I am not sure how legal or illegal it is to stamp ‘BrahminGenes’ on your personal car but then I am with her for two reasons –
1) for her guts and
2) I don’t see anything wrong to be proud of your caste/cult.
Every individual should be proud of their true self – their true identity which could be your caste/cult, your language, your state, your race, your colour, your school, your college, your country, your profession or also your favourite IPL team.
I am not a Brahmin, and we Tamils usually don’t prefer to add our caste with our names – thanks to Thanthai Periyar. We add our father’s name as our last name or as our initial. Hence our late president, R. Venkataram, who was a Tamil, in spite of being an Iyer never used Iyer as a surname while in office. And R stood for Ramaswami, his father’s name. I am Kennedi Gopalan – Kennedi is my name and Gopalan is my father’s name and you can never know my caste until and unless you look at my caste certificate, or I come out with it myself – well that was the very purpose of Thanthai Periyar. Not knowing someone’s name tagged by their caste (Example – Priya Pillai) will reduce the discrimination that was carried out by the foreign Aryans who settled in India. It indeed worked out, but not completely.
The humans who consider themselves as upper castes in India – surely, sometimes, love to add their caste with their names. Hence you can find shops like – Iyengar Bakery down south, which people usually perceive as clean and pure (you never really know at least after the Tirupati laddoo episode). There are no Parayar Bakery or Sakkiliyar Bakery anywhere in Tamil Nadu (they both are considered as lower castes in Tamil Nadu). The question is, why not? Motherfucking open one and make it a multimillion empire. Sell pork burger and pork belly – I promise I will be a regular customer.
Looking up to people who proclaim themselves superior to others based on caste or religion or race has to surely stop but it cannot stop by asking them to stop flaunting what they believe in. A Muslim cannot ask a Hindu to stop putting stickers of Jai Shri Ram on the car, instead he should put Allah Hu Akbar on his car. Simple. Societal tolerance should not increase by hiding your real identity out of fear but by coming out and announce what you really are – like the lady in focus.
I am proud of my profession hence I got a ‘Astrologer’ sticker on my car. I am a staunch devotee of Lord Narayana hence I got His sticker on my car. I love Allah, Jesus and Lord Narayana equally – hence I got their tattoos on my body. They are all reflections of your true identity. And the day I feel necessary – I shall stick my original unadulterated native Tamil Genes sticker on my car.
An individual should stop feeling bad about their work or profession or their castes. Why is that a person who is educated looked up to and a human who cleans septic tanks looked down on in India? How come Indians, who claim to be upper castes, who never clean their own toilets in India but rather get it cleaned by lower caste domestic helpers, clean it when they settle in the US? Where did the disgust factor evaporate? Where did the caste purity vanish? The simple reason being money – when it comes to money, most Indians will be ready to eat their own shit, whatever caste they belong to.
No septic tank cleaner, toilet cleaner, garbage cleaner – should work for less than 50 lakhs per annum package in India. And see how the caste system vanishes overnight. And of course they can flaunt the stickers in their cars – Garbage Cleaner Genes, Septic tank Cleaner Genes, Toilet Cleaner Genes. Let us do it!!