ABSTRACT
During my research on South Asian American basketball communities in Atlanta, Ali 1 was one of my key interlocutors. He is a Muslim Pakistani American. It was August 10th, 2009 and I had Ali and his wife, Susan (a white Catholic), over for dinner. The conversation turned to many things including the recent economic crisis, their newly married life, Susan’s pregnancy, and basketball. Since August 14th and August 15th were around the corner, I asked a question that made sense to me, “Ali, what are you doing for Independence Day?” He replied confused, “Huh? What?” I repeated myself, “What are you doing for Independence Day?” Ali was now clearly confused, “What are you talking about? Independence Day? That was two months ago.” Now I was confused, “Two months ago? I am talking about August 14th.” As I slowly made this connection, Ali laughed, “Man, I was talking about July 4th.” He considered July 4th Independence Day while I had assumed that he and his family celebrated Pakistani Independence Day on August 14th.
