Indian Americans dominate the National Spelling Bee. Why should they take abuse on social media?

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Indian Americans dominate the National Spelling Bee. Why should they take abuse on social media for it?

Local
By Joe Heim May 25 at 10:12 PM
@JoeHeim

The streak is as impressive as it is difficult to explain. In much the same way that Kenyan runners have owned the Boston Marathon, Indian American kids have placed a stranglehold on the Scripps National Spelling Bee, winning it now for seven years in a row and all but four of the last 15 years.

The streak has been much discussed and analyzed in recent years — except by the people who actually run the bee. For the first time, Paige Kimble, the bee’s longtime director, agreed last week to address the sensitive question of why Indian Americans have come to dominate the contest, which gets underway Tuesday at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Md.

Part of her motivation: the outpouring of ugliness aimed at last year’s co-champions, Sriram Hathwar and Ansun Sujoe, on social media.

{Bee draws racially charged comments after Indian Americans win again}

[KamaAina]

1. They have an unfair advantage.

Many Indian last names are harder to spell than any word in the bee.

[underpants]

2. There is incredible drive and dedication in that community to education

and the opportunities education provides. A few months ago there were wild pictures of parents scaling the outside of 3 story school buildings to give cheat sheets to their kids who were taking incredibly important tests.

Here in the US the IA community almost fully supports the tutoring industry at least the storefront ones (Kumon) and the expectations are high and made very clear at a young age. We happened to several families in our neighborhood and in activities my daughter does. I talked a lot with one kids Dad and he explained a lot of things about their community to me. His son and my daughter both scored very high on aptitude testing a few years ago and then they moved - I think back to India- so I told my girl that the boy couldn't handle the heat of her competition.

The real focus here should be on home schooling. It would be very hard to put into the tremendous hours of studying as a supplement to normal schooling.

[Joe Magarac]

3. Seems to me it's a question of race hatred. n/t