When Earwax Became Political
From a DOGE staffer’s tweets to attacks on interracial marriage, is anti-Indian rhetoric no longer fringe?
It took no time after JD Vance took the vice presidential oath alongside his wife Usha for the online conversation to fixate on his family. Vance’s memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, catapulted him to fame as a voice of the white working class. He now stands as the second most powerful person in the free world.
But regardless of one’s political beliefs, Vance’s marriage to Usha Chilukuri, a woman of Indian descent, and their mixed-race children, seem to be talking points people can’t ignore. One viral tweet read, “I enjoyed Vance’s book, his story is classic Americana rags to riches…but this picture just confronts you with the messy realities of globalism. It makes you feel like you are getting hoodwinked yet again.” Another added, “It’s sad…Vance does not have children who look like him, who smell like him, who even have earwax like him. He’s alienated from the future of Americans.”
The comments devolved into debates about whether Indians can assimilate into American life or whether Vance’s children could ever be “American.” These attacks weren’t just about race and identity; they reflected the enduring obsession over who belongs. Nor was this an isolated incident, but rather part of a long, complex history of the nation policing one of life’s most intimate spheres: marriage.