such a state of mind? He obviously did not feel any racial or ethnic pride. To the contrary, if the Appeal reflects his personal values, Atul must be full of self-hatred. On one hand, I felt more curious about this study and about Atul himself. But, at the same time, I felt worried about the consequences of anyone finding out what Atul was investigating. What if people

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thought that I approved of Atuls idea? How will the department react or, perhaps, be compelled to react, if a minority group got a hold of the Appeal and took it seriously? At the very least, I would lose my job. I was torn between these two concerns, and I could not decide what to do. I heard a voice from my subconscious: when in doubt, read it again. So I started reading the Appeal one more time. Half way through the second page, my eyes suddenly froze on the word development, and I suddenly remembered my own secret agenda: Beauty and Development. In a flash, my inner conflict was resolved. Of course I wanted Atul to continue his independent study project. For a few seconds, my eyes were fixed on that magical word. Then I read the sentence that surrounded development and began to realize that some of Atuls ideas and concepts were relevant for my research. Since I had not read the appeal with this quest in mind, I went to the beginning and reviewed it again with a clear search agenda. While Atuls prescription for whitening was not of much use, he had made some remarks about the emotional and behavioral consequences of a relative beauty differential that I found interesting. If the lack of beauty causes a negative self-image at the group level, then it could have an adverse effect on social norms and culture, which itself plays an important role in development. It was a crude idea, but it was well worth investigating. I found a second interesting idea in the Appeal. A more attractive ethnic group, according to Atul, enjoyed more popularity and international goodwill. If there was any way to construct a comparative beauty index for various ethnic groups, then perhaps this hypothesis could be roughly tested. One could try to see if there is a connection between the

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level of international assistance that a nation receives and the average beauty score of that countrys residents. Of course one has to control for other factors that affect international assistance. I could also consider how the relative beauty of a people could affect the growth of tourism and the entertainment industry. If beauty were a determinant of travel destinations, then tourism would flourish in societies with more beautiful people. Finally, it occurred to me that perhaps international traders and investors prefer to invest in communities that are more beautiful. By combining these thoughts, I was able to develop a primitive flowchart of how physical beauty could affect a countrys development. Two days later, I got a call from Atul. He was wondering if I had received his proposal. Yes. And I have also read it. I hope you are satisfied with it. I tried to explain what I had in mind as clearly as possible, said Atul with an excited voice. Atul, I think there must have been some misunderstanding. Im sure you have written research papers in some of your classes by now. A proposal for an independent study program is a clear plan for studying a specific topic. What you have written is similar to a 19th century political pamphlet. It is anything but a proposal for an independent study, I replied with a critical tone. I was waiting for a response from Atul, but the line was silent. Hello? Are you still there? Yes, he said with a low voice. There was silence again. Perhaps my comment was too harsh. I knew I had to carry the conversation. Look Atul, the purpose of an independent study project is to help a student learn more about a topic that he is interested in. It starts by asking the right questions about the subject and then

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reading the right books and articles to learn the answers. Your proposal sounds like you already have all the answers. I have given some thought to your socalled whitening proposal. I dont agree with your recommendation, but if you are so serious about this idea, then we should arrange your independent study in a way that will let you increase your knowledge about the practicality and consequences of such an idea. Based on what you have written in this proposal, I have come up with several questions that I think you should concentrate on. However, I can only work with you if you avoid slogans and appeals and concentrate on searching for the answers to these questions without any prejudice. Is that acceptable to you? Yes. I accept your conditions 100 percent. I have already done some literature search and found several articles. As soon as you give me the questions, I will concentrate my work entirely on them. For a moment, I thought you were going to cancel the whole thing. Please let me have the questions, and Ill start working on them right away. I had already thought out several questions, but I decided to send them by mail rather than mentioning them over the phone. This way, Atul did not have any excuse to ignore any of them.

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,

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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. Lighterskinned 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 addressed 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 individuals choice of spouse in non-European societies. If, as you claim, most non-Euros suffer from a beauty differential, then some must have

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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 Atuls 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

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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 university 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 lowerranked (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 editors 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

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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.

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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 Im not disturbing you, Id 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 Indias 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 Im 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 interaction 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 dont 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 Atuls out-

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landish Appeal to non-Euros, I wanted to learn more about his personality. Thats strange! He took a class with me two years ago and seemed very interested in Indias development issues, I said. Being curious about India doesnt 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 wasnt my student last semester. When you saw him in my office, he was here to talk to me about an independent 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 thats 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 wont 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.

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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. Im glad the topic of his independent study that Im going to supervise has nothing to do with these outrageous attitudes, I replied. Dont 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. Im sure that teacher turned him down, I commented. Of course he did. I dont 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, Ill 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 permission 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

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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 Atuls 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. Thats 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

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have enough time to work on this and the whitening stuff and your other classes? Dont 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 its not like Im 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 reporting a false title for my IS. Oh, I agree and Ill 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 dont 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

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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. Thats right. Basically, all of my extra work is an extra paper which wont 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 photocopies 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 Meenas 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 Atuls 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.

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Sorry for the interruption. Elizabeth is my TA. Do you know her by any chance? I asked. Yes. We were in Professor Martins Macroeconomics class. She is very attractive, isnt 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 dont 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 - Atuls 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 actresses 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?

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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 Atuls 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 interactions 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. Hed had a few beers and made a comment about white girls being more attractive than Indian girls. You wont 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 dont have to worry about it. I never talk about these topics to anyone. Had Meena not mentioned Atuls 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 Atuls IS without any question. The department examiner was to be selected in November. Fall term classes began. Yale came to life again.

Chapter Seven
Atuls Findings
During September and October Atul visited me regularly. He spent most of this time preparing his literature review report. The fact that I did not give him a chance to talk about what he had found over the summer, during our first meeting of the term, had not dampened his spirit. He was as enthusiastic as ever. Our first communication after the approval of his independent study by the department took place on Monday, September 21st. I had already told him that I preferred to meet with him on Mondays and Thursdays. That Monday was also the day that I received a formal letter from the department about my tenure evaluation. I had till October 31 to submit my performance file. In addition to several questionnaires I had to fill out, I also had to submit copies of all my published and unpublished writings as well as my teaching and peer evaluations. Ever since the rejection of my paper in August, I had tried my best not to think about the hurdle of tenure. I knew my chances for tenure were very small and thinking about it was very

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painful. The departmental notice, however, reminded me that there was no escape. So, when Atul knocked at my door that afternoon, I was in a depressed mood. Atul, on the other hand, was full of energy. Hi Dr. H. Do you have a few minutes? he asked, while poised in the doorway. He had a stack of papers and photocopies in his left had and was holding the doorknob with the other. His large black backpack was hanging from his left shoulder. Sure. Sure. Whats up? I said as I signaled him to enter. Atul was breathing heavily. I wish theyd given you... ahhhh. an office on the second floor, he said while trying to catch his breath. Maybe you must spend more time at the gym. We both laughed and he continued: If you have time Id like to discuss briefly the literature that I was able to find over the summer. Go right ahead. I have plenty of time. Tell me about the mysterious world of whitening, I said with a reassuring smile. I wanted to make up for my cold response during his previous visit. My literature search during summer was very fruitful. To be honest, last spring I was doubtful if I could find any written material that could in any way relate to the idea of whitening and racial improvement. But when I started looking, I found so many articles and books that deal with this issue. I also never expected to find any direct reference to the whitening, but I actually found several. What do you mean by direct reference to whitening? What I mean is that there are historical cases where an intellectual or even a social institution has invited a group of people to engage in interracial marriage with whites for sake of racial improvement. As I remember, you gave me five questions in June to use as guidelines

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for my literature search, and one of them was to search for evidence that others have also paid attention to whitening. You also mentioned that this was the most important topic that I should search the literature for. Well! I searched for it and I found a lot of evidence, said Atul with confidence. Atul was referring to the letter that I sent him in June in response to his Appeal to Non-European People. I did ask him to search for historical evidence of support for whitening. But I didnt really expect him to find anything. Im glad your search has been fruitful. I hope you have written down the full references to the sources that you have read. Yes, I have. This is only a small portion of my notes and photocopies, said Atul as he pointed to the large stack of papers that he had brought along. Indeed, I have a separate folder for each of the five questions and some of these folders are very thick. So looks like you have done a lot of work. Why dont we discuss each question separately? Fine, which one would you like me to discuss first? Since he had already aroused my curiosity about evidence of historical support for whitening, I suggested we start with that one. As you had recommended, I began my search by concentrating on eugenics. I looked especially for indications of eugenic interest in developing countries. Apparently, during the first half of the 20th century, when eugenics reached its peak of popularity in Western Europe and North America, it also became very popular in Latin America. There were eugenic societies in Mexico, Argentina, Cuba, and Brazil. Initially, the eugenic movement in these countries was influenced more by eugenic thinking in Europe than in the U.S. As you well know, the basic argument of eu-

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genics is that the human race can (and should) be improved through selective reproduction and improved healthcare. With this objective in mind, eugenics in early 20th century took two parallel directions. Positive eugenics called for improving health and educational conditions as a way of creating a better gene pool and healthier future generations. Negative eugenics, on the other hand, called for sterilization of those persons or groups of people who were considered genetically unfit. The negative eugenics had two important policy implications in the first half of this century. One was the forceful sterilization of individuals with mental illness, retardation or genetically transmittable diseases. The other recommendation was for so-called racial hygiene. This later direction provided intellectual support for opposition to interracial marriage by considering non-whites as genetically inferior to whites. In its extreme form, it contributed to the genocide of Jews and Gypsies by Nazi Germans. Atul stopped for a couple of seconds, pulled out one of the photocopied articles, opened it and flipped a few pages until he found a page that he had marked earlier. Then he continued his monologue. So far, his comments were general, and I was waiting for some link between eugenics and whitening. He continued. Now! What is interesting is that, while in Western countries the eugenic movement was strongly opposed to interracial marriage and called for preserving the purity of the white race, in Brazil it called for toleration of interracial marriage as a strategy for racial improvement. Atul paused and looked down at the page in search of something. His finger stopped under a word in the middle of the page, and he continued with excitement: They even coined a term for it: Branqueamento, which literary means whitening.

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He raised his face and looked at me with a victorious and confident look. I had asked him for evidence of whitening believing that there wouldnt be any, and he had found it. Or so he thought. Interesting. Go on. I urged him. Id like to hear the details. Well. As you probably know, Brazil is a multiracial society. Like the United States, the Europeans who settled there brought a large population of black slaves into the country to work on plantations. However, in contrast to the scenario in the U.S., there were no restrictions in Brazil on interracial marriage between whites, blacks and native Indians. As a result, in early 20 th century, when Brazilian intellectuals showed interest in eugenics, there was already a large mulatto or biracial population in Brazil. In that period, the Europeans who opposed interracial marriage and believed in white superiority pointed to Brazil as an example of the degeneracy and decline that would result from uncontrolled race mixing. The European Brazilians, who dominated the political and economic life of Brazil, were very resentful of this image, and this sensitivity affected their approach to eugenics. Since they already had a large non-white population, which was highly multiracial, it was impractical for them to call for the extermination and expulsion of non-whites. Slavery had ended in Brazil in 1888 but, as in the U.S., there was a large gap between the economic status of whites and non-whites. The blacks and mulattos were in poor shape. I was still waiting for Atul to concentrate on whitening: So, how does this relate to whitening? I was just about to get to that. You see, the Brazilian whites believed in white superiority and were embarrassed by the presence of non-whites. They

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wanted to improve the racial image of Brazil by making its population whiter over time. They believed this goal could be achieved by allowing each generation of blacks and mulattos to produce lighter-skinned (whiter) offspring. They also imposed severe restrictions on the immigration of blacks and other colored people into Brazil. Lets focus on the whitening of blacks and mulattos. How did they propose to achieve this goal? Were they advocating forced marriage between blacks and non-blacks? No. Based on what I have found, they argued that whitening would take place naturally. The argument was that, since black and dark-skinned men in general are attracted to lighter-skinned women, they would prefer to marry females with complexions lighter than their own. The offspring of such unions, they reasoned, would have lighter skins than their fathers. So, they believed that, by tolerating interracial marriage, all they needed was to wait and witness a gradual whitening of the darker ethnic groups. I interrupted Atul: Wait a minute. Could you explain this process again? I could say that Atul was pleased with my aroused curiosity. Sure. The idea of whitening became popular in Brazilian eugenic circles in the 1910s. In 1911, a man named. Atul searched through the photocopy that he had pulled out earlier until he found the name that he was looking for Jaao Batista Lacerda argued that, if successive generations of black and mulatto males marry lighter-skinned females, the black population of Brazil would vanish in about 100 years. He actually did some demographic calculations and predicted that by the year 2012, the black share of the population would diminish to zero while the mulatto

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population would decline to 3%. Of course, based on what I have been able to gather about his work, he took higher black and mulatto mortality rates and continuous white migration into account in his analysis. I have tried to learn more about Lacerdas work, but with no success so far. I guess you could call his analysis the calculus of whitening, sort of like James Buchanans famous book on the democratic electoral process that is called the calculus of consent. I made this remark casually, but, to my surprise, Atul jumped on it. Wow; what a catchy phrase: The Calculus of Whitening. You know, I can use this as the title of one of my reports. Then I suggest you try to learn more about Lacerdas calculations and see if you can come up with a theory of whitening dynamics. However, Im wondering, what will happen to the black and darker-skinned females. Did Lacerda assume that, in every generation, a percentage of these women would fail to find mates and reproduce? I dont know, as I said I only found a brief reference to his work but I will try to find out more, said Atul. Something else, I dont know the exact population mix of Brazil, but I do know that they still have a lot of blacks and mulattos there. So, I guess the calculations of Lacerda were wrong. Oh, I got Brazils demographic data from internet. Atul searched his stack of printouts and pulled out a page. Based on their most recent census, the population of Brazil is 54% white, 39.5% mulatto and 5.7% black. I dont have any comparable census data for 1910 to tell you how the share of blacks and mulattos has changed over time. However, it is clear that

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Lacerdas predictions for racial composition in 2012 can never materialize. There is no way that the share of mulattos and blacks in the Brazilian population could decline to 3% and 0% by 2012. So, aside from imposing restrictions on the immigration of non-whites, did the supporters of whitening propose any other policies? I asked. Not really. As I mentioned, they assumed that the preference for lighter-skinned females among mulatto and black men would lead to the population automatically becoming whiter over time, as long as interracial marriage was tolerated. Then in a way you could say that they advocated a policy of tolerance for miscegenation. So, have these ideas survived until now? Good question. With the rise of fascism in Europe, Brazils eugenic society came under the influence of German eugenics, which advocated racial hygiene and the termination of inferior races. These negative eugenic ideas gained support in Brazil in 1930s. After World War II, the notion of European/white superiority, which was at the root of whitening, was replaced with the notion of Brazilian as a unique and separate race. In recent years, Brazilians like to portray their country as a racial democracy. So, going back to your question, it seems like the idea of whitening has been all but forgotten, and they have come to accept the multiracial nature of their society as it is. Atul waited for my response. It was time for a little encouragement: O.K. Looks like I was wrong when I told you that you wouldnt find any evidence of the desire for whitening in the past. Which also proves that Im not crazy. Many others before me have thought about it as well, said Atul.

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Experience plus numerous mistakes in the past had taught me to be skeptical of the answers that I found for any given question and examine the logic carefully. I especially remember the frequent occasions when, as an undergraduate economics student, I would rush to one of my professors office to tell him about an idea that had occurred to me the night before, only to have him cool off my excitement by pointing out the flaws and inconsistencies and leading me to the relevant literature. I decided to do the same to Atuls evidence of whitening in Brazil: Now lets go back and examine your example one more time very carefully. Brazil was a multiracial society, dominated by white European settlers. The political elite promoted miscegenation to transform the black population into mulattos. They believed that miscegenation would lead to the whitening of the entire Brazilian population. Right? Yes. And what was it that you were trying to demonstrate by presenting this example? I asked this question just to make sure the evidence was relevant for the question that was originally raised. What do you mean? asked Atul, after staring at me for a second. You wanted to show that your idea of whitening as a way of improving the physical beauty of a race has been proposed before. Am I right? Yes. And I think the evidence that I found on Brazil proves that others have advocated whitening before me. I started thinking about Atuls Appeal to the nonEuros to recall the details of his logic and his justification for whitening. Suddenly I realized a major difference between his idea and the Brazilian evidence.

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Let me ask you a question. Did any blacks or mulattos in Brazil advocate whitening? This guy that you just mentioned - Lacerda, who calculated the speed of whitening, what was his racial background? The supporters of whitening in Brazil were all white Europeans. Then I think we have a problem. You are appealing to the non-Euros to engage in multiracial marriage to improve their physical beauty. You yourself are a nonEuro, a non-white. In other words you as a non-Euro are appealing to members of your own group to engage in whitening. In Brazil, it was the white community that had targeted the non-whites for whitening. Unless you show that blacks or mulattos themselves advocated whitening, the case of Brazil is not a historical proof of the quest for whitening from inside a non-white group. Are you saying that I should abandon the case of Brazil altogether? No. Not at all. But you should look for other historical examples that show initiative towards whitening from within a non-European race. Have you been able to find any evidence in this direction? I have found a brief reference to a 19th century Japanese intellectual named Suzuki. I think he advocated interracial marriage between Japanese men and white women to improve the Japanese race or something like that. I have to look up my notes for detail. I guess this is a better example than Brazil then. Yes. If you can get more information on this guy and his ideas, it would be a perfect example. How much material have you collected on him? Not much. Only a paragraph in an article about history of Social Darwinism in Japan.

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Then I suggest you contact the author and ask for information on Suzukis racial attitudes. Also, see if there have been other Japanese intellectuals with similar ideas. Atul nodded his acceptance as he took some notes: OK. Then Ill chase after Suzuki and let you know what I come up with. He was putting his notes in his backpack and getting ready to leave when there was a knock on the door. It was Elizabeth, my TA. I was expecting her, as I had also told her to stop by that afternoon. As Elizabeth walked in Atul smiled at her and quietly said Hi. Elizabeth did not show any reaction. She deliberately tried to avoid any eye contact with Atul. Dr. H., here are the photocopies that you wanted, said Elizabeth as she put a large envelope on my desk. Thank you. How did the review session go? It was OK. Only two students showed up and I was able to answer their questions While listening to Elizabeth, I was also watching the reaction of Atul. Atul was taking short looks at Elizabeth as he was putting his papers in his backpack. Fortunately, she was facing me and did not notice this behavior. It was also clear that Atul was embarrassed by the way Elizabeth had ignored him. He stood by the door and quietly said Bye, as if not wanting to interrupt her. I simply raised my hand and looked at him for a moment without interrupting my conversation with Elizabeth. I was now certain that Atul and Elizabeth must have had some interaction before, and I wanted to find out what it was in a discreet manner. Do you have anything else that you want me to photocopy? asked Elizabeth. No. This is all I needed for today. Ill have some for you next Monday. But before you leave, Id like to

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ask you a question. The student who just left, his name is Atul Divan. He is taking an independent study course with me this semester. I noticed that you two knew each other, and I was wondering if you have ever been in the same class with him? Yes. Why? asked Elizabeth. She did not appear pleased with the question. Nothing important. He took a course with me last year and came across as very smart and attentive. I was wondering if he also stood out as smart in his other classes. Oh. He did ask more questions in class than others, but he was not necessarily smarter. He just wanted to attract more attention to himself. I see. Well, the reason I asked is that some of his ideas are a bit strange. He is a strange person, said Elizabeth. You mean his ideas! No. I mean his behavior. We were in the same math class last year. He must have been starving for affection because, as soon as he had a conversation with a girl about any topic for five minutes, he was asking her out. Elizabeth and I both laughed at this remark. Didnt anyone go out with him? I asked hoping that she would keep talking. Well. Actually, I ended up going out with him, but not because I liked him, Elizabeth replied. When a person tells you that she has done something, but immediately rules out the most natural reason for doing so, she obviously is eager to tell you about her unique motive but wants you to ask for it first. I got the hint and confessed my curiosity: I did not mean to ask you anything personal, but since you brought this up: why, then, did you go out with him? I asked, inviting her to sit down.

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Oh, I dont mind you knowing about this, and I only dated him once. What happened was that one day, during lunch with two of my friends who were also in that class, we were talking about Atul and the latest girl who had turned him down. After a while, we ended up talking about why Atul behaved the way he did. It was obvious that he was lonely and wanted to date. But he did not know how to communicate. We thought he would have had a better chance getting a positive answer if he had asked Indian girl. As you know there are a lot of Indian students at Yale. Instead he keeps targeting the white girls who keep rejecting him. Elizabeth continued: As we were talking about him, he suddenly passed by our table and sat at a small table by himself. He was in our view and, as we looked at him, I began to feel sorry for him. I casually said to my friends that I wished someone would go out with him. My friends picked up on my comment and said I should be the one to make this sacrifice. Besides, both of them had already turned him down . First I laughed at this suggestion, but they kept at it. We were all watching Atul as he was eating his food and staring at every girl that passed by his table. Anyways, the more I looked at him, the more sorry I felt for him. In the meantime, my girlfriends kept making fun of Atul and daring me to do it. They were surprised when I told them that I would. The next day, at the end of the math lecture, I asked Atul if he could help me with a couple of questions. He gladly accepted, and we met that afternoon in the library. I asked him a few simple questions and just as I expected, as soon as I thanked him for his help, he asked me out. He posed the question as if begging for a favor in return for his help. Atul was totally shocked when I said yes. He must have been so used to rejection that he did not know

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how to react to my positive response. He suddenly got nervous and quickly suggested a location and a time and walked away. The next Saturday, I met Atul in front of my dorm, and we walked to a small Chinese restaurant. I had already told my girlfriends where we were going, because they wanted to see Atul and me with their own eyes. Atul was shy and nervous at the beginning and had a hard time focusing on one topic. If I disagreed with his view on any issue he quickly changed his mind to look agreeable and moved on to a new subject. You should not blame him too much for trying to be agreeable. I think most people try to avoid disagreement on a first date. After all, its a date, and each party is trying to make a good impression on the other, I commented. Elizabeth continued: Oh, I agree. But he was overdoing it. However, this was only a minor irritation compared to what happened next. After we ran out of casual topics for conversation, there was a long period of silence - perhaps for a minute. As we were eating the last bites of our food, suddenly Atul raised his head, looked at me and asked a question that I was totally unprepared for. He asked me why I agreed to go out with him. For a moment, I thought perhaps someone had told him that it was just a mercy date. Why are you asking this? I accepted your invitation because I thought you are an interesting guy. Should I have any other reason? Most white girls dont date non-whites. You seem to be an exception,, said Atul. I disagreed with him and told him most girls do not use skin color as a criteria. But he kept insisting that non-whites were not popular. To prove his point, he mentioned something interesting: I have an Indian friend whos majoring in

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Engineering. He is desperately trying to date at least one white girl. I guess he must have asked at least 200 girls out and he has always been rejected. It was clear that Atuls imaginary friend was a reference to himself. I told Atul that I did not think they turned his friend down because he was Indian or because of his dark skin. Maybe he didnt know how to approach girls. Besides, there are many beautiful Indian girls studying at Yale. I asked him why didnt his friend ask one of them out. Atul ignored my first comment but addressed my question. Oh, I asked him this same question once. He just does not think that Indian girls are as attractive. I guess he has always been attracted to white girls. From some other comments that Atul made, I realized that he was still curious about my motives for going out with him. He asked me if I had dated any Indian or Chinese students before. I felt very uncomfortable about the whole subject and came up with an excuse about expecting a phone call from my mother to finish our date early. A few days later, Atul asked me out again. I politely turned him down by telling him I was very busy. He did not get the hint and asked me out again and again. He also kept staring at me in class. It was so annoying that I finally had to get angry with him and ask him to leave me alone. That was the last time that I agreed to go out with a guy out of mercy. After Elizabeth left my office, I realized that everything she said about Atul matched his racial attitudes and what Meena had told me about him earlier. For Atul, whitening was a very personal issue. He blamed his dark complexion for his social failure.

Chapter Eight
Japan: A Perfect Example
Two week passed before Atul contacted me again. In those two weeks, I was mostly preoccupied with preparing my portfolio for tenure evaluation. While copying my published articles, which did not amount to much, and the unpublished papers, which were painful reminders of my failed attempts, I felt angry again with myself for my inability to focus my attention on a single topic. As I gathered the required documents for my tenure evaluation, I felt less and less optimistic about my chances for tenure. I even thought of withdrawing my application and saving myself the embarrassment of rejection. But then I realized that, historically, most of the tenure-track professors were denied tenure in our department anyway. So it was not as humiliating as it looked. Realizing that my chances for staying at Yale after the current year were small, I decided to enter the job market as a precaution. The largest job fair for economists is held in early January during the annual meetings of the American Economic Association.

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There are several places on the Internet where academic job openings for economists are advertised. I checked these sites and compiled a list of universities with job openings that appeared close to my qualifications. It was second week of October and I had to submit my application quickly if I wanted to be interviewed during the AEA meetings. Most universities have a November 15 deadline for job applications. I got a phone call from Atul on the second Thursday of October around 1 p.m. He wanted an appointment for that afternoon. As usual, I asked him to stop by around 4:30. Elizabeth was also going to stop by that afternoon to drop off some quizzes that she was supposed to grade. I thought it would be amusing to see their interaction again. Atul arrived, breathing heavily, at 4:40. I thought you were going to get yourself in shape, and you are not even carrying your huge backpack today, I commented. Atul was holding a small stack of papers and a pencil this time. I wish I had time for a little exercise this semester, but no chance, said Atul, as he sat down and reshuffled the stack of papers. I was able to find some information on whitening proposals by Japanese intellectuals. I think I have got a solid example of whitening this time. Im all ears. I could not find much on that Suzuki person that I mentioned last time, but I found a lot of information about several other Japanese intellectuals who advocated whitening. First, let me start with a little historical background. You probably have heard of the Meiji revolution in 19th century Japan. The second half of the 19th century was an important period of social and industrial transformation for Japan. The political elite wanted to modernize the country by introducing

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western culture and technology. During the 1840s and 1850s, the Japanese elite was very worried about the industrial and military weakness of their country compared to Western powers. There was a growing fear that like other Asian countries, Japan might also be colonized by Western powers. The Shogun that ruled Japan before the Meiji revolution was powerless against Western military might, and the Western nations had already extracted several trade concessions from Japan by the 1850s. These treaties led to deep feelings of resentment and xenophobia. Finally, a group of warlords mobilized their forces and removed Shogun from power. Instead, they empowered the 16-year old emperor Meiji in the hope of restoring Japans national strength. During the Meiji reign, the political elite decided that the only way to protect Japan against Western domination was by adopting Western ideas and technology. Soon there was a fascination with everything Western, including philosophy and political perspectives. As the encounters with the white Europeans and Americans increased, during the 1860s and 1870s, the Japanese elite developed a sense of inferiority with respect to Westerners. What kind of inferiority are you referring to? Physical, cultural, industrial? I asked. Well Atul took some time to organize his thoughts on this question. I think it was all three. The Japanese acceptance of Western technological superiority was obvious. Their government brought thousands of Western experts and educators to modernize Japans industries. In the cultural field there was a fascination with Western art, philosophy and literature, which led to the translation of a large volume of Western books into Japanese. It was also in this

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period that the European lifestyle and dress code were first introduced. These perceptions of cultural and technological inferiority must have led to feelings of physical inferiority among the Japanese elite. However, aside from these factors, some Japanese intellectuals and scientists who traveled to the US and Europe reported being subject to verbal and, occasionally, physical abuse because of their appearance and physical attributes. These encounters must have also contributed to feelings of physical inferiority. In the 1880s, an interesting debate on questions of race and racial improvement got underway. Atul stopped and looked at his notes for a few seconds, then continued. This brings me to the question of whitening. It turns out that during these debates about the need for racial improvement, some Japanese intellectuals advocated interracial marriage with Europeans as a viable strategy. Atul stopped to look at his notes again. There was even a book written on this issue. A Japanese intellectual named Takahashi Yoshio wrote a book entitled, On the Improvement of the Japanese Race, in 1884. It turns out that, in this book, he called for mixed marriage between Japanese and whites as a way of improving the Japanese race. However, since the paternal blood was the key to identity and citizenship in 19th century Japan, Takahashi advocated mixed marriage between Japanese men and white women, so that the Japanese identity of the offspring was preserved. I was so happy when I found out about this author and his book. I hope you agree, Dr. H., that this is a perfect example of support for whitening from within a non-white community. Unlike the case of Brazil, where the whites were calling for the whitening of blacks, Takahashi is calling for the improvement of his own

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race. So what do you think? Have I finally found a solid example? It surely is a better example than the Brazilian case. Who was this Takahashi Yoshio? I could not find much information about him, but I read that his mentor was a Western world specialist named Fukuzawa Yukichi. He visited Europe and the U.S. several times. In the early 1880s, Fukuzawa translated Galtons ideas on genetics and eugenics into Japanese. By the way, during the 1880s, Darwins ideas were also translated and attracted a lot of attention among Japanese intellectuals. This guy Fukuzawa supported Takahashis yellow-white marriage proposal and, since he was a big shot among Japanese intellectuals, his endorsement gave merit to Takahashis proposal, and other Japanese intellectuals of the time were drawn to it. This is all very interesting. Did Takahashi offer any practical proposals about how these yellow-white marriages were to be encouraged or perhaps even imposed on the Japanese people? I asked. Unfortunately, I didnt find any detailed discussion of his ideas. However, I found out that Japanese intellectuals were debating the idea of Mixed residence in the 1880s. Takahashis mixed marriage proposal became very influential between 1884 and 1886. One of the practical strategies for race mixing that was proposed in this period was to allow foreigners and Japanese to live in mixed residential areas. In those years, thousands of western educators, diplomats, merchants and technicians were living in Japan, but segregated from the Japanese. Those Japanese intellectuals that supported Takahashis mixed-marriage proposal argued that, if whites were allowed to live among Japanese, even-

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tually there would be inter-marriage, and mixed offspring would be produced. But did they discuss the relative size of the two populations and the relative frequency of yellow-white marriage? It seems to me that the population of Westerners residing in Japan must have been very small, and, besides, who could have guaranteed that every Westerner would end up finding a Japanese partner for marriage? Atul replied: Im sure they must have thought about these issues. Unfortunately, I dont have any more information about these debates. I only know that they took the issue of mixed marriage very seriously. In 1892 there was an interesting communication between the Japanese politician Kaneko Kentaro and the American social Darwinist, Herbert Spencer. Kaneko asked Spencer if, in his opinion, yellow-white marriage would be a good thing for Japan. Spencer wrote back that, since Japanese were inferior, they would be biologically and culturally dominated by whites, and the offspring of yellow-white marriages would lose their Japanese identity. So. Did the Japanese actually take any action to promote mixed-marriages? I asked. No. The idea lost its appeal, or I should say it evolved into something new in the 1890s. There was still a strong interest in racial improvement as Western eugenic ideas became more popular. However, Japanese eugenicists developed a new definition of the Japanese race. They divided the Japanese population into two categories of genetically superior and inferior types. They proposed improving the Japanese race internally by encouraging more reproduction of the superior groups. Oh! There was also another development that led to the decline of support for

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Takahashis ideas. During the 1890s, Japan grew stronger and feelings of inferiority to the West gave way to reactionary nationalism as more and more Japanese felt resentful of the unfair trade relations that were imposed on their country by the Western powers. Japans victory in the 1894-95 Sino-Japanese war also played an important role in the rise of Japanese nationalism and a sense of national confidence against the West. All of these led to the rejection of Takahashis proposal, which was all but forgotten by the turn of the century. Atul stopped and stared at me as if waiting for my response or perhaps another question. I suddenly found myself fascinated with this issue and asked myself how these events in Japan could relate to the question of beauty and development. Takahashi must have offered some explanation about the positive consequences of yellow-white marriage for the economic and industrial development of Japan. Another interesting question that crossed my mind was whether a nation perceives itself more beautiful after a period of industrial and military success. I finally broke the silence. This is very good. I think what you should do next is to compare the whitening initiative in Brazil and Japan. You might find some similarities in what led to the emergence of these ideas and how they where received." Didnt you already say that Brazil was not a good example because the desire for whitening did not originate in the non-white population? asked Atul. Yes. But a comparison could still be worthwhile. Lets see in both countries the desire for whitening emerged during a period when the intellectuals and the political elite were suffering from feelings of inferiority versus Western Europeans.

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Thats right. But this inferiority complex was stronger in Japan, and the Japanese were also very afraid of being colonized by the West. What else? We both thought for a few seconds. What about the impact of eugenics and social Darwinism? asked Atul. What about it? I think the desire for whitening emerged in both countries after the intellectuals were exposed to social Darwinism and the European claims to racial superiority. The people who advocated whitening in Japan and Brazil were those who deeply believed in the superiority of the white race and feared that other races would eventually be destroyed in the global competition. Very good, Atul, although what you said is more valid in the case of Japan than that of Brazil. What else? We were silent for a few seconds again, as Atul took some notes. This time I broke the silence: Ah hah. They have something else in common as well. Atul stopped writing and looked at me. Yes? Think about the fate of whitening proposals in both countries. In Brazil, if I can recall correctly based on what you said last time, what brought the whitening movement to an end was the emergence of a new consciousness about Brazilians being a unique race apart from the Europeans. The elite finally accepted their national identity and actually took pride in Brazils multiracial population. You just mentioned that the Japanese abandoned Takahashis mixed-marriage proposal as their sense of national pride improved during the 1890s and early 1900. So it looks like in both countries desire for whitening surfaced when national self-esteem was low and it diminished as the elite developed a sense of national pride.

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There was silence again, but for only a few seconds. Then Atul said: However, in the case of Japan, you should differentiate between public advocacy of whitening as a mechanism for racial improvement and personal feelings of preference for whiter skin and European facial features. The support for whitening in public policy debates ended before 1890 but I dont think the Japanese admiration for the physical beauty of the white race has diminished. Atul paused a second but continued before I had a chance to react. It is unfortunate though. If they had gone through with yellow-white marriage, they would have been much happier. I was taken by surprise by Atuls last sentence. Atul! Japan has the worlds second largest economy and its people enjoy a high standard of living. I dont think the Japanese are walking around feeling sad because they dont look like Europeans. Atul was quick to defend his comment: They might not feel unhappy because of this, but they would have felt happier if they looked more European. Do you have any evidence for this claim? Have you ever seen Japanese animation, Dr. H? asked Atul. Yes. What about it? Have you noticed that the faces of Japanese cartoon characters look more European than Japanese? I recalled a news report a few days earlier on television about the rising level of sex and violence in Japanese animation movies. Thinking about the characters that I had seen in that report, I realized that Atul was right. I nodded my head in agreement without saying anything. Japanese seem to be especially sensitive about eye size. Their animation characters, unlike themselves,

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always have large eyes. Furthermore, the eye colors are often either blue or green, and the skin color of animation characters is much whiter than that of an average Japanese. To me, these cartoon images represent the ideal standards of beauty in Japanese culture. Through yellow-white marriage, they could have become a more beautiful race according to their own ideals. However, you dont have any survey to show that contemporary Japanese actually wish they looked more like Europeans, do you? I asked. No, but do you have any survey that shows they are happy with their look? replied Atul. He seemed very convinced of his view, and I did not want to get into an argument with him when neither of us had any hard data to support his view. Lets not argue over this. I already know your taste for physical beauty, and I think you are extending it to other people. Atul wanted to respond, but I lifted my hands up to signal that I did not want to be interrupted and quickly continued: Lets just go back to the comparison of whitening in Japan and Brazil. So, we found similarities in social conditions that led to an expression of desire for whitening in both countries, and we also found similarities in the circumstances that brought the whitening movement to an end. Overall, I think Takahashis proposal is a good historical example of the quest for whitening. Now you have established a solid precedence for your argument. There was a confident smile on Atuls face as he replied, Thank you. You should now combine the information on the Brazilian and Japanese experiences with whitening in a single report and call it Historical Examples of the

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Quest for Whitening. Atul took a few seconds to write down this title. Then he looked up at me. So! What would you like to work on next? I asked. Atul said, Id like to move away from the search for historical evidence and concentrate on showing that the desire for whitening is still very strong among nonwhites and could be seen in all cultures. Perhaps I can even do some direct observations. My instincts tell me that attraction to white skin is universal and is felt at an individual level. As a result the whitening process is quietly underway in various parts of the world. And my job is to make sure you can support your claims by accurate and unbiased evidence. I already know this, Dr. H. You dont need to remind me repeatedly. I realized that comment was uncalled for and tried to do some damage control: Sorry, I did not mean to sound critical. Please continue. What I mean is that I think any non-white man or woman would prefer a white, or, I should say, a lighterskinned partner for marriage and dating. However, for most non-whites the opportunity for the realization of this dream does not exist. Those who are rich and resourceful will pursue this objective and, in my view, are currently doing it. And how do you know that this is happening? I dont know it yet. This is what Id like to show by direct observation. You know, I think you are talking about two separate things here instead of one. The first one is your personal belief that non-whites have a general preference for lighter, whiter skin. The second issue is that most non-white individuals that are resourcefulmeaning wealthy and/or well educated- are indeed

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marrying or dating partners with lighter skin colors than themselves. I dont exactly see the difference between these two. The first one is about intentions and desires, while the second one is about actions that are motivated by those desires. Its sort of like tastes and demands in economics. You cant measure a consumers taste but you can observe what he buys. I see, Atul said. Then I should concentrate on the second part that is observable. You know I have been thinking about this, and I was thinking of actually going to a mall and recording the difference between the skin complexion of non-white couples that pass by. And how will the data that you collect help you prove your point? Atul was silent for a few seconds. I think the data will show that, in most cases, the skin complexion of the woman is lighter than that of the man. This proves that darker men are attracted to lighter-skinned women. There is just one problem, I said after a few seconds of silence. Just because a man and a woman go to the mall together, it does not mean that they are married or dating. They could be two co-workers or just friends. Since you are not interviewing the couples that you observe, you cant ask them about the nature of their relationship. Consequently, you have no way of excluding the couples that are not involved in a relationship. Besides, you wont be able to determine if the couple is well off or not. I could see that Atul was a little disappointed, but I had to point out the problems with his method of observation.

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So what do you suggest, Dr. H? Are you saying I should just stick to library research? No. I just think that the mall is not a good place for your project. Think of some other place. We were both quiet again for a few seconds. Suddenly, Atul broke the silence: How about the churches? Only married or seriously involved couples go to church together. Good idea, Atul. Besides, churches usually serve local neighborhoods. You can choose a church in a prosperous minority neighborhood and another in a lower income neighborhood. Then you can compare the complexion differential between the church-going couples in each church. I looked at my watch as I finished this sentence. It was 5:30pm. Atul also looked at his watch. Sorry it took so long. Then I guess I should start stalking some churchgoers, said Atul with a smile. Should I take note of any other characteristics of the couples that I observe? I think its kind of late, and we have been chatting for almost an hour. Why dont you think about this survey a little, and well talk again in a week or so. Atul nodded his head in agreement. You are right. I apologize. He stood up to leave. As he was about to open the door, I suddenly remembered something. Oh, one more thing before you leave We must submit the literature review of your cover-up topic by next week. And also, dont talk about the church project to any one. It is illegal to study people without their consent. If anyone finds out, he can give both of us a hard time. The literature review is ready. Ill put it in your mailbox by Monday. And dont worry, Dr. H, I never talk about this entire project to anyone. After Atul left, I spent a few minutes reflecting on my long conversation with him and took some notes on

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how his explanations on whitening in Japan related to my Beauty and Development project. The perception of the beauty differential with Western Europeans left Japanese with a feeling of physical inferiority. However, they made up for this perceived inferiority by hard work and dedication to the adaptation of Western technology. Japanese might not be the most beautiful race, but they surely have done a good job at economic development.

Chapter Nine
The All-India Family Contest
After that long session on Japan, I did not expect to hear from Atul for at least two weeks. But to my surprise, he called me the next day (Friday) and asked for an appointment. When I told him that we had just spoken the previous day, he mentioned that he had come up with a whole new idea for an empirical investigation, and he wanted to get my approval as soon as possible. I was reluctant, but I agreed to meet him that afternoon after 3 p.m. I spent the entire morning preparing my job application letters. The process reminded me of my search for my first job six years ago, during my last year at Harvard. It was more exciting back then, and I was almost certain that I could find a good position because of the article that I had published and Harvards reputation. Now I wasnt so sure. Just to make sure that I would have at least one offer if my tenure was rejected, I chose some average and below average colleges that are less competitive. They would surely be happy to have a former Yale faculty member on their team.

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One of the challenges I was facing that day was to choose three individuals whom I should ask for letters of recommendation. Most universities demand at least three letters of recommendation from applicants for faculty positions. I could not ask any of my colleagues at Yale, because I did not want anyone in the department to find out that I was on the job market. I finally decided to ask two of my dissertation advisors and a professor of Economics at the University of Chicago. I had contacted this professor several times in 1995 when I was working on a research project that dealt with government expenditures. My research was an extension of a paper that he had published two years earlier. He was very pleased with the results of my work, which confirmed his earlier findings. All three agreed to write recommendation letters on my behalf. Around 4:20 p.m., I heard a knock and, from its pattern, I recognized it was Atul. I decided that I was not going to let this conversation extend beyond 10 or 15 minutes. Atuls excitement was clearly visible on his face. He must have somehow sensed my concern about time, because, as soon as he sat down, he got directly to the point. As I mentioned on the phone, I think I have found a better way of testing my assumption about the desire of darker-skinned men for marriage with lighter-skinned women. I think this alternative will be more accurate than the church study. O.K. Lets hear it. Perhaps you have heard that 1997 was the fiftieth anniversary of Indias independence, and there were various festivities and cultural activities at Yale and other campuses to celebrate this event. My roommate Rakhil was involved in some of these activities throughout last year. One of the projects that he was

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heavily involved in was a contest called: The All-India Family Appreciation Contest. Students of Indian origin at Yale, Harvard and MIT were invited to take part in this contest. The way it worked was that each participant provided information about the educational and professional achievements of his immediate family (father, mother, brothers, sisters and himself.) Then, a committee was supposed to be set up to select a family as the most successful Indian family. The process is somewhat similar to beauty pageants, but here the unit under consideration is the entire family rather than a single individual. So instead of the swimsuit contest, each participant was asked to submit a family photo that included all members of his or her family. The nominations and applications arrived throughout last year, and the committee was supposed to announce the winner during this years I-day celebrations on August 15. But Rakhil told me that the committees work was delayed, and they havent completed the selection process yet. I found out last night that Rakhil was taking care of all the application files. Each file includes a family photo and background information on all members of the participants family. He told me that there were more than 230 application files. The reason so many people have participated in this contest is that the winner will get four round trip tickets to India. The committee has asked Rakhil to generate a computer record for each applicant and construct comparison tables that can be used to select the top ten candidates. The ten finalists will be invited to Yale for the final stage of the competition in December. This is a golden opportunity for my research. I can analyze the family photos for husband-wife and father-child color differential. I can analyze the family pictures that are

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available in these files to see if there is a significant color difference between the spouses. Last night, Rakhil showed me a few of the application files. The quality of the pictures was excellent, and there are all sorts of information about the socioeconomic characteristics of family members in each file. Dont you think this is a wonderful opportunity? Besides, the data is already available. I could see that the conversation was going to take more than 10 minutes. I dont know. I have to think about it. Do you think your roommate will let you study these files? I asked. I dont know. He brought the two boxes home last night, and I came up with this idea after he showed me some of the files, replied Atul. Does he know about your independent study project? I asked this question deliberately to see if Atul had kept the project secret. Of course not. No one knows about my IS. Rakhil and I dont chat too often. Then how are you going to convince him to let you use the files? I asked. Dr. H, you still have not told me if you like my idea or not? Lets first make sure its feasible. Then we will talk about its merits. Atul was quiet for a few seconds: Well, actually, I can offer to help him with data tabulation and use that as an excuse to look at the files and get all the information that I need. Besides, as long as the boxes are in our room, I can always access the files while he is in class. After all, Im not going to publish the results of my research anywhere. It is just for my eyes and yours.

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But there is a risk that you might get caught. What if your roommate suddenly walks in on you? I will simply tell him that I was free and I decided to help him out a little bit. Dont worry, Dr. H. I will be very careful. Atul seemed highly motivated to carry out this exercise, but there were several flaws in the way he was going to collect this data. For one thing, the sample was not representative of all Indian families. Only the highly endowed and well-educated families could afford to send their children to Ivy League schools. But tell me, whats the value of this exercise? Lets say you measured the color difference between the husbands and wives among these families and showed that on average the Indian women in your sample have lighter skin color than their husbands. Isnt this a well known fact already? I asked. Atul did not seem prepared for this question. As far as I know, the desire of Indian men to marry lighterskinned women is obvious, but it is not clear who succeeds and who does not. The rich have a better chance at it. But you cant use your roommates data to compare the color differential between the rich and the poor couples, because every family that has participated in this contest most likely belongs to the upper class of Indian society. Am I right? Atul seemed like he was cornered again. So, in effect, you think it is a waste of time. Im saying this data set will not let you find who has a better chance at marrying a lighter-skinned woman. Unless you come up with some other questions that could be tested with the family contest data, it wont be worth your effort. I could clearly see the disappointment in Atuls face. I had had the same

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experience in my college years. However, Atul was not giving up. I can also compare the skin color of the children to the parents and see if their skin color is closer to the lighter-skinned parent or not, said Atul. Who knows? Maybe in the future, I can find a similar sample for the lower income families in India and then combine the results. I was about to tell Atul that his idea was a waste of time when it suddenly occurred to me that, if Atul was indeed able to find samples from different socioeconomic classes, the combined sample could be used to test the effect of income and wealth on skin color differentials. This could be worthwhile material for my Beauty and Development project. If indeed it is true that rich men marry whiter-skinned women, then there will emerge a color differential between the rich and the poor over time in any non-white society. I could further argue that there is a direct link between color differential and income inequality. As income inequality declines, the color gap might also be expected to decline. Now I had found a personal motivation to support Atuls proposal. If you could find similar studies for the lower classes, then it would be worthwhile. However, you must try to record as much data about each family as possible. Since your roommate might move the contest files, try to record the data as soon as possible. Make sure to record information about age, education, occupation and any other socioeconomic characteristics available about each family member. Atul seemed a little surprised that I had suddenly become so supportive. Are you saying that I can do it? asked Atul. Yes.

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He left my office with a promise to be very careful. I was glad that, this time, our meeting was rather short. I was also happy that I had found a use for Atuls empirical work in my own project. * * * The next Monday, I found a large envelope from Atul in my office mailbox. There were two reports in it. One of them was the literature review for the cover-up project. It was about 25 pages, well-typed and contained more than 2 pages of cited references at the end. The second report was only two pages long and had a small note attached to it: Dr. H, Over the summer, I collected a lot of ad-hoc evidence of white admiration in nonwhite communities from various sources, including the Internet. As you can see, Im not the only one who thinks that whites are more beautiful. It is found in many cultures all around the globe. Since I had to prepare for a lecture, I did not have a chance to read Atuls brief report until Tuesday afternoon. The report had a catchy title: Evidence of White Admiration in non-White Societies. It was a collection of unrelated bullet paragraphs. In the Arab world, a light complexion is highly praised. As a result, the cosmetics industry offers a variety of skin products that help bleach the skin color. The whitening crmes are routinely advertised in TV commercials. According to a statistical research by Douglas Besharov and Timothy Sullivan, the ratio of mar-

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riages between black men and white women in the United States grew from 1.9% of all AfricanAmerican marriages in 1970 to 8.9% in 1993. Over the same period, the share of black femalewhite male marriages grew from 0.7% to 3.9%. Prominent black entertainers who represent the ideals of black beauty often have lighter complexions than most African-Americans. The same is true of many celebrities in African nations. In India, light complexions are so popular that women explicitly mention the lightness of their skin color when describing themselves in matchmaking magazines and newspapers. Men also openly emphasize light-complexion in their adds as a trait that they are looking for in a spouse. Despite their dark skin color, many Egyptians are offended when someone perceives them as black. In 1984, Columbia Pictures produced a mini-series about the life of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. The series was banned in Egypt because Sadats role was played by the black actor Louis Gossett, Jr. They were offended by the fact that a black man was playing Sadat. Foreign visitors commonly report on Chinese admiration for white Europeans. Chinese parents boast of their daughters who are married to European or American men. Furthermore, throughout Asia, women dye their hair blond (yellow!) because it is commonly perceived as more beautiful. In Ghanaian culture, there are many examples of admiration for Oburoni (the white-man). The word Oburoni is commonly used as an adjective to describe good and admirable qualities (e.g. Oburoni Orange, Oburoni Banana). Most

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Ghanaian men and women prefer to date Oburoni members of the opposite sex, and Ghanaian women commonly try to bleach their skin. It has been reported that Ghanaian leader Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, refused to date Ghanaian women. He married an Egyptian woman with light complexion. The Ghanaians admired this Oburoni first lady. Other Ghanaian political leaders such as Joe Appiah were also admired because they married Oburoni women. President J.J. Rawlings, the current leader, has politically benefited from his light complexion, which he has inherited from his white father. (Source: Dr. Robert Mensah-Biney, www.prempeh.org.) From the 17 t h to early 19 th centuries, the Ottoman Empire projected power and influence over Eastern Europe. Eastern European women were routinely captured and sold in Istanbuls slave markets along with female slaves from other parts of the world. Slavery in the Ottoman Empire continued well into the 19th century. Westerners who had a chance to visit these slave markets commonly reported that light-skinned European women were sold for much higher prices compared to Asian and African women. (Source: R.R. Madden, Travels in Turkey, Egypt, Nubia and Palestine, 1824, 1825, 1826 &1827, 2nd ed. London 1833.) * * * On Thursday of that week, as I was browsing the Yale Daily News, I notices a seminar on fiscal policy in India and China, in the seminar announcement section. The speaker was the director of the Asian Development

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Bank, and it was organized by the Yale Center for International and Area Studies (YCIAS), which was conveniently located only a few yards from the department of economics. I decided to attend this seminar for two reasons. First, fiscal policy was my main field of research, and I needed to keep up with the latest developments in the field. Second, YCIAS usually held a reception after lectures by prominent speakers. I figured, since this guy was the director of a large regional development bank, they would surely have a nice reception for him. I was right. After the lecture, which began at 4 p.m. and lasted for one and a half hours, the audience was invited to a reception in the second floor common room, which included a variety of small cold-cut sandwiches and refreshments. Since the lecture dealt with India and China, there were a lot of East Asians and Indians in the audience. After filling my plate with several sandwiches and sweets, I stood at a corner and began eating as I watched the people. I remembered Atuls Family Contest Project and started looking at the skin complexion of the Indians present at the reception. There were two concentrations of Indian guests in the room. A group of six or seven was gathered around the speaker. Only one of them, a tall student with a dark complexion, was conversing with the bank director. The rest were eating and listening with enthusiasm. The second group of Indians was sitting around a coffee table. There were more than ten people in this group - mostly students, but also three older people. One of them was a retired professor whom I had seen before at several seminars. Looking at the faces of individuals in these two groups, the only thing that I was able to conclude for sure was that there was indeed a large degree of color diversity among those present.

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The color spectrum went from yellowish brown to very dark brown. It occurred to me to compare the complexion of younger and older Indians present, and I was about to start this experiment when suddenly my thoughts were interrupted by a voice calling my name. It was Elizabeth. Hi, Dr. H. Did you like the talk? Yes. It was excellent. Were you there? I said, as I noticed an Indian girl who was standing next to Elizabeth. Yes. I was sitting in the last row because I came late. Oh, this is my friend Sujita, said Elizabeth, as she introduced the other girl to me. Sujita was a very thin girl with long black hair. She was a senior chemistry major. She was not nearly as attractive as Meena. Soon, the three of us started talking about the speaker and his frequent references to how corruption was undermining the effectiveness and credibility of Asian governments. After a few minutes, Elizabeth noticed someone on the other side of the room and excused herself. I changed the subject of conversation. You must be from India. Am I right? I asked Sujita. My parents migrated to the US when I was only one year old. So Im either from India or from New Jersey, depending on your perspective. I realized that my question was out of context and apologized for my curiosity. I decided to change the subject again to avoid causing myself further embarrassment. So I asked Sujita if she knew an Indian student by the name of Atul Divan. Oh. Of course I know him. He is also from India/New Jersey! said Sujita with a satirical tone. We were in the same high school near Princeton. I felt embarrassed again. I just laughed this time without any comment.

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Elizabeth told me that he is taking an Independent Study course with you! said Sujita with a meaningful smile, as if to say she was aware of a secret. Yes. Thats right. He is doing an IS on the economic conditions of immigrants in the U.S. Thats so surprising, said Sujita. Before I had a chance to respond to Sujitas rather unusual comment, I suddenly noticed Atul coming towards us. Speaking of the Devil We were just talking about you, I commented while shaking hands with Atul. He and Sujita said Hi to each other. Sujita and I went to the same high school near Princeton, said Atul. She already told me. It must be good to know someone from your hometown at Yale. Sujita did not show any reaction to my comment. Certainly, said Atul after looking at Sujita for a second. I just stopped by to tell you that things are going well with the project, he continued. Before he had a chance to complete his sentence, I interrupted him to make sure he did not reveal too much information in front of Sujita. Excellent. I got your literature review. It seems fine, I said as I winked at Atul in such a subtle way that Sujita did not notice. She joined the conversation by making a complimentary comment about Atul. Atul was always the math genius of our school. I confirmed her comment with a nod of the head. After a short conversation about that afternoons talk, Atul left. Elizabeth was still talking to another student. I remembered Sujitas last comment before Atul interrupted our conversation. So I asked her why she was surprised by the topic of Atuls independent study. Its just that I didnt think he cared much for immigrants, said Sujita.

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Why would he not care about immigrants when he himself belongs to an immigrant family? I asked, hoping to ignite a conversation about Atul. Its just that, while we were in high school, he was often reluctant to socialize with Indians, Chinese or other minority students. Instead he was always patronizing the white students, particularly the girls. Since he was so good at math, he was always trying to socialize with them by offering to help them with math problems. So I was always under the impression that he did not like minorities. Unfortunately for Atul, his patronizing behavior annoyed most of the students that he was trying to befriend. And also the white students generally did not show much interest in socializing with minority students, explained Sujita. Well, perhaps he has changed, because now he seems very interested and is making good progress with his study. Well, I hope you are right, because back then his behavior was very embarrassing. I had never seen anyone who was as resentful of his own identity as Atul, said Sujita. I was not sure how to reply to Sujitas remarks, but I was eager to learn more about Atul. Sujita excused herself to get a drink. People were gradually leaving. As I looked around, I noticed a beautiful well-dressed girl talking to Elizabeth and a male student. She had dark hair but her complexion was lighter than that of most Indians, and she was also taller than most. Another feature that made her stand out was the numerous pieces of jewelry on her fingers, neck and ears. Sujita was back, and she noticed that I was staring at this girl. Her name is Sweta Patel. She is one of the most popular individuals among Indian students, said Sujita.

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No wonder. She looks like a movie star, I commented casually. She is also very active in Indian cultural events, said Sujita. I wanted to hear more about Atul, and I had a feeling Sujita did not mind talking about him even though we had just met. It was as if Atuls private life and attitudes were not really that private among Indian students. I had observed a similar candor when Meena was talking about him. I asked Sujita why, in her opinion, Atul behaved the way he did in the high school. I think it has something to do with the attitudes of his parents. I saw them in a few Indian gatherings and once heard my father talk about them. Atuls parents were very westernized. They rarely showed any interest in traditional Indian music and arts. As soon as they became U.S. citizens, they changed their last name from Vengsarkar to Divan to make it easier for their children to blend in. Poor Atul. It seems that his parents destroyed his self esteem by transferring their own ethnic insecurities to him. I commented. I agree with you. He would have been happier if they had taught him to accept himself and other Indians for what they are, rather than teaching him to live in denial. But what can you expect? Atuls father also had a reputation for going out of his way to patronize the whites while minimizing his interactions with other Indians. These attitudes also had an impact on how they raised their children. In the first years after they had moved into their suburban neighborhood, Atuls parents used to throw lavish birthday parties for him. They invited all the neighborhood children hoping that these children

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would accept Atul as their friend. They also used to buy very exotic and expensive toys for Atul in order to give other kids an incentive to play with him. So I think Atuls behavior later on was a reflection of his parents values. By the time our conversation had reached this point, most people had left. Elizabeth was still there talking to that beautiful Indian girl, Sweta Patel. I thanked Sujita for the conversation and left the reception room as she walked towards them. That night I thought a lot about Atul and his personality. I wondered if his parents were aware of his interest in whitening.

Chapter Ten
The Golden Girls
The next day, Atul contacted me to let me know that he had generated some statistics for the All-India Family Contest data. I asked if his roommate got suspicious. No. Not at all. Rakhil was very grateful that I helped him with entering the data into the computer, said Atul. I scheduled an appointment for him for the next Tuesday and asked him to try to interpret the results by then. As always, Atul arrived after 4:00 p.m. very excited. Dr. H, you wont believe how solid my results are. All the hypotheses that we talked about are confirmed by the family contest data. Thats great. Lets take a look, I said as I leaned forward and took the two pieces of paper that Atul had brought with him. Would you like me to explain these tables while you are looking at them? Sure. In the first table, I have shown the average skin complexion of the 230 parents. For husbands, the color index average is 3.9. For wives, it is 2.7. The difference

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between them is statistically significant and shows that wives on average do have lighter skins, said Atul. How did you come up with your skin color index? I asked. Oh, Im sorry. I should have explained that first. I looked at articles that dealt with race and skin color and noticed that they used an index that categorized people into two or three categories such as white, brown and black. Then, they assigned a numerical value to each category. For example, 1 for white, 2 for brown and 3 for black. The average skin color of the sample will then be measured as the average of these index numbers. Based on this idea, I designed a 5-point color scale suitable for Indians. Since the complexion of Indians generally falls between light yellow and dark brown, I have used 1 for light yellow, 2 for yellow, 3 for dark yellow, 4 for brown and 5 for dark brown. So, just for clarification, where will you yourself fall in this category? I asked. Unfortunately, I would be at least a 4 or even somewhere between 4 and 5. To give you another example, Sujita, the skinny Indian girl that you met last week at the reception, is almost 3.5. OK. Go on. Based on the scale that I just described, wives are on average 1.1 points lighter than husbands. But there is more. Wait a minute, I interrupted him. You know, the other day at the YCIAS reception, there were many Indian women. And as I watched them, I realized that the older ones, perhaps the ones over 30, were wearing some kind of make-up that gave their faces a lighter color. Did you take this factor into account when measuring the skin complexion of women in those photos?

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Atul did not seem surprised by my question. Instead there was a confident smile on his face. Of course I did. Applying whitening paste to the cheeks, nose and forehead is a common part of make-up for Indian women. I always noticed how my mothers face looked lighter after putting on her make-up. When I was determining the color scores of women in the family photos, in addition to faces, I looked carefully at the neck and shoulders - which are partly exposed in some Indian traditional dresses - and arms. I was even careful about the variation in the light exposure and print quality of the photos. I have some experience in photography, so you dont have to worry about these kinds of errors in my measurements. Of course, the whole process is subjective because it is based on personal judgment. But this is true of any research that deals with beauty or physical appearance. Im glad that is settled. The color differential between men and women that you have discovered is very interesting, but it is not surprising. Based on what you told me earlier, Indian men openly seek lighterskinned women for marriage. The results also show that more highly educated and wealthier men indeed succeed in finding such women, Atul replied. As you mentioned last week, this research wont be complete unless I, or someone else, collects a similar data set for lower-income Indian families to see if the color differential still holds. Good. Lets move on to the next table, I said. As you can see in the second table, I got some interesting results on how the age difference between spouses and the wifes education interact with the color differential. I looked at the second table on the first page, which showed two education categories in the first column

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and the skin complexion of the husband and wife and the difference between them in the first row. Atul continued his explanation while looking at his notes. For families where the wife has a bachelors degree or more, the skin color differential between the husband and wife is 0.87. For families where the wife has a high school diploma or less, the color differential is 1.3. And how do you interpret this result? I asked. I guess it means that Indian men are willing to forego their desire for a more educated wife in exchange for lighter skin. Since all the fathers in the family contest sample had at least a bachelors degree and for Indian men the education of a spouse is very important, this result shows the trade-off between education and light skin for women. Isnt this result exciting? Yes. Indeed, I said as I moved the first page aside to look at the second page. I see that you also have a table for the age differential between the spouses. Since the ages of all family members were available, I decided to tabulate the color differential against the age differentials for all the parental couples. My initial feeling was that when the age differential is larger, the color differential would also be larger, said Atul. Why do you think that is the case? Men who marry at an older age have more wealth and income. Therefore, in competition for light-complexioned women, they are more successful. This is particularly true in Indian culture because parents still enjoy a great deal of influence on their childrens choice of a spouse, and they encourage their daughters to marry financially secure men, said Atul. Atul, this is all very imaginative, but you are implicitly assuming that the only reason a young woman

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agrees to marry an older man is for financial security. What about other motives? If you notice in the third table, I have divided the sample into three groups. Marriages with less than 7 years of age difference, those with 7-14 years of age difference and those with 15 or more. In my view, when the age difference is less than 15, a woman might have romantic motives, but, when it is more than 15, I doubt it. That is a matter of opinion. But lets move on. What are your findings with regard to the age differential? Just as I expected, the color differential is larger for couples who have a larger age differential. As you can see, the color differential for couples in which the man is between 7 to 14 years older than his wife is larger than for those in the group with less than 7 years of age differential. However, the color gap in the group with 15 or more years of age difference is not significantly different from the second group with 7-14 years of age difference. Of course, the number of couples with 15 or more years of age difference in the family contest data was only 17 out of 230, which is too small. So I decided to ignore this group and divide the observations into two groups of couples with less than 7 years of age difference and those with 7 or more. Again, the color gap in the first group is significantly smaller and confirms my claim that, when a woman is much younger than her husband, she also tends to have a much lighter skin. This result appears in the last line of the table. I found his explanation satisfactory and focused my attention on the last table, which showed a comparison of the skin complexion of children and their parents. As

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soon as Atul noticed that I was looking at the last table, he started his explanations. In table 4, I have tabulated the skin color of children against that of their parents. For each family, I first calculated the average skin color of all the children that appear in the family photos. Then I calculated the difference between this average and each parents complexion score. As you can see in this table, the average complexion of the children is lighter than that of the father. The difference for the 230 families, however, is small. It is only 0.4. Also, as expected, in most marriages in which the mothers complexion is lighter, the children are on average darker than their mother and lighter than their father. The fact that children are indeed lighter-skinned than their fathers implies that some kind of intergenerational whitening process is under way. But at the same time, the process has a limited effect, because the darker parent seems to have a stronger effect on the childs complexion. Besides, the limit in this process is the skin color of mothers who are darker than white Europeans. I could see where Atul was heading. I guess you are going to tell me how unfortunate it is that Indian women do not have a whiter complexion. We both laughed and I continued: Anyways, good work. But keep in mind this is not the whole picture. Until you have a comparable data set for lower class Indians, you cant make any generalizations about how the skin complexion of the entire population and its various classes can change from one generation to the next. Oh. I completely agree with you. Still, Im glad I did it. At least it confirms what most people believe about the high demand for light-complexioned women in Indian culture. One could also conclude that, as the

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upper class and the upper middle class men choose lighter-skinned women for marriage and produce lighter-skinned offspring, the color gap between the poor and the rich will intensify. Lets not generalize too much for now. Just be content with the results of this survey. I am very happy with the results, but I also found out something strange while I was working on this project. What? During last weeks reception after the bank directors talk, did you notice an attractive Indian girl with light complexion who was wearing lots of jewelry? asked Atul. Yes. I remember seeing a girl with this description. She was rather tall and your Princeton schoolmate, Sujita, told me her name was Sweta. Is she the one that you have in mind? Yes. Sweta Patel. She is such an active girl in Indian cultural activities that I thought she would have definitely participated in the family contest. But, surprisingly she had not. So? Whats so unusual about her absence? Maybe her parents are divorced. Maybe she forgot. But she is not the only one who did not take part in this contest. Sweta has several girlfriends who are just as attractive. Like Sweta, they also have much lighter skin and look more attractive than average Indian girls. These girls often socialize with each other and are very selective about close friendship with other Indians. The Indian students consider them snobs and refer to them as the Golden Girls. I didnt find a file for any of them in the contest.

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So, you are wondering why these so called Golden Girls did not participate in the All- Indian Family Contest? I asked. Yes. Its very strange that all of them kept away, said Atul. I looked at him for a second and suddenly started laughing. After interacting with Atul for so long, I had begun to anticipate his pattern of thoughts. He smiled politely in response to my loud laughter, and I tried to control myself. Atul, Im sorry, but I cant see a connection between their lack of participation and the issue of whitening. But they always hang around with one another, and they all have light complexions. I think they wanted to hide something about their family background. Thats why they did not participate in this contest, said Atul. Do you really think whatever it is that they are trying to hide has something to do with their skin complexion? Yes. But its just a gut feeling. Its just so strange that not even one of them took part in this contest. They always encourage others to take part in various Indian cultural affairs and I always see them in every Indian program. Since their skins are so white, perhaps one of their parents is of European stock. But why would they try to hide this fact from others? I would guess this would be something to brag about in Indian culture, I said Thats right. Why? Atul, I really think you are allowing your own obsession with whitening to affect your judgment about other peoples motives. I cant speculate about these girls motives for staying away from this contest, but Im sure there could be many alternative explanations.

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Lets drop this issue and just go back to your project. Have you thought about what you would like to do next? But Dr. H, I think it is worthwhile to find out if their motives for ignoring this contest had anything to do with their skin complexions or not. If its OK with you, I would like to gather more information about the Golden Girls. I want to find out their exact motives. I dont think this is a good idea. First of all, if any of them finds out that you are asking around about their private lives, you will be in trouble. Second, if anyone finds out about these tables and what you have used the family contest data for, then we will both be in trouble. Ill be very careful and discreet. Ill just try to find out about the ethnic background of their parents. Thats all, said Atul. No. Im sorry, but no. I cant allow any detective work. Lets just forget these girls and move on. Atul was disappointed, and it was showing in his face. I had no choice but to stop him before he got both of us into trouble. He did not argue any further. As you wish, said Atul quietly. I do have one other idea, continued Atul. Last night, as I was thinking about these tables, I kept wondering if I could study the process of whitening in any other ethnic group. It occurred to me that the wealthy Arabs in oil exporting countries of the Persian Gulf might also be engaged in whitening. I read once that most wealthy Arab men of oil-rich countries marry Syrian, Lebanese, Egyptian and even European women. The skin complexions of women from these areas are much lighter than those of women from Saudi Arabia or Oman. Wouldnt it be worthwhile to look at

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the family pictures of rich Arab men for signs of whitening? I immediately realized that this topic could be of value to my own project. I knew a Kuwaiti student when I was an undergraduate, and I had learned a few things about their culture from him. Yes. It is an excellent idea. However, unfortunately, these Arab Kingdoms are extremely conservative, and men usually dont allow strangers to view their family photographs. I have never seen a picture of the royal families of Kuwait or Saudi Arabia or Oman that included women. If you cant see the women how will you go about investigating this hypothesis? I also noticed this fact last night, when I checked out the Web site of the royal family of Kuwait. But you are forgetting something. The effect of a whitening marriage could also be detected by comparing the skin complexion of sons and fathers or, to put it in more scientific terms, by the intergenerational comparison of skin complexion, said Atul. I see that you have already given some thought to this issue. This project is much better than chasing after those so-called Golden Girls, and Im all for it. I just hope you can find enough photos of Arab royal families to gather the minimum number of observations for a statistical test. As you know, the results of a small sample will not be very accurate. Have you also thought about how to find father and son pictures of these wealthy Arab families? That is a real challenge. I was thinking of concentrating on the Arab oil exporting countries of Persian Gulf. I thought of contacting the embassies of these countries in Washington, D.C. and asking for pictures of their royal families. I can also talk to people at the Yale Center for International and Area Studies, which

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has a Middle East Studies office. People there might be able to help me get these photos. You know, Im thinking that perhaps it would be better if you could enlarge your sample by including the wealthy citizens of these oil kingdoms that are not necessarily members of a royal family. The key factor that enables a rich man to marry a whiter woman is his wealth, and there are millions of wealthy businessmen in these countries. Sure. Ill do that if I can get a hold of pictures that at least cover two generations. Anything else? asked Atul. No. Just keep up the good work, and dont forget to prepare another chapter of the cover-up topic in a couple of weeks. I must send it to the department by Nov. 20. * * * After he left, I took a few minutes to reflect on how the issues that we talked about were relevant to my Beauty and Development research. By then, it had become a routine process for me to take some notes for this project after every conversation with Atul. I thought Atuls idea for investigating intergenerational whitening in oil exporting kingdoms had some potential. I had to wait and see if he was able to find enough pictures to come up with a good-sized sample. The wealthy Arabs had the resources to attract lightskinned women into marriage. The big question was whether they had actually done so in the last thirty years. And if the answer was yes, had it resulted in a beauty differential between the older and the younger generations? If the presence of a beauty differential is confirmed, then I have found a direct causal link

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between economic growth and beauty enhancement. The improvement in physical beauty of a rich society over a short period of time happens not only because of better diet. It could also happen through selective marriage with beautiful partners from other societies.

Chapter Eleven
Atuls Adventure
Novembers are generally cold in New Haven, but the November of 98 was unusually mild. Some days, the temperature rose as high as 58 degrees. I was busy the entire first week of that month with the mid-term exams and grading. Atul did not contact me that week. I figured he must have been busy with his midterms. I was expecting him to call during the second week. It would have been ideal if he had been able to discover any signs of intergenerational whitening in the oil-rich Arab kingdoms. But he did not contact me that week either. On Friday, November 13, I felt a minor pain in my abdomen after returning from the library around 2 p.m. At first, I thought it was a mild case of food poisoning from the Bologna sandwich that I ate for lunch. But the pain got worse and, by 4 p.m., it was so bad that I decided to go to the health center. Fortunately, the health center was only a block away from my office, and I was able to walk the short distance. There were several people waiting in the emergency room, but as soon as I walked in and explained my condition to the

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nurse at the front desk, she told me to wait in one of the examination rooms. I waited for five minutes before a young female physician entered. The doctor, who was most likely an intern, asked several questions, and I told her that pain was getting worse by the minute, as I wiped the sweat off my forehead. The intern left the room and returned shortly with another older physician. It turned out that I had a severe case of appendicitis and needed surgery immediately. I was hospitalized and operated on that same evening. I left the Yale University Hospital after two days on a Sunday. Walking upstairs to my second floor apartment that evening was a painful experience, and I had to take several painkillers to make it through the night. The next day, I wanted to make it to my Monday afternoon class but did not have the energy for it. So, I called the department and cancelled it. I also asked them to put a note on my office door for students. Staying home was a wise decision. I felt much better on Tuesday and went to office earlier than usual. The custodian, who was a Jamaican woman in her fifties, was still vacuuming the hallway when I finally got to the third floor, breathing heavily. Good morning, Dr. H. You are early today?! Good morning, Mary. Its because I have a lot to do. Mary was a popular character in the department. She enjoyed talking to everyone about her daughters and grandchildren. Ever since September, we all knew that she was preparing to visit Jamaica for Christmas. As soon as I opened the door, I noticed an envelope on the floor. Someone must have slipped it under the door. It was sealed, and the only thing written on it was

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my name. In it, I found several pages of hand-written notes. It was from Atul. Dr. H, I have been trying to reach you since last night. I called you several times this morning, but you werent in. Something important has come up. I stopped by your office this afternoon and saw the note on the door. So I decided to write you this letter because it is important that you be aware of certain facts in case something happens to me. Initially, when I realized that the letter was from Atul, I wanted to leave it aside until I had finished with my afternoon class. However, as I casually looked at the first paragraph, the phrase in case something happens to me caught my eyes. I also noticed that, unlike Atuls previous letters, which were typed by computer, this one was hand-written. So I decided to read it right away. When I last talked to you two weeks ago about the Golden Girls, you thought that my suspicions were baseless and warned me against trying to gather any information about their family backgrounds. I told you then that I would not pursue this issue, and I really meant it. But two days later, I accidentally found out where Sweta Patels mother worked, and since it was not too far from New Haven, I could not resist the temptation to go there and find out what she looked like. What happened was that, two days after I talked to you, I saw my roommate Rakhil eating

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lunch with Sweta and two other girls. That night, I teased Rakhil about being so lucky to have lunch with one of the Golden Girls. He said that he took a course with Sweta last year and helped her out a lot. That was how he got to know Sweta and some of her friends. As we talked about the Golden Girls, I commented on the beautiful jewelry that Sweta always wore. According to Rakhil, this was no surprise because Swetas mother worked at the jewelry department of J.C. Penney at Trumbull Mall. It turned out that Sweta and her mother had once taken Rakhil to lunch to thank him for helping Sweta with her course work. Rakhil told me that Swetas mother was an attractive Hispanic woman by the name of Maria. After that conversation, I could not help myself thinking about my suspicions about the Golden Girls. Since I knew the first name of Swetas mother and had her work address, I felt a strong urge to go there and see her. I was not doing this for my IS project, and I did not plan to let you know about it. I just wanted to see what she looked like and never thought it would cause any problems or raise any suspicions. After all thousands of people go to J.C. Penney every day, and many of them browse the jewelry section. So I went to Trumbull Mall on Thursday (Nov. 5). When I walked into J.C. Penney, it was one past noon, and there werent many people around. I cautiously walked to the jewelry department. Two women were standing behind the glass cases and talking to each other. One of them was a blond girl in her 20s, so she could not have been Maria. The other one was a

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shorter lady with brown eyes and brown hair. She looked old enough to be Swetas mother. I stood close to the jewelry section and glanced at these two ladies as I pretended to be examining some mens shirts. I noticed that they both had nametags on. So I only needed to approach them to find out if she was Maria or not. I was a little nervous but finally approached the glass cases and started browsing through the large collection of earrings. After a few seconds, a customer approached the two women. The blond woman responded to her, and they moved to the other side of the counter. The other salesperson, whom I believed to be Maria, walked toward me and asked if I needed any help. She appeared to be around 45 to 50 years old. I was not planning to have a conversation with her and felt a little uncomfortable for a moment. Yes. Im looking for a pair of earrings, I said and pointed to a pair of gold earrings. As she reached under the glass cover to retrieve the earrings, I quickly looked at her nametag: Maria Fuentes. I took a look at her face, this time searching for signs of resemblance to Sweta. The stone is ruby, said Maria as she handed them to me. I looked at the earrings for a couple of seconds and looked at her face again as I handed them back. I thanked her as I carefully examined the shape of her nose and eyes. Would you like to see our silver earrings? she asked before I had a chance to turn around and leave. I said yes and followed her to the other side of the square-shaped jewelry section. I asked her to bring out two pairs and asked her a few questions to have an excuse for looking at her face more carefully.

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Since she had spent some time showing me the various earrings, I felt compelled to buy something. I chose an inexpensive pair of silver earrings. As she was processing my credit card, I looked at her again, but I still wasnt sure if she was Swetas mother. When she handed me my card and the earrings, she said, Thank you, Mr. Divan, and she said it not in English but in Hindi. I was surprised, but at the same time I took it as another indication that she could have been Swetas mother. I smiled and asked her in Hindi if she was from India. No. But I was married to an Indian man, she replied. Then she asked me if I lived nearby. I told her I lived in Florida and was visiting a friend in New Haven. "Oh! My daughter goes to school in New Haven. She is a student at Yale, said Maria. I complimented her on the success of her daughter and pointed out how difficult it was to get into Yale. She proudly pointed out that her son, who was two years younger, was a sophomore at Brown University. I offered her another compliment. My compliments made her even more willing to talk. Fortunately, there were no customers around, and Marias younger co-worker was eagerly assisting the few who occasionally needed help. So I continued my conversation with Maria. Maria had found her current job after her divorce. I wanted to hear more about her marriage, and I figured that, if I made up something about my parents marriage, she might also open up. After all, its easy to talk about your private life to strangers whom you are sure you will never see again. So I made up a story about how my father left my mother because he fell in love with a

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lighter-skinned woman. I was right! She not only revealed more personal information about herself after I made this comment, but she talked about something that further confirmed my suspicions. Isnt that just like a typical Indian man? she asked, her mood becoming more serious. There are so many beautiful Indian women with dark skin, but Indian men are unfortunately obsessed with whiteness. I hope you are not like that, she commented with a smile. Oh. No, not at all. How about your ex-husband, if you dont mind me asking? I replied. She smiled as she nodded her head: Oh, my ex is passionate about whiteness. I would even say that, for him, white skin was like an obsession. The only reason he married me was because of my fair skin. I looked at her for a second and pretended to be confused by her response and asked her why she felt that way. She told me that, about five years ago, she had gotten into a bitter argument with her sister-in-law. In the heat of the fight, her sister-in-law had humiliated her by shouting, the only reason my brother married you is because of your white skin - not for yourself. I thought about what my sister-in-law told me that day for a long time, said Maria. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that it was true. When I thought about my husbands behavior from this angle, suddenly a lot of things made sense. Why would a university professor from a prosperous family marry a poor Hispanic girl who grew up in a rundown neighborhood and did not even finish high school? said Maria.

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But there is nothing unusual about a man caring about beauty more than social compatibility when choosing a marriage partner, I commented. She smiled and continued: Believe me, it wasnt just a question of beauty. He was obsessed with whiteness. He always wanted me to find suitable partners for his friends, and the one thing that he insisted on was that they should have fair skin. I was happy to fix some of my own friends up with his so-called friends, who were either university professors or medical doctors. I grew up in Bridgeport, which has a large Hispanic community, and I knew lots of nice girls. So I regularly called them up and invited them to meet my husbands friends. These friends came from all over the East Coast. You might find it hard to believe, but five of my high school friends eventually got married to these Indian men. Two of them got engaged before our wedding, and two others followed suit in the first two years of our marriage. I was fascinated by these revelations and wanted to hear more about her husband and his friends, but her blond co-worker unfortunately interrupted our conversation and referred a customer to Maria. I thanked her and said goodbye. On my way back to New Haven, I kept thinking about how Marias husband had used her as a matchmaker to find fair-skinned wives for his friends: at least six Indian professionals and perhaps many more, all married to Hispanic girls. It couldnt have been accidental. There was something going on. Were there more Indian/Hispanic marriages? Were any other

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Golden Girls, besides Sweta, the fruits of such marriages? Later that evening when Rakhil returned from the library, I managed to guide our conversation to the Golden Girls and asked him if he had met the parents of any of the others. His answer was negative. But he did offer a valuable piece of information. Rakhil had once heard two of them, Sweta and another girl named Sonya, talk in Spanish. I was so surprised, said Rakhil. And when I asked Sonya where she learned to speak Spanish so well, she said that her mother talked to her in Spanish when she was a child. So, based on this information, at least two of the Golden Girls had Spanish mothers. I wanted to ask Rakhil more questions about the Golden Girls, but I changed my mind after he asked me why I was so curious about these girls. I made up an excuse and changed the subject. That night, I spent a lot of time thinking about how I could learn more about the other Golden Girls. It was too risky to ask Rakhil or any other Indian students, because they would have wondered about my motives. After considering several alternatives, I finally came up with a strategy. In my applied statistics class, there is a guy named David Stanton. I had helped him out with a couple of class projects, and I knew that he was counting on my help for future assignments as well. He is working part-time in the computer center of the administration office. There was a good chance that he could access the personnel records of all the students who were currently registered.

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The next morning, I sent David an email and told him that I needed to talk to him as soon as possible. We met in the afternoon, and I asked him if he had access to students personal information. He told me that he had access to all the student records, but was not authorized to alter any information. I told him that I didnt need him to alter anything. I had already thought up a good excuse for what I wanted from him. I told him that we (Indian students) were organizing a celebration for several honor students of Indian origin, and I wanted to invite the parents of these students without letting the students find out about it. So I gave him the names of eight Golden Girls and asked him if he could give me the names and phone numbers of each girls parents. He was reluctant, because what I wanted him to do was illegal. I told him it was for a good cause, and I also promised to return his favor. After arguing back and forth for several minutes, he finally agreed and promised to prepare the list over the weekend. David called me on Sunday (Nov. 8th). He had the information that I had asked for. He wanted to give me the list after the stat class on Monday, but I couldnt wait. I went to his dorm that same night after dinner. When David handed me the list, he mentioned that he had noticed something strange. Five of the girls on your list have mothers with Spanish names, and the other three names sound more European than Indian, said David. Is that true? I didnt know that, I replied, looking at the list with surprise. Then I quickly thanked him and promised to invite him

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to the ceremony. I also asked him to keep this a secret. When I looked at the list after returning to my room, I was even more puzzled. As David had noticed, none of these eight girls had Indian mothers, and five of them had mothers with Spanish names. As I had expected, Swetas mother was listed as Maria Fuentes. I remembered what Maria had told me about matching her Hispanic girlfriends to her husbands friends. As I looked at the list, two questions kept popping up in my mind. First, were these Indian/Hispanic marriages part of a deliberate plan to match successful Indian men with fair-skinned women? Second, if indeed these were deliberate marriages, then what was the motive behind them? I had a gut feeling that some eugenic motive was at play. I further noticed that, in six cases, the parents had different addresses, indicating that they were divorced. Although I had the names, phone numbers and addresses of the eight mothers, only three of them lived in Connecticut. I spent most of that day thinking about what to do with the list. I even thought of contacting you, but I knew you would not have approved of what I had done. At the same time, I was worried about what might have happened if the Golden Girls found out I was asking around about them. Well! It turned out that they had already found this out. When I left my last class of the afternoon that day, Sweta and another one of the Golden Girls by the name of Junita were standing in the hallway. They were staring at me,

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and as soon as I walked out of my class they called my name. I could tell from their look that they were not in a friendly mood. I said hello and tried to hide my anxiety. Why have you been trying to find out where my parents live? asked Junita angrily. I was so frightened that I could not respond for a few seconds and just looked at her. When I was finally able to overcome the initial shock, I told her that I did not know what she was talking about. Dont lie. Just tell me what did you want the home addresses of me and some of my friends for? asked Junita again, even more angrily. Do you realize that what you have done is illegal, and you will be in trouble if we file a complaint against you? asked Sweta before I had a chance to say anything. I denied any knowledge of what they were talking about, but it must not have been too difficult for them to sense that I was trying to hide something, because my voice was trembling. Are you denying that you asked David Stanton to pull out our parents phone numbers and addresses for you? asked Sweta. Thank God most students had left and the hallway was almost empty. I could hardly breathe when I heard Davids name. I just said, Go to hell! in a weak voice and walked away from them. Ill go to the Deans Office. You wont get away with this, shouted Junita. I just walked away as fast as I could. As soon as I returned to my room, I called David. I asked him if he had talked to anyone about the list that he gave me. He swore that he had not talked to anyone. Then how the hell did these girls find out about it? I asked. David re-

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peated his answer and, to prove his innocence, reminded me that he would be in even more trouble than I would if the administration found out about the list. I asked him over and over, and he kept denying that hed told the girls anything. I asked him if there was anyway that the administration could trace the files that he had accessed last week. He was not sure. We were both frightened. I told him that we must be consistent and both deny the whole thing if anyone questioned us about the list. I did not dare to use the list after that encounter with Sweta and Junita. All week long I was worried about what Sweta and the other girls might do. I was expecting them or someone from Yales administration office to contact me at anytime. But no one did. And as the days passed, I began to believe that they had forgotten about the issue altogether. By Friday afternoon, however, I realized how wrong I had been. I spent all of Friday afternoon in the library and left for my dorm at around 5:30. I took my usual route walking north on Prospect Avenue. At the intersection of College and Prospect, as I was waiting for the green light to cross the street, someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around and saw two men. One of them was clearly an Indian, very dark-skinned, tall and rather thin. He was in his fifties. The other man had a yellowish complexion. He was in his twenties and shorter (although he was taller than I am). Are you Atul Divan? asked the older man. I nodded yes. Can we talk to you for a minute? asked the older man. I walked away

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from the edge of the intersection. Im Ramish Patel, Swetas father, and this is my son Sanjay. As soon as I heard Swetas name, my heartbeat rose. Do you know why we are here? asked Mr. Patel. I have a feeling it has something to do with your daughter, I replied. Thats right. I want to know why were you trying to find out where her mother and I lived, he asked calmly. His voice was not as threatening as I initially expected, but I was still frightened. After a couple of seconds, I regained my confidence and collected my thoughts: I have no idea what you are talking about. Why would I want to get a hold of your address? Dont you deny it, said Mr. Patel, while pointing his finger at me. I know for a fact that you asked a student named David who has access to student records for the parental addresses of several Indian girls. Just tell me what you were after. He took a step toward me in a threatening way as he finished this sentence. I told you. I dont know what the hell are you talking about. This is harassment. First your daughter and now you are harassing me. At this point the younger man, Sanjay, rushed forward and held my arm. What were you doing at J.C. Penney in Trumbull Mall last week? Why did you talk to an employee named Maria? he asked as he pressed my arm even harder. I tried to free my hand but he was stronger than I am. I was so shocked by this question. They even knew about my conversation with Maria, but how? You must be out of your mind. I have never met anyone named Maria, and I havent been to

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that mall in more than a month, I shouted as I struggled to free my hand. As people began to notice the commotion, Ramish Patel told his son to let go of my arm. I wanted to run away, but the younger man was too close. He would have grabbed me before I had a chance to take my second step. I looked at both of them and decided it was best if I just kept quiet. The older man broke the silence. You are lying. I have proof that you made a purchase from the jewelry department at J.C. Penney last week. Look! I just want to know what are you searching for. We are both Indians. We are not each others enemies. You know that what you did was illegal. You unlawfully obtained personal information about eight students. Even if you dont talk, David will, and then you will be in deep trouble. If you just tell me what were you after, I promise not to report you. I just looked at him and walked away. They did not follow me. I cant even describe how horrible I felt that night. I knew that they would come after me again. Sooner or later, I had to stop denying the truth and give them some explanation. But what could I say? I tried to contact you, but you were not in your office. I tried to call you at home, but your home phone number was not listed. So I spent the entire weekend in the library trying to keep my mind occupied. I tried to contact David, but he was out of town. Sunday night when I returned to my room, I decided it would be too dangerous to keep the notes and photocopies that I had gathered for the whitening project in my unlocked drawer. I had kept all of these documents in three folders along with a

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diskette with copies of my computer files on whitening. What if these people managed to search my room! What if Rakhil was spying for them? I wanted to put these folders in my other drawer, which had a lock. Unfortunately, it was too late. The drawer was empty. Someone had stolen all of my research materials on whitening. Rakhil was not a suspect, because he had been out of town since Thursday, and I had seen the folders on Friday. I looked everywhere, but they were gone. Nothing else was missing. I can only think of one person who might have taken these folders: Ramish Patel or someone on his behalf. I really believe now that the Golden Girls and their families are hiding something that has to do with whitening. Why else would they take away my notes on this topic? Dr. H, Im very worried. Im afraid that you might be in trouble too. Whoever took my notes knows by now that you are supervising my research on whitening. Im very sorry about this mess. I will keep calling you until I get a hold of you. Regards, Atul * * * Stupid, stupid Atul!! No! It was I who was stupid. Why did I not think of this danger? I trusted Atul because he seemed so conservative and obedient. I never imagined he might dare to do anything as careless as this. By the time I finished reading Atuls letter, it was 8:30 am. I had to prepare for my afternoon class, but I was so nervous that I could not even start. I

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had to call Atul right away. I had not even noticed that the message light on my phone was blinking. There were three messages from Atul: two from Sunday night and one from Monday morning letting me know that he would stop by in the afternoon. I called him. He was not in his room, so I left a message and asked him to call me back as soon as possible. First my surgery and now this! I decided to put the letter aside and prepare for my afternoon class, but I couldnt concentrate. I kept thinking about what the department might do if the person who took Atuls notes sent them to the department. I could definitely kiss my tenure goodbye then. I tried to think about how I should respond if the department found out, but I was too anxious to think clearly. I was in no mood for teaching my afternoon class either. I decided to tell the department that I was in pain and had to cancel my class. It suddenly occurred to me that it would be too risky to keep any notes related to Atuls research in my office. I kept these notes and my own notes on the Beauty and Development project in a magazine file on the upper shelf of a bookcase across from my desk. I looked up at the bookcase. The file was not there. It felt like I was suffocating for a second. I jumped out of my chair and moved toward the bookcase looking in every shelf from top to bottom. I searched my entire office in panic. That particular magazine file had disappeared. I looked around to see if anything else was missing. Nothing else had been taken. I sat in my chair, closed my eyes and tried to control my feelings, which were oscillating between rage and despair. Aside from the fact that the stolen notes could have been used against me, I was also angry about losing all the research ma-

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terials that I had gathered for the Beauty and Development project. After a few minutes, I calmed down a little and began to analyze the situation. First, I had to find out who had entered my office. I called the secretary in the main office and asked if anyone had borrowed the spare key to my office over the past three days. Her answer was negative. She said that departmental policy does not allow her to let anyone into a faculty members office without his permission. Even teaching assistants were not allowed to borrow the key. So, if no one had borrowed the key to enter my office, someone must have entered without a key. I checked the door lock to see if it had been tampered with. There were no fresh marks or scratches around the knob. While I was examining the door, the phone rang. It was Janet Riley, the departments business administrator: Midge told me about your phone call a minute ago. Are you concerned that someone has entered your office without your permission? I wasnt prepared for this question. Oh. Yes Actually Im not sure. I cant find a few of my books that I used to keep here in my office. I thought that perhaps one of the faculty members had borrowed them without telling me. I dont know. It could also be that I have taken them home and just dont remember it now, I replied. Thats too bad. As Midge told you, we never give out the spare key for the faculty offices. The only other person who can open the office doors is Mary, the custodian, and I trust her 100%, said Janet. Oh! I trust Mary as well. As I said, I might have taken them home a while back. It is not a big deal really. But thanks for your call. Mary was already gone for the day. I saw no point staying in the office. I wrote down Atuls phone number on a piece of paper.

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Before leaving my office, I called his room number again and left a message telling him to call me at home. By eight p.m., Atul had not returned my call. It was strange, considering how worried he sounded in his letter. I called him again. His roommate Rakhil answered. He said that Atul was there earlier, but left a few minutes before my call. I asked Rakhil to write a note and put it on Atuls desk where he would definitely see it. Atul had surely gotten my messages. Then why didnt he return my call?

Chapter Twelve
Revelations
I went to my office very early the next day. Not only did I have to prepare for a 10 a.m. class, but I also wanted to talk to Mary before her morning shift was over. By the time I got to the third floor, it was 7:55, and Mary was vacuuming one of the graduate student offices. Two other office doors were wide open. The sound of the vacuum cleaner was so loud that she did not notice me as I opened the door to my office. I kept the door open and waited for her to finish vacuuming. After two minutes she turned off the vacuum. As I walked out of my office, Mary also stepped out into the small hallway. After a brief greeting, I asked her if she had let anyone into my room while working on our floor last week. Of course not. Why are you asking, Professor? Is something missing? asked Mary. I cant find a couple of books, but I might have taken them home earlier and forgotten about it, I responded. I never let anyone into a teachers office - especially not the students. You know that!

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I thanked her and returned to my office. I tried to think of how else someone could have stolen my notes, but my thoughts were not fruitful. After my morning class, I returned to my office and waited for Atul to either call or show up in person, but he never did. I didnt have any idea why he was avoiding me. Instead of calling him again, I decided to send him an email. Without mentioning his letter, I asked him to contact me immediately regarding his Independent Study. The next morning, I received an email from Atul: Unfortunately, I have fallen behind in some of my classes and have realized that I will not have enough time to complete my IS. I apologize for this sudden decision, but I have to drop this course in order to keep up with my required courses. Otherwise, I wont be able to graduate this semester. Sincerely, Atul. I didnt buy Atuls explanation. He was so enthusiastic about whitening that he would have sacrificed his other classes before abandoning this one. Something must have happened - something that had to do with his investigations about those girls. Had someone threatened him to abandon this project? But why was he avoiding me? He could have at least called me if he did not want to be seen near my office. I didnt think it was helpful to try to call him again. I decided to send him the following email instead: Im very sorry that you have to drop your IS after working so hard for it. Could you please return the two books that you borrowed last month, at your convenience? I was hoping that since we both knew that he had not borrowed any books from me, he would interpret

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this email as a signal that I understood he might have been coerced to keep away from me but still wanted to talk to him. He did not respond to this message. As much as I was worried about how this whole ordeal might affect me personally and professionally, I decided there was no point in trying to get in touch with Atul any more. My only option was to wait for the person who took my notes to make a move either by contacting me or reporting what I had done to the department. So far he had done neither, which was very puzzling to me. Since there wasnt much that I could do, I tried to stop thinking about this issue. Achieving this goal proved easier than I had thought. By the last week of November, I still had not received even one positive response to my job applications. Instead, I got one or two polite rejection letters every day. With every rejection, I felt more anxious about my future. I was equally concerned about the departments decision on my tenure. I expected a formal response before the end of the year. As the days went by and the second week of December came to an end, I knew that there was no hope for any positive response to my job applications. The department search committees responsible for recruiting new faculty members usually complete their initial search before December 15. Then the initial interviews take place during the American Economic Associations annual conference in the first week of January. The finals week of the Fall term passed quickly. I submerged myself in grading more than 60 term papers and essay exams. I was so busy that I rarely thought about Atul or my stolen notes. I once thought of writing down everything that I remembered about the Beauty and Development project, but unfortunately I

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did not have the energy or the motivation for it. The only disturbing thoughts that attacked my mind during those days were the occasional anxieties about my tenure. Aside from my students, the only other person that I had any contact with was Elizabeth. She wanted to finish her tasks by Thursday of the finals week and go home for the holidays. On Friday, December 18, which was the last day of the finals week, I stayed in my office until 7 p.m. grading exam papers. I would have stayed longer except that I was very hungry and decided to walk to Whitney Avenue to get a sandwich before walking home. The weather was unusually mild for midDecember. As I stepped out of the department, I noticed a familiar figure crossing the street toward me. I immediately recognized him. It was Atul. As usual, he was carrying his large backpack and leaning to one side under its weight. I stood in front of the department and stared at him as he approached me. Hi, Dr. H. I know it might be a bad time, but can I speak to you for a moment? asked Atul softly. I just looked at him without saying anything. Realizing that I was not going to break the silence, he continued. Im very sorry for what happened. Im leaving tomorrow for Princeton, and I wanted to see you to explain a few things and also to apologize. The doors were locked, and I have been standing here for 45 minutes waiting for you to get out of the building, said Atul. Why didnt you come to see me earlier? You could have at least returned my calls, I said. That is why Im here to apologize. Apologize for what? For nosing into those girls private lives against my advice? For ignoring my messages? Or for wasting my time for four months and

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then dropping your IS with that stupid excuse? I asked. You have every right to be angry, but please give me a chance to explain? Please, Dr. H, I already feel bad for the way I behaved. Dont make it any worse for me. I kept quiet for a few seconds while trying to avoid eye contact with him. Very well! I just hope you have a good explanation. Im going to Whitney Avenue to get a sandwich. Would you like to walk with me? Do you mind if we talk in your office instead? I dont want to be seen talking to you. You dont want to be seen with me?!! Why? I asked. What I mean is that I dont want certain people to see us together. I noticed that he was a little nervous. Even though I was very hungry, I took Atul back to my office after getting a chocolate bar from a vending machine. I sat behind my desk and waited for Atul to start his story. First, I want to apologize for not getting in touch with you for the past few weeks. And you are right: I did not drop my IS because of the pressure of my other classes. Nor was it because I lost interest in whitening, said Atul. Did someone threaten you to give it up? That guy that you mentioned in your letter - what was his name? That tall Indian guy? Ramish Patel. Yes. Did he give you any trouble? I wasnt threatened to do anything. Its more complicated than that. Atul stopped and stared at me with hesitation. I waited for him to continue.

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Dr. H., Im not supposed to share any of this with you, but realizing how supportive you have been over the past few months and the risk that you took by secretly supervising my study of whitening, I just felt that I owed you an explanation. The fact is that Ramish Patel and several other Indians belong to a secret whitening society. They were the ones who stole my notes. Initially, they felt threatened by my curiosity about the Golden Girls. But after reading my notes, they realized that I was interested in whitening and had a positive attitude toward it. So they contacted me and invited me to join them. I looked at Atul with disbelief. You are joking right? I asked. No. Im telling you the truth. Besides, they are really impressed with my work on the history of whitening in Brazil and Japan. Are you telling me that your suspicions about the Golden Girls turned out to be true? I asked. Yes. The light complexion of Sweta and other Golden Girls is not accidental. They are all products of whitening marriages. Ramish Patel and several other fathers of these girls belong to this secret whitening society. Isnt it amazing? I have finally found a group of people who share my views about the importance of whitening. I didnt know whether to believe Atul or not. Maybe all of these were products of his imagination. Sometimes, when a person is obsessed with an idea, his imagination takes over. However, the disappearance of my notes was real. This is unbelievable!! So did they just contact you and try to recruit you? I asked. The day that I slipped that long letter under your door, I got a phone call from Ramish Patel. I thought he wanted to threaten me again and repeat the same

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questions about why I was interested in the family background of the Golden Girls. Instead, he apologized for his earlier encounter with me and said that he wanted to talk to me in person about something very important. At first, I was reluctant, but after he said that he had my notes and he wanted to talk about whitening, I agreed. Ramish came to campus and took me to lunch the next day. I was both very excited and worried about what he had to say. I felt angry about the fact that he had stolen all my notes, but then it was no worse than my disguised conversation with his exwife Maria Fuentes and my aborted plan to contact the mothers of other Golden girls. As he put it later, we were even: I had invaded his daughters privacy, and he had invaded mine. I asked him why he was interested in whitening. Instead of responding to my question, he started asking me about my interest in whitening and promised to answer all of my questions after I had answered his. He asked me about when I first became interested in whitening and why I thought it was a good thing for non-whites. This was the first time in my life that someone was listening to my ideas about whitening without criticizing or laughing at me. He also asked me a lot of questions about the reports that I had written for my IS. He was particularly intrigued by the passionate essay that I wrote early on. You mean the one with the title, An Appeal to the non-European People of the World? I asked, and we both laughed. Yes. I know that you thought it was too emotional and premature, but Ramish found it admirable. He thought it was an inspiring piece. Anyway, after asking me all kinds of questions for about half an hour, he asked me if I had any questions. I had only one question for him: Why did he want to see me and why

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was he suddenly so kind to me? He said that it was because he was as interested in whitening as me and he shared my opinions about it. He also had become interested in whitening as an undergraduate student and, over time, had met several other Indians who believed in whitening. It was then that he told me about the existence of a secret society within the Indian community in the United States. He then told me that he had come to see if I was interested in joining them. Apparently, Ramish had talked to other members about me after reading my whitening notes. He told me that he was extending me this invitation on behalf of all the members. They had all found my ideas interesting and, as I mentioned earlier, they were delighted about my findings on the quest for whitening in Japan and Brazil. So what was your response? Did you accept? I asked, still not sure about how much of his story was true. Not immediately. I told him that, first, I wanted to know more about the objectives and activities of this society. Ramish said that he could not go into any more details unless I showed an initial interest and promised to keep the Society and its activities a secret. He tried to persuade me by promising that membership in this society would help me realize my intellectual dreams about whitening. I did not hesitate anymore and accepted his invitation, even though I still had many questions. Ramish told me one of the reasons that I was selected for membership was that I refused to reveal my real motives for collecting information about the Golden Girls when he and his son threatened me. This behavior to them was an indication that I was capable of keeping secrets, even when under pressure. Ramish was very sensitive about keeping the organization

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secret and emphasized the importance of secrecy several times. He was the one who told me to stop all contacts with you and drop my independent study course immediately. He asked me if I had talked to you about my investigation about the Golden Girls and my conversation with Swetas mother, Maria. Since he did not know anything about the letter that I had slipped under your door, I told him that you had no knowledge of any of these developments. Now do you see why I did not want to be seen with you tonight? I was worried that some of the Indian students and faculty at Yale might belong to the Whitening Society. Since I had promised Ramish never to contact you again, I would have been in trouble if any of them had seen us together. But you did not have to drop your IS course. After spending so much time on it, you could have, at least, finished it without telling me anything about this socalled secret society. Or you could have at least contacted me in a discreet manner, I complained. Dr. H., you are right. Initially, I did not think of these options, but at the end of my conversation with Ramish they came to my mind as well. When I shared these options with Ramish, he did not like them and rejected them flatly. He made me promise again to avoid all contact with you. I had no choice, but to accept this demand. Otherwise, he wouldnt have trusted me. I have felt guilty ever since, and that is why Im here. I felt that I owed you an explanation and an apology before I leave. I graduated this term and today was my last day at Yale. Based on what Atul had just told me, I had a strong feeling that Ramish was the one who stole my notes. However, I wasnt sure if I should say anything about this to Atul. He seemed to have a positive opinion of

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Ramish and his society. For now, I thought it was time to show some understanding. In that case, Im glad you stopped by. To be honest, I have been very angry with you for what you did. But after hearing your story, Im not angry anymore. Its just hard to believe that such a society exists. Are you sure you know the real motive of these people? You must make sure they are not manipulating you, I warned. Dr. H., these past four weeks have been the best weeks of my life. I dont think they have any ulterior motive, and I dont feel in any danger at all. If anything, I feel I have finally found a group that stands for everything that I believe in. They have all suffered the same pain and humiliation that I have gone through as a dark-skinned Indian. They all share my belief that whitening is the key to a better future for all of us, responded Atul. I can see that you are very passionate about this group, which I suppose must have a name. But I urge you to be very cautious. Before you get more deeply involved, make sure you know exactly what they are doing and what they expect from you, I said. Then, I suddenly realized that I had forgotten all about my own missing notes. Thanks for your concern. So far, I have only met Ramish and two other members who are also university professors. Oh, by the way, our group does have a formal name. It is called the Aishwarya Society. Aishwarya is the goddess of fair skin in Indian mythology, which, Im sure you agree, is an appropriate name for such a society. However, we usually refer to it as the Whitening Society. Anyway, based on my conversations with Ramish and the other members whom I have met so far, the only objective of the society is to improve the racial beauty of the Indian

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community in the U.S. They believe, and I fully agree with them, that future generations of Indians will have a much better future in America if their skin complexion is lighter than ours, said Atul. Then, if this is their only objective, why all the secrecy? Why were they so afraid of you finding out their secret that they broke into your room and took all your notes? If they think their idea is so noble, then why not bring it into the open and discuss it with the entire Indian community? I asked. This question did not take Atul by surprise. Have you forgotten that you yourself thought whitening was such an embarrassing concept that you asked me for a cover-up topic for my IS? The Whitening Society is worried that, if it is exposed, the members and particularly their biracial children will be harassed and humiliated. They think that both whites and ethnic minorities would react negatively to the idea of whitening. Most blacks will surely condemn it as a sign of self-hatred and submission to white racism. The majority of whites would condemn it, because they think race mixing is a threat to the white race. But that is not all. The Society is even more afraid of a possible backlash among Indians. India is still a caste-based society and, even among the Indians who live in Europe or North America, caste loyalties are very strong. There is a lot of social stigma attached to marrying outside ones caste group. Parents in particular insist on their children marrying within the caste. This is particularly true of the upper and middle castes to which most of us who live in the States belong. Since whitening, by nature, requires an Indian to marry outside of his caste, the Society fears that it will generate a strong backlash among the older generation, whose caste sensitivity is much stronger.

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Ramish told me that when he informed his relatives of his plans for marrying Maria, his parents were so upset that his father did not even attend the wedding, said Atul. But werent they happy that their bride had such a fair complexion? After all, you yourself mentioned that Indians are very color conscious, I commented. I dont know. I never asked him this question, but I suppose that is why they eventually accepted her. However, perhaps their hostility toward Maria played a role in her eventual divorce. In any case, my point is that, for large numbers of Indians, concern over caste purity might be more important than their desire for fair complexion. We have to keep the Society a secret for now to avoid a negative backlash from these types of caste-worshiping Indians, replied Atul. I noticed that this was the first time that I was hearing such generalizations from Atul. These must have been the result of his recent association with Ramish. Dont forget another important group, Atul: the Indian women who will not be able to find suitable husbands because your secret society will encourage Indian men to marry Hispanic or white girls, I said in a joking manner. We both laughed. Youre right, responded Atul. They will be angry, and who knows how they might react to an organization that reduces the supply of eligible bachelors. So, you see why we have to operate in secrecy. However, our goals are broader than simple matchmaking. Obviously, the society will try to find white husbands for Indian women, although so far it has not done so, because we do not have any female members. But Ramish told me that he and others have talked a few times about helping Indian women have biracial

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children through artificial insemination. This idea, however, has not gone beyond informal discussions yet. You mean your society will encourage Indian women to become pregnant from white men? I asked. Well! Not exactly, but something close to that. What Ramish has in mind is more like helping Indian women obtain sperm donated by white men. I just looked at him in silence and shook my head as we both smiled. I wondered if he took this idea seriously. He finally broke the silence. As I wrote in the APPEAL article, whitening will ultimately involve a one-shot humiliation. I know this idea might sound humiliating, but the pay off is well worth it, said Atul with a serious look. He did take this idea seriously! I think you better keep the Society a secret and just stick to finding wives for your members. If you make such recommendations for Indian women, people think youre nuts, I said with mild laughter, as Atul also laughed in conformity. The temporary effect of the chocolate bar was fading away, and I was feeling hungry again. I wanted to end the conversation, but not before asking him about my missing notes. Atul, I see that you are already involved with these people and trust them, but there is something that you should know. The same day that you slipped that long letter under my door, I discovered that all of my notes on your independent study were missing. I always kept them in a magazine file on that top shelf behind you. The file and everything in it are gone. You mean someone broke into your office and took them while you were in hospital? asked Atul.

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Yes. Just that single magazine file and nothing else. Atul stared at me for a few seconds: Who do you think did it? Are you suggesting that Ramish could be involved? asked Atul. After what you told me tonight, I cant think of anyone else. But do you have any evidence that points to him? Evidence, no. But motive, yes. I always thought whoever took your notes must have taken mine as well. I think Ramish took my notes after he stole yours. But why? asked Atul. Isnt it obvious? You told me he is very concerned about keeping the Whitening Society a secret. After reading your notes, he must have realized that I was your supervisor, and he assumed that you must have submitted several reports on whitening to me. Perhaps he thought some of your reports were too sensitive and could offer clues to the Whitening Society. So he decided to steal any reports and notes that you had given me. But since I didnt know anything about the Society back then, the reports that I gave you have nothing in them that might expose it, said Atul. Wait a minute, there is something, continued Atul. I had some handwritten notes about the Golden Girls in the margins of one of the reports that Ramish took from my room. Maybe he thought that I had discussed the Golden Girls with you and you might have taken some notes about them too. Good thinking. Did Ramish ask you any questions about me? I asked. Well! He wanted to know what I had told you about my inquiries about the Golden Girls. I told him that you were totally unaware of that inquiry. I also told

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him that I kept those inquiries secret from you because you had strongly opposed the idea of spying on those girls. He also asked me if you were doing any separate research on whitening aside from my independent study. And what did you tell him? I interrupted him suddenly. Naturally, I told him that you were not. I even told him that you were initially very reluctant and agreed to supervise my project only out of goodwill. Did he say why he asked this question? I asked. No. Even when I asked him why he was so curious about you, he did not give me a straight answer. He just told me several times to avoid all contact with you. Atul was silent for a few seconds and then continued: You know, I think youre right. He could be the one who took your notes. Did you tell the department that someone had broken into your office? Of course not. I didnt want the department to find out about your project? My biggest worry is that whoever took them might send them to the department. It would be very embarrassing for me if the department finds out. It would be a disaster if they find out that I secretly helped you study a bizarre concept like whitening. No offense. It could cost me my job. Im so sorry, Dr. H. I had no idea that you might get dragged into this. What would you like me to do? Do you want me to try to get your notes back from Ramish? asked Atul. No! No! If you show any curiosity about my notes, Ramish will sense that you have talked to me. If Ramish is the one who took my notes, then he is unlikely to send them to the department. If he exposes me, he will risk exposing you and indirectly exposing

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the Society. Did he give you back your notes? I asked. No. Ramish told me it wasnt safe to keep any written materials on whitening with me. He even told me to give him a copy of all the computer files that I had on whitening and erase them from my laptop. He said the Society had a secret collection of documents, and my notes will be added to this collection. But then all the reports that I gave you over the past five months are the same ones that Ramish took from my room. So, he probably took yours just to get rid of them, replied Atul. I did not tell Atul anything about my own notes on beauty and development. On one hand, I was relieved that Ramish had taken my notes. At least I knew that he would never expose them. On the other hand, I had lost all my notes on beauty and development, and there was no way that I could get them back. So I will never get my notes back either, I said. Im afraid so. But, to be honest, I dont think that is such a big loss to you, Dr. H. I always got the impression that you didnt care much for whitening. Im not trying to justify what Ramish did, but its not as bad as if he had taken your own original research notes. Nevertheless, if you want a copy of the papers that I submitted throughout this semester, I will try to make copies for you as soon as Ramish lets me access the Societys documents. I told him I would appreciate it if he could do that. I wished I could have told him what a big loss it was. I actually gave more thought to the Beauty and Development project after the disappearance of my notes. I came to the conclusion that it had more potential than I had initially believed. Alas, it was hard for me to continue this project without my notes. That

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was the end of my last and - as usual - long conversation with Atul. I wished him well, and he promised to keep in touch in a discreet way. As I walked home that night, I remembered my very first conversation with him about eight months ago. My first impression of him: a short and thin Indian student with a large black backpack and a strange idea.

Chapter Thirteen
Life after Yale
Compassion dictates that bad news must be delivered at an appropriate moment. The tenure committee had enough compassion not to hand me the bad news during the semester. I received a polite and short tenure rejection letter on Monday, December 21, the first Monday of the Christmas Recess. I was glad it did not arrive on Friday, or it would have ruined my weekend. The emotional impact of this rejection was worse than I had anticipated. Throughout December, I tried to prepare myself just in case the news was negative. But all of that mental preparation did not help at all. There I was, with only six months of employment left at Yale and no job prospects after that. If only I had been able to get at least one interview. The first two days were most difficult. What I felt was a combination of depression, anger and shame. I was depressed about the future, angry with myself for my lack of focus and ashamed of my failure. How was I supposed to face my colleagues in January? All of them would have heard the news by then.

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Back in November, I had made plans to visit my parents in Los Angeles for the Holidays. After this bad news, I had some doubts about making this trip. But I finally decided to go. I hadnt seen them for nearly a year. While staying with them, I tried hard to hide my sadness, but a couple of times my mother asked why I was so subdued. I just told her that I had had a very heavy workload and was tired because of it. I did not mention anything about my tenure. She and my father were always so proud of me. Unlike my older brother, I had always had nothing but a series of uninterrupted successes. He had only gone as far as a bachelors degree, but I had made it all the way to a Ph.D. and then on to an Ivy League teaching job. I decided to wait until I found a job before telling them. That way, I could at least give them the bad news along with some good news. I spent a lot of time thinking about my career options over those two weeks. After a few days, as I met a few relatives and family friends, and attended a couple of Christmas parties, my mood improved. After learning about the troubles and challenges that some of my relatives were faced with, I began to realize that my situation was not as bad as I had assumed. After all, I had a Ph.D. from a first-class university and five years of teaching experience at Yale. I also reminded myself that a large percentage of tenure-track teachers at Ivy League schools are denied tenure. So what if I had not been able to get any interviews before Christmas. There would be plenty of new job openings in the winter and spring. Besides, I could always try for a non-teaching job. By the time I was ready to return to New Haven, I could not believe how much my mood had changed for the better. I felt full of energy and fully at peace with myself - a sense of peace that I had not

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experienced for almost a year. I had survived the first major failure of my life and was ready to move on and face my colleagues in the department. * * * Soon after the new semester began, I started checking the websites that list new job openings for economists. Since there was no reason to hide my job search from the department, I contacted three internationally renowned colleagues and asked for reference letters. They were all very supportive and accepted my request. I was not selective about the colleges to which I applied. I sent out an application even if the job description did not match my qualifications by a long shot. I had lowered my standards. My goal, now, was to get a teaching job in any college anywhere in the country. In January and February, I sent more than 38 applications to colleges as far away as Hawaii. Eleven more were in the mail by end of March. Throughout these three months, I did my best to keep my spirits up. I kept telling myself that it was not too late. As April began, negative thoughts slowly crept into my mind. I knew that since colleges had to fill their positions by August, the hiring process was much faster in the spring. So, if any of these colleges were interested in me, I would have heard from them by now. I kept sending out applications in April, but I was gradually losing hope. By May, I felt so depressed that I stopped searching altogether. I tried to understand the cause of my failure. I had shown my resume to several people and modified it according to everyones suggestions. My references were all well known. And I even wrote a unique cover letter for every application.

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Yet, not a single college, not even small liberal arts colleges, found me worthy of an interview. It seemed like there was something missing. I could not figure out what it was. By then, I had all but given up on academic jobs and was keeping busy with grading and lecture preparations. My plan was to start searching for a non-academic job after the term was over. Then suddenly, one day during the finals week, I got the most pleasant surprise of my entire life. Returning from a two-hour long exam, I noticed that I had a voice message. It was from a man named Ralph Douglas, who was calling from the College of Staten Island. The message was brief. He only mentioned that he wanted to talk to me about my application. I cant describe how excited I felt. Finally, after all these months and more than 150 applications, someone was interested in me. It was a moment of pure joy. Although it was just an initial interest and there was no guarantee that they would make me an offer, I felt like I had accomplished a major victory. I was so hyper that I kept going back and forth in my small office and occasionally talking to myself. After a few minutes, I gradually calmed down and sat behind my desk. Mr. Douglas had left a phone number, but also had mentioned that he would be out of his office until 4 p.m. and would try to call me again after 4. Since I had a couple of hours before his second phone call, I decided to check out the website of The College of Staten Island, which I had never heard of before. As I looked at the images of the CSI campus, I began to fantasize about working there and walking on campus. Every image of the campus appeared so beautiful. I went to the academics page and looked for the department of economics. There was no independent economics department. Instead, the college

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had a multi-disciplinary department called the Department of Political Science, Economics and Philosophy- PSEP for short. And there he was: Professor Ralph Douglas, Chairman of the Department. His picture was posted on the departments Web page. He looked about 50, with a gray thick mustache and curly brown hair. The department had ten faculty members: four political scientists, three economists and three philosophy teachers. I dreamt about how ideal it would be to work in such a department. I could interact with the non-economist faculty and impress them with my knowledge of their fields. But I could not remember when I had submitted an application to this school. Around quarter past three, the phone rang. Professor Haw-zargod-zan? asked the caller, struggling to pronounce my last name. Its Hatzarghordzian. How can I help you? I replied Hello, Professor Hazar-gorzan. This is Ralph Douglas calling from the PSEP department at the College of Staten Island. Please forgive me for mispronouncing your name. Hello, Professor Douglas. Believe me, you are not the first person to have difficulty with my last name. Please call me by my first name: Razmig. I bet it takes a long time for your students to learn your name! Actually, I always encourage them to address me as Dr. H. Its much easier. The reason Im calling is to see if you are still in the job market for next year. I told him that I was available. He explained that in March their department had hired an economist for next year, but the candidate had changed his mind un-

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expectedly two weeks ago, and now they were searching for another person. The open position was a three-year teaching position with the possibility of tenure upon satisfactory performance. He asked if I was interested in visiting the department for an interview. I accepted without hesitation, and the interview was set for Friday, June 4th. Throughout our conversation, I was dying to ask him when they had received my application, but I suppressed this desire, thinking it might offend him. What mattered was that they had my application and wanted to interview me. When there is hope, there is motivation, and time flies fast. I only had two weeks before the interview, which included a 40-minute seminar on a research topic of my choice. I decided to spend as much time as possible preparing for my presentation, even though it was a topic that I had already presented twice. Before I knew it, June 4th arrived, and I began my two-hour drive to Staten Island at 6 a.m. Around ten after eight, I reached the high point of the Verrazano Bridge, and Staten Island came into view. It was a beautiful, sunny day, and a large portion of the Island was clearly visible. Over the last two weeks, I had heard many good and bad things about Staten Island. Several people warned me about the health consequences of the Islands large landfills. For several years, Staten Island was used as a trash dump for the New York metropolitan area. This fact did not bother me much. Sure, there was a danger of water and air pollution from these landfills but this danger must have been minimal. After all, nearly 400,000 people were living on this Island. The view was beautiful, and I tried to focus on the positive aspects of Staten Island as I drove down the bridge.

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The CSI campus had a modern design. The PSEP department was located in an E-shaped building with a middle leg that was shorter than the other two. It was one of five symmetrical buildings that were evenly located around a large U-shaped courtyard. A large building was located at the center of this open area. Later, I learned that it was the campus center. At 9 a.m. sharp, I stood before the department secretary, Linda Sanders, and introduced myself. She was in her fifties and had a charming appearance. She greeted me warmly and took me to the chairmans office. Ralph, Professor Hatsgor-zien is here, said the secretary as she also struggled with my name. Hello, Razmig. Welcome to CSI, said Ralph as he stood up and walked toward me. Naturally, he looked older than the picture that I had seen of him on the Web. Compared to the office of our chairman at Yale, his office was much larger and more luxurious. His desk was located at the right side of the room, and two leather sofas were placed on the left side. We sat on the sofas facing each other. After a few minutes of random conversation about Yale and politics, he pulled out a sheet from a red folder that was laying on the coffee table and handed it to me. It was my interview itinerary for the entire day. As academic interviews go, it appeared to be rather short. I had two half-hour meetings at 9:30 and 10 and one interview after my presentation in the afternoon. Ralph explained that since the term was over, several faculty members were traveling. The red folder was still open, and I noticed my own resume on top of a stack of papers. I still could not remember when I had submitted an application to this department. Ralph picked up my resume and looked at it. As you have noticed, we are a multi-disciplinary department. One reason we are interested in you is that

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you seem to have a multi-disciplinary research background. I noticed that you have published in various fields. Many of our faculty members are just as diverse in their research. If everything works out well and you join us, Im sure youll find our academic environment to your taste. I returned the compliment by admiring the beauty of the campus and emphasizing my appreciation for multi-disciplinary work. Initially, I was a little nervous, but gradually I felt more relaxed. At 9:30, the chairman walked me to the small and modest office of Sandra Ballard, who was one of the three economists in the department. Sandra was in her thirties and a little overweight, but very attractive nevertheless. She was very relaxed and appeared to have a happy character, throwing a few smiles in every sentence. She insisted on pronouncing my last name several times until she got it almost right. During our conversation, I learned that she was originally from Canada, but was married to an American who was teaching chemistry at Columbia University. My conversation with Sandra was more focused on economic topics and the types of economic courses that were offered in CSI. Near the end of our chat, she turned her attention to my academic background: You know the diversity of your research is very impressive. I have published three articles over the past four years, but they all deal with the same topic, which itself is the continuation of my dissertation research. You, on the other hand, have managed to publish four articles on four totally unrelated subjects, said Sandra. To be honest, when I look back, I wish I had been more focused. Most departments dont like people who wander from topic to topic. Oh! But our department is different. We actually prefer people with diverse backgrounds. I wish my col-

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league Vijay Gupta was here today. He also has a very diverse research background. When we were reviewing the applicants, he was the one who brought your resume to our attention. He was very interested in your work. Unfortunately, his mother is very ill, and he had to fly to India on short notice last week, said Sandra. Again, I ended the conversation by offering a few compliments about the college and Staten Island in general. Sandra walked me to the relatively more elegant and larger office of Prof. David Campbell. Prof. Campbell was an older man in his 60s who headed the philosophy team in the department. My knowledge of philosophy was limited to the works of a Harvard philosopher by the name of John Rawls. Fortunately, it turned out that Rawls was one of David Campbells favorite philosophers, and we spent more than 20 minutes discussing Rawls classic book, A Theory of Justice. I tried to impress him with my knowledge of Rawls and by pointing out how his book had left a profound influence on the way economists thought about inequality. Near the end of our conversation, David repeated what Sandra Ballard had told me earlier about Vijay Gupta. My presentation went very well. Only five faculty members and two students were present. Fortunately, I was able to answer all of their questions. After the presentation, the Chairman and Sandra Ballard took me to lunch and, after that, I met with another faculty member for half an hour. I felt that this meeting too went very well. By 2:30, I was back in the chairmans office. He briefly explained the employment terms and the benefits package that CSI offered to its new faculty members. Then he turned the conversation to my interview.

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Im very glad that you accepted our invitation and drove down here to visit us. I think you have left a very positive impression on the faculty members that met with you. We have invited two more applicants for campus interviews over the next two weeks. After these are over, we will collectively evaluate all the applicants and, as they say, may the best man win. I offered the usual compliments and thanked him for inviting me. As we were about to shake hands and say goodbye, Ralph made one additional comment: Oh! By the way, we usually arrange four faculty meetings when we invite an applicant for campus interviews. The reason you only met with three is that Vijay Gupta, one of our colleagues who is Indian, had to make an emergency trip to India because his mother is very ill. But dont worry. His absence does not put you at a disadvantage. He is already familiar with your work and is very supportive of your application. This was the third time that Vijay Guptas name was being mentioned. Having heard of his supportive attitude toward me so many times, I was so eager to meet him. After leaving the department, I spent about half an hour walking around the campus. It was a nice and modern campus with lots of open space between the buildings. Then I decided to drive around Staten Island. Being so close to Manhattan, I thought that it must have a lively downtown and upscale residential neighborhoods. Unfortunately, I was wrong. The Island consists mostly of lower-middle class neighborhoods and the downtown was not as vibrant as I had expected. Usually, after a campus interview, two things happen. If the applicant is lucky, the department chair calls and offers him the position. If he is not so lucky, he receives a polite rejection letter after a few weeks. Since Ralph had told me that they planned to interview

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two more applicants, I was not expecting to hear from him for at least three to four weeks. That was if they were going to offer me the position. So it was a big surprise when Ralph called me only a week after my interview. He spoke the magical sentence that I had dreamt of hearing for such a long time: Im calling on behalf of the search committee to offer you a position of assistant professor of economics. He then went on to explain the details of the offer. Instead of a three-year contract, they were offering me a tenure track position and, because of my teaching experience at Yale, I would be able to apply for tenure after three years rather than the usual five years. The salary was slightly less than at Yale, and I had to teach three classes per semester compared to only two classes at Yale. These differences did not bother me, because I never expected a small liberal arts college to offer a package comparable to Yale. While it is customary for an applicant to take a few days to review the offer and negotiate for a higher salary or benefits, I indicated my acceptance before our conversation was over. Ralph was a little surprised by my quick response but pleased nevertheless. * * * August 15, 1999 was my first day of work at the College of Staten Island. I arrived at Staten Island four days earlier and settled into my two-bedroom apartment near campus. Everything had gone well, and I could not wait to see my new office. I was also eager to meet Vijay Gupta. When I arrived at the department, it was 9:30 a.m., but there was no one around other than the secretary, Linda Sanders, who gave me a warm welcome and showed me to my new office-room

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number 124. Being a new faculty member, I was given one of the smaller rooms, which was the same size as Sandra Ballards office. Nevertheless, it was larger than my office at Yale, and the furniture was new. I also thanked God for not having to walk up the stairs to the third floor any more. The office had a large window with a very nice view of the courtyard. After spending about ten minutes moving the furniture around in my office, I went to the lobby to ask Mrs. Sanders for some office supplies. She was talking to a man. I stood a few feet away from her desk and waited for them to finish their conversation. As soon as she saw me, she nodded her head. Vijay, have you met Professor Hazagor-san? said Linda, still struggling with my last name, after the man finished his sentence. He turned around, and I finally met the man who apparently admired my work. Vijay was a short Indian man in his fifties. His head was mostly bald and he looked very thin except for his stomach, which was bulging out a little. As Indians go, he was darker than average, even slightly darker than Atul. Professor Hatzarghordzian, how nice to finally meet you. Welcome. Its a pleasure to finally meet you, Professor Gupta. By the way, you are the first person who pronounced my name correctly in a long time, I commented. Well, its because I once had a classmate in graduate school by the name of Nobar Hatzarghordzian. Are you connected by any chance? asked Vijay I dont think so. Hatzarghordzian is not a common name among Armenians, but there are about one million Armenian-Americans living in the United States. Besides, its such a difficult name to pronounce

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that most people who inherit it as their family name eventually switch to another name or use a simplified version. I have been too lazy to do it so far. I responded and urged both Vijay and Linda to call me by my first name, Razmig. Vijay invited me into his office. This guy Nobar... he also had a difficult time because of his name. Although he was one of the best students in the math department, he had a tough time landing any job interviews. His thesis advisor thought it was partly because of his last name and encouraged him to shorten it to Hatzar. He started using Hatzar instead of Hatzarghordian, and, soon after that, he got several interviews. Its unfortunate but an unusual ethnic name sometimes leads to discrimination, said Vijay as we walked into his office, which happened to be only two doors down the hallway from mine. It was almost a third larger than mine and, between some of the bookshelves, he had hung several African woodcrafts on the wall. These are trophies from my trip to Nigeria a few years ago, said Vijay after he noticed that I was staring at the wooden statues. They are very nice. By the way, when I was here for campus interviews in June, I heard that you had to make an emergency trip to India because your mother was sick. Hope she is feeling better. Unfortunately, she passed away a few days after my arrival, responded Vijay. I expressed my condolences. Vijay changed the subject and began talking about my research. In the middle of our conversation, a family picture on Vijays desk caught my eyes. It was a picture of him with two young girls standing in front of the Sterling Memorial Library at Yale. One of the girls appeared to be of college age, but the other one was younger.

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So, what was your impression of Yale? asked Vijay before I had a chance to examine that picture more carefully. Intellectually, its one of the best schools. There are so many seminars, and the faculty is so active in research. For anyone who is interested in a competitive research environment, its the best place to work. But getting tenured is very difficult, especially for someone like me, who likes to jump from topic to topic. New Haven is a wonderful city. Some people are worried about crime, but I lived near campus, and I never had any problems. Have you ever been to Yale? I asked without making any reference to the picture. Oh. Yes. Several times. My older daughter is an undergraduate chemistry student at Yale. We took this picture on campus, said Vijay, while pointing to the picture that I had noticed earlier. I leaned forward and looked at the picture more carefully as he talked about his daughters academic achievements. The picture was taken from several feet away, and the faces were small, but I could not help noticing that the two girls had much lighter skin colors than Vijay did. I was immediately reminded of Atuls discoveries about the Golden Girls. Vijay had two portraits of his daughters on the wall. These must be your daughters, I commented as I focused my attention on the larger facial images. Not only was their complexion lighter than Vijays, but their facial features also looked more European. Yes. The older one is Raveena, and the younger one is Kahkashan. Do you have any children? asked Vijay. No. Im not even married. How come? asked Vijay again. It must have been a cultural thing, because most people rarely ask

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someone whom they have just met for the reasons behind his marital status. Well. I was engaged to a girl whom I met in graduate school, but it did not work out, and we broke up two years ago. I have been a little lazy ever since, I replied. Gradually our conversation shifted to the college and the department. However, throughout the conversation, I was preoccupied with the images of Vijays daughters. Because of my interactions with Atul, I kept wondering if they were fruits of a whitening marriage.

Chapter Fourteen
Atul
I quickly got used to my new home and work environment. Just as I expected, the faculty at CSI were more relaxed and more accessible than my former colleagues at Yale. They chatted with each other more often and frequently went out for lunch. Everyone, particularly Vijay, was very nice to me. I had only been there for two weeks, and twice already my colleagues had invited me to their houses for dinner. I attributed most of this attention to the fact that I was a new member of the team and also carried the prestige of being an ex-Yalie. The classes were scheduled to start after the Labor Day weekend. Having spent nearly two weeks preparing my course materials, I decided to spend the Sunday before Labor Day in Manhattan. Although New Haven was only a short distance away from New York, during the five years that I lived there, I only visited New York twice on day trips, and, on both occasions, I only saw the areas near Central Park. So this time, I decided to spend some time in Lower Manhattan. Besides, lower Manhattan was only a ferry ride away

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from Staten Island. In the past, I had heard so much about the Village - Greenwich Village, that is. It was supposed to be the closest copy of a typical European downtown anywhere in America, with low-rise brick buildings and European-style coffee houses and small shops. From the Staten Island ferry terminal in lower Manhattan, I took the subway directly to the Village. When I got there, it appeared just as interesting as I had imagined it: so many shops and restaurants and, even more importantly, people from the four corners of the world. After eating lunch in a Malaysian restaurant and window shopping for a couple of hours, I walked to Washington Square Park, which happened to be very crowded on that warm and sunny Sunday afternoon. I was casually walking and watching a group of skateboarders do their amazing stunts, when I suddenly heard someone calling my name. Hi, Dr. H. I turned to my right and saw Atul standing about ten yards away from me. A young girl was standing next to him. Atul, How are you? I shouted as I raised my hand and walked toward them. Atul had gained a little weight, which made him look more mature. I also noticed the change in his outfit. He was wearing a pair of white pants and a Hawaiian shirt. It was quite different from the conservative, dark outfits that he used to wear at Yale. He was also sporting a pair of trendy sunglasses. The girl accompanying him was an inch taller than him. She had long dark hair, which created a sharp contrast against her light complexion. Because of what I knew about Atul, I was subconsciously sensitive to the skin complexion of people around him and could not help noticing the sharp contrast between his skin color and this girls complexion.

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He greeted me with a wide smile as we shook hands. Then he introduced the girl as his girlfriend Isabelle. The girls Spanish name immediately rang a bell in my mind. I was overwhelmed by curiosity for a moment, but did my best to hide my emotions with a polite smile. So Atul, what have you been doing since you graduated? I got a job at an investment firm here in Manhattan and share an apartment with one of my coworkers in Brooklyn. Its a lot of work, but Im learning a lot, and the pay is very good. How about you, Dr. H? How is everything at Yale? I told him about my move to Staten Island. Staten Island?! You must be very happy. I think living near New York has so many advantages. Isnt the Village just amazing? I come here once or twice per month. I turned to Isabelle and asked her what she was doing. I just finished high school last June. Im now resting and deciding about what to do next. No rush really, she responded and looked at Atul. They both smiled at each other. Oh! By the way, Isabelle and I are engaged, added Atul. Congratulations! Have you known each other for a long time? I asked. Not really. We met in March, said Atul, as he put his arm around Isabelles waist. Then suddenly they noticed two girls walking toward us. Atul and Isabelle both waved hello at them. Please excuse me for a moment, said Isabelle and walked toward the girls. Atul looked at me: She is a very nice girl. I feel so fortunate.

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And she has a very fair complexion as well! I commented with a smile. Well, yes. That too, said Atul with a mild smile that froze on his face for a few seconds. It suddenly occurred to me that Atul might know something about Vijay Guptas daughter. By the way Atul, did you know a girl named Raveena Gupta at Yale? Yes, of course. She was a chemistry-major. Why? Oh, nothing. I met her in a seminar and thought that perhaps you might have met her. Do you still remember my secret investigations about the Golden Girls? asked Atul. Yes, I do. What about it? Atul just looked at me quietly and nodded his head. No! I said. Yes. Raveena was one of them. Are you sure? Positive. Come to think of it, I remember she did have a light complexion. Speaking of Golden Girls, are you still involved in that so-called Whitening Society? I asked. Before Atul had a chance to respond, Isabelle walked back and interrupted our conversation. The two girls that she had been talking to were still standing a few yards away. Honey, if you dont mind, Ill go to an antique store with Jennie and Cindy while you are talking to the professor. Its very close. Ill be back in ten, said Isabelle. Sure, go ahead. Ill wait here for you, said Atul before kissing her. It was nice meeting you, Professor, said Isabelle to me as she smiled and walked toward her friends.

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Im sorry, Dr. H. I forgot what you were asking, said Atul. Your involvement with the Whitening Society. Oh, yes, the Society. Well. Sort of. I sensed that he was hesitant. Im sorry. You dont have to answer. I know that you are not supposed to discuss the Society with anyone. No! No! Its all right. You already know the most important secret, the fact that the Society exists. Besides, I still feel a lot of gratitude toward you. Actually, Dr. H., if it werent for the independent study project that I took with you, I would have never found out about the society. Please call me Razmig. You are not my student anymore, I said. Atul smiled and nodded. You know joining the Whitening Society was the best thing that ever happened to me. The Society helped me meet Isabelle. And what can be wrong with that? How could I have ever found such a beautiful girl on my own, said Atul. Thats great. So are you doing anything special for the Society? Yes. Something very important - a very special research assignment. Im trying to find out if any other ethnic group in the U.S. is or has previously engaged in whitening. I remember we talked about doing some simple observations on this question for your independent study, I said. That is right. One of the things that you recommended was that I should go near black churches on Sundays and record the skin deferential of couples that were entering the church, said Atul and then stopped and just looked at me.

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Oh, no. Dont tell me you are doing this right now?! I said while trying to exaggerate my surprise. Atul nodded his head. Thats one of the things that Im doing right now. Actually, I was the one who suggested this idea to Ramish. I even told him that it was your idea. He thought it was brilliant, responded Atul. But tell me. Why would the Whitening Society be interested in this issue? I asked. Before answering the question, Atul noticed an empty bench nearby, and we decided to sit down. Well, for two reasons. First, wed like to know if any ethnic group is undergoing a whitening change. If we discover any, then we can try to measure their rate of progress and learn something from their experience. The second reason is that we believe there might be secret whitening societies among other ethnic groups such as Chinese or blacks. Even though the probability is small, I think that if we come across an unusual pattern of whitening, for example something similar to the case of Golden Girls in New Haven, it might point to the existence of such a society, said Atul. Very interesting! Can I ask what have you found so far? That is, if you dont mind talking about the details. I have only collected a small amount of data so far and, based on my limited sample, I can say that in most cases when the skin complexion of a black woman is different from that of her husband, she is the spouse with the lighter skin color. I have also noticed that the color differential is more visible among churchgoers in more prosperous neighborhoods. But this is all based on a very small sample. I plan to collect a lot more data in my spare time. You know, I have a feeling that the fears of white Americans about the eventual darkening of America are exaggerated. The darker ethnic groups

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might be undergoing a gradual and unnoticed whitening transformation. Atul was speaking with the certainty and confidence of a true believer. He was even more submerged in this whitening quest than when he was at Yale. However, he was no longer my student, and I did not want to give him any advice or criticism. Besides, I still had an important question to ask him. Very interesting indeed. So have you met many members of the whitening society? I asked. So far, I have only met three other members. I mostly talk to Ramish, and I have also met a young member my own age who is studying at Columbia. How about Raveenas father. Is he also a member? I finally asked. Ever since I came to Staten Island for my job interview, I was always wondering why, according to so many people, Vijay Gupta was so interested in me. If he was a member of the Whitening Society, at least I had an explanation. But his motive for bringing me to the College of Staten Island was still a mystery. May I ask why are you so interested in Raveena? Are you attracted to her? asked Atul with a smile. I wasnt quite ready for this question. Oh no! No! Its nothing like that. Im just curious. Since you said that Raveena was one of the Golden Girls, it occurred to me that her father might be a member. After all that other Golden Girl. What was her name? Savata? Sweta Patel. Yes. Swetas father, Ramish, is an active member. So I just extended this relation to Raveena, I said, hoping that it was convincing. Very smart. No wonder you are a professor, responded Atul much to my relief and continued: You

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know, I have never met Raveenas father, but Ramish talked about him a few times as being an active member. I also know that he is a college professor and lives near New York. Are you sure? Atul was not expecting this question: About what? That Raveenas father is a member of your society? I asked, while trying unsuccessfully to hide my bewilderment. Well, thats what I heard from Ramish. Apparently, he is also very interested in historical evidence of whitening. Ramish told me that he did some research on whitening in Turkey during the Ottoman Empire. I think he has also done some work on racial attitudes in Nigeria. Why? asked Atul. Oh! Nothing. Nothing really! I replied but I could tell that he was taken aback by my excessive curiosity about this man. I was trying to change the subject when Isabelle returned. She was alone and was carrying a shopping bag. It was a relief. We both stood up and started talking to her. She showed us a pair of bronze Buddha statutes that she had bought from the antique store. After a few minutes, I decided it was time for me to go. Well, Atul, it was very nice seeing you again after all these months. Im very glad that everything is going so well for you. Here is my card. Keep in touch and, if youd ever like to visit Staten Island, give me a call. Atul quickly pulled out one of his own business cards and exchanged it with mine. Bye, Professor. It was a pleasure meeting you, said Isabelle. Bye Dr, H. Good Luck at Staten Island College, said Atul.

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Razmig, I corrected him. Sorry! Razmig. Ill remember next time. * * * My conversation with Atul left me confused and concerned about Vijay Gupta. This man who apparently played a pivotal role in my employment at Staten Island was a member of the whitening society. But why did he help bring me to Staten Island? Was I being set up for something? What was Atuls role in all of this? He did not seem to know anything about my new job. Yet, at the same time, he was not concerned at all about talking to me in a public place and in front of his girlfriend. I toyed with these questions for the rest of the Labor Day weekend. Tuesday morning, I was a little anxious before my first class, but it went very well. After I wrote my name on the board, the students were very pleased to learn that they could call me Dr. H. My first class was an introductory macroeconomics course, and there were about 45 students in attendance. Many of them were taking economics for the first time. I returned to my office around 11:30 and noticed a phone message from the secretary informing me that she had received a very large postal package for me and, since it did not fit in my mailbox, she was holding it for me. I walked to the lobby and, as soon as Linda saw me, she lifted the large package that was sitting on her desk and handed it to me. It was a white envelope. The senders address did not have any name. It did not have any street address either. It only read: Post Office, Jersey City, NJ 07302. I quickly returned to my office and opened the envelope. When I saw the contents, I could not believe

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my eyes. It was all of my notes and papers on Atuls project that were stolen from my office last year. I gasped for air and felt my heart pounding. I quickly glanced through the stack of papers. As far as I could tell, nothing was missing. But there was no note or explanation from the sender either - just my own notes on the Beauty and Development project plus Atuls reports and photocopies. What was happening? First, they find me a job and bring me to this college and now suddenly they return my stolen notes. Thank God I did not have to teach any classes for the rest of the day. I just sat behind my desk and stared at my notes for a few minutes. There was no doubt in my mind that the Whitening Society was behind this. It gradually occurred to me that whatever their motive, they were not trying to harm me. Or else why would they find me a job and return my notes? As I was looking at my own notes on Beauty and Development, I suddenly noticed a small yellow post-it note that was attached to one of the pages. There was a brief message on it: Continue this project. It is promising. I tried to remember when I wrote this message to myself. I couldnt. Besides, the handwriting wasnt mine. Someone else must have put it on that page. I remembered writing that page all right. It was a list of my main hypotheses on how the physical beauty of a population could have a positive impact on economic development. Now it was beginning to make sense. The whitening society was interested in my research on Beauty and Development and wanted to support it without being identified. It was also clear that Vijay and Ramish were under the impression that I did not know anything about the Society.

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As I was thinking about these issues, suddenly I heard a knock. The door opened. Hey Razmig, do you want to go to lunch with me and Sandra at 12:30? asked Ralph Douglas, the chair. I wanted to go, but I had something more important to do first. Sorry, Ralph. I have to go to the bank first, and I might not be back on time, I responded. Then I stood up and put all the notes and photocopies back in the white envelope and put the envelope in my briefcase. Ten minutes later, I was at my bank filling an application for a safety box. I applied for a large one with enough space for the white envelope. I carefully placed the large envelope in the safety box and handed it back to the clerk. When she gave me the key, I felt relieved. At last I knew that Ramish or Vijay or anyone else from the Whitening Society would not be able to steal these notes from me again. On my way back to the office that day, I felt that I did not want to touch the Beauty and Development project anymore or, rather, at least not for a while. In three years time, I would have been up for tenure review and, until then, I wanted to stay focused on noncontroversial research topics that had a good chance of getting published. Sorry Whitening Society. Sorry Vijay. I appreciate the fact that you helped me get this job, but Im not going to play your game. Good luck to all of you, particularly Atul. May all of you live long lives and get to see your fair-skinned grandchildren. * * * That afternoon around three oclock, I heard another knock on my door. For a moment, I thought it must be Vijay, because he comes to my office more often than

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my other colleagues. I had already decided not to confront Vijay about the Whitening Society or my stolen/recovered notes. I would simply treat him as if nothing had happened. It wasnt him. Instead, it was a student that I had never met before. Hello, Professor H. My name is Kevin Roberts. Im a senior student majoring in sociology. Id like to do an independent study project on a multi-disciplinary topic that crosses sociology and economics. I spoke to Prof. Douglas about it, and he suggested that I talk to you. Oh, no! Not again! Im afraid Im very busy this semester, and, unfortunately, I dont have any free time to supervise an independent study project, I replied, thinking no more strange research topics for me - no more distractions. Could you at least give me an appointment to explain my idea? Its a topic that I have thought about ever since I was a freshman. Maybe you can supervise me next semester, said the student. This encounter was deja vu. It reminded me of my first encounter with Atul. My answer was still going to be no, but it would not have been nice to reject him cold turkey. After all, the chairman had referred him to me, and I had to be in good terms with the chair. I cant promise anything about the next semester either, but if youd like to talk about your idea, you can stop by Friday afternoon around four oclock. Four oclock Friday is perfect. Thank you so much, said Kevin with enthusiasm. I was determined to turn him down in a nice and diplomatic manner. The College of Staten Island September 1999