Professor Pushkala Prasad from Skidmore College specializes in diversity and researches relationships between different identity groups in the U.S. She shares that the two communities have really been united in a shared space of oppression and injustice.

Prasad talked about how, in the 1930s and 1940s, Black press and leaders were heavily inspired by Mahatma Gandhi's non-violent strategies for resistance against the British rule in India, which gained India its independence in 1947. Later in the 1960s, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. adopted the same strategies during the civil rights movement.

Prasad shares that the two communities, in large part, have shared feelings of exclusion and marginalization that they have felt throughout history.

Also, Prasad adds that even with this shared history, the two communities often feel a rift between them, largely due to South Asian community being referred to as a “model minority.” This concept perceives some minorities as "role models" for other minority group.

Prasad hopes that this Black History Month, South Asian Americans can learn and understand a complicated yet empathetic relationship between the two communities, and rise up from the “model minority” concept.