Minority Report

Growing up vegetarian in a meat dominated culture (and family), I’ve always been in the minority in at least one way. I was strange, different, weird. Excluding some friends who experimented with vegetarianism in high school, I knew no other vegetarians until I was 19 and living in Italy (Mormon vegetarians in Utah, it turns out, are very rare). By this time, my minority status was enhanced further as an American Mormon in a Catholic European country. Years later in Africa, I would often find myself as the only white person in a bustling, crowded market. Being vegetarian, Mormon, and from the West made me unique even in cosmopolitan Boston. Now, I am daily the sole non-Indian on a constantly overflowing bus as I travel the hour from Mugapair to Nungambakkam for work. Being always in the minority has taught me some important lessons and profoundly shaped my identity; my sympathies for minorities and underdogs go deep.

I wish that everyone could be in the minority at least once in their lives; what a different place this world would be if each individual could experience the powerlessness, isolation, distance, and otherness that often come with minority status. When you have been in the minority, it is easier to understand the tendency of immigrants and other outsiders to congregate together with those of similar backgrounds. To meet someone who is like you is very affirming and there is often an instant bond of trust and understanding amid the general incomprehensibility of society.

I believe the morality of a group can be directly and easily discovered by observing how they treat their minorities. Insecurity seems to lead to intolerance and demands that everyone conform to your way of thinking and doing things. Compassionate, dynamic cultures are characterized by their ability to learn from and incorporate the best of what their minorities have to offer while maintaining what is beautiful in their own traditions. After many years, I’ve finally realized that no matter where I go in the world, I will always be a minority on at least one dimension and likely on many dimensions simultaneously; my diet, religion, political leanings, skin color, and birth place virtually ensure it. I’ve come to accept this. I just hope that I can always be open-minded enough to learn from those who are different from me. And, more importantly, I pray that I will always be aware and conscious enough of the potential isolation of others that God can somehow use me to make them feel included in the larger whole.

Roadside market, Zambia 2003


Zambia, 2003


Zimbabwe, 2006


Zimbabwe, 2006


Sikochi brothers, Zimbabwe 2006


Not just veg (vegetarian), but "pure veg."


"High Class Veg" - as if there was any other kind!


These buses often have so many people hanging from the doors that the entire bus tilts to the left as it travels down the street.


A Christian church in Orissa. Christians are a small minority in this area and faced violence, vandalism, and other persecution in August and September of this year.


Christian church, Orissa 2008


An LDS church in Bangalore. Anti-Christian sentiment ebbs and flows in Karnataka (the state in which Bangalore is located). In September, 70 Christian churches were vandalized in the span of a few weeks. During this time period, two Mormon missionaries were abducted, beaten, and jailed. They spent two days and two nights in a prison with 5,000 other men, many of whom were incarcerated for murder. Several church members who tried to come to their aid were also accosted and persecuted. According to their leader, in such situations "fear is the real enemy, for it is the only thing that can defeat hope."