“i want to tell him about my dad, who came to America in 1985 and has spent the last 25 years realizing that discrimination in America exists just like it does everywhere else in the world but there are laws against it here so it has to be really subtle. my dad wants to leave America and move to Europe as soon as he can, where he hopes that people there will at least drop the pretense of being post-race. the “Das” in Das Racist rhymes with “pass” and is supposed to sound like “that’s racist” but it first brings to mind Das Boot, the movie about the German U-Boat in WWII, which is a movie that my dad watches because he is obsessed with the holocaust. i want to tell Himanshu that to me, Das Racist is a project about immigrant disillusionment, about realizing that the possibilities for immigrants in America are not as vast as they appeared from outside it, and when i listen to Das Racist it helps me understand my dad because sometimes it is hard for him to be direct about why he wants to leave. but it is weird to tell someone something so direct and personal like that so i skip it”