Talk:Korla Pandit

Source

Since R.J. Smith's article is full of inaccuracies, as a Tabloid-Style Exposé could be expected to be, I'd prefer that the revelation of Mr. Pandit's descent be tied to more accurate sources. I'm tying it to David de Clue's genealogy & his Father's, the Rev. Ernest S. Redd, 1962 Autobiography. Freddiefreelance 23:38, 5 November 2006 (UTC)

Interview sources

Moving this first-person material from article to here where it can serve as a source:

From David Marshall-Rutledge de Clue: Korla did NOT arrive in Los Angeles in 1940. He was there by the end of 1939, shortly after his sister, Frances, arrived to do her one and only Hollywood film. Frances left St. Louis in May of 1939. Korla arrived soon thereafter and obtained his trademark turban from one of the characters in Frances' film "Midnight Shadow." If anyone has actually read the R. J. Smith article from Los Angeles Magazine (June 2001), you'll know it is full of false information, to wit: the fact that the author actually saw Korla's birth certificate from Columbia, Missouri! I was able to obtain much more accurate information about my second cousin (Korla/John) due to the fact that the very same people that J. R. Smith interviewed, I interviewed about 4 years later. Turns out they had been co-workers of my Uncle Frank DeClue (my father's brother)!

Above can be compared with info at the deClue site. With deClue as a source, new info has just been added. Pepso2 (talk) 10:23, 4 June 2009 (UTC)

Pop culture reference

Korla gets a shout-out as "Korla Plankton" on Frank Zappa's album Apostrophe (') in the song Excentrifugal Forz - http://www.arf.ru/Notes/Apostro/eforz.html Asat (talk) 21:19, 15 October 2011 (UTC)

The whole article supports a value judgement

Why does this whole article expound the value judgement that it is a good thing to live a lie, as a fraud, and even keep it from your own children? Whether he benefited from it or not is immaterial. The man was an imposter. This is not the same thing as taking a stage name as a matter of public record, like Elton John. That makes this article a propaganda piece, rather than a valid academic encyclopedia article. Who decided on that value judgement? The editors (who are unnamed in the article)?Starhistory22 (talk) 20:21, 10 December 2017 (UTC)

Starhistory22, do you think the recent edits have helped? SunCrow (talk) 03:15, 17 August 2018 (UTC)

Don't cater to Starhistory22 who is just trolling. Starhistory22 doesn't know what Redd went through, how the system was stacked against him as a black American. And Starhistory22 hasn't cited any sources saying Redd was wrong to be living a lie. We follow the sources, not a lone editor's opinion. Binksternet (talk) 07:05, 17 August 2018 (UTC)

I agree with Starhistory22's observation about the tone of the article (prior to my recent edits). So I don't think he or she was "just trolling." SunCrow (talk) 17:18, 17 August 2018 (UTC)

Date of death

The article recites October 2, 1998 as the date of death. That date is supported by the following sources:

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0659259/bio
https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/artists/95e63072-834a-4d12-85a0-8b50c880c04e
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6980/korla-pandit

However, two other sources indicate that October 1, 1998 is the date of death:

https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Korla-Pandit-keyboardist-and-star-of-early-TV-3066516.php
http://www.sfmuseum.net/hist10/pandit.html

I can't find anything definitive. Any ideas? SunCrow (talk) 04:57, 22 November 2019 (UTC)

The U.S. Social Security Death Index and the L.A. Weekly say he died 2nd October. The San Francisco Examiner said he died "Thursday" (i.e. 1st October). Go figure. Muzilon (talk) 10:20, 9 December 2019 (UTC)

Weird. SunCrow (talk) 18:04, 9 December 2019 (UTC)

But not unheard of. There are several other celebrities for whom the sources have a one-day discrepancy over the date of death (Spivy and James Cardwell spring to mind). However, Pandit's biographer David De Clue says 2nd October, and cites Pandit's California death certificate as his source... so that would seem to be the more likely date. Muzilon (talk) 04:56, 10 December 2019 (UTC)

Muzilon, do you think David De Clue is reliable? The appearance of the website makes me dubious. SunCrow (talk) 03:34, 11 December 2019 (UTC)

Well, I guess that is a WP:SELFPUBLISHED fan site, but it does tally with the death date of 2nd October given by the Social Security Indexes[1][2]. Ironically, the latter SSN record seems to have the wrong birth year ("1923" rather than 1921). Muzilon (talk) 03:56, 11 December 2019 (UTC)

I have put both potential dates of death on the page. SunCrow (talk) 05:16, 19 March 2020 (UTC)

I see some other editor has changed the date to "1 October". Per WP:CONFLICTING, I've added an endnote saying the weight of primary and secondary sources support 2nd October, although some obits stated 1st October. Muzilon (talk) 03:37, 7 July 2021 (UTC)

"African-American"? Isn't that "dead-racing" him?

It is generally considered unacceptable to refer to a transsexual person by their birth name, as "deadnaming" is seen as imposing an outsider's identification upon a person, and interfering with their desire to live as the gender they have chosen. So how is declaring Mr. Pandit to be "African-American" or "black" any different, given that the article points out the lengths he personally went to to disavow any such ancestry? His natural physical appearance is described as "light-skinned" and "with straight hair", and his mother is described as "having Anglo and African ancestry" (which could mean almost anything; for all we know she may have been 95% Scottish and 5% African). Mr. Pandit could certainly be accurately described as "mixed-race", and yet he gets declared to be "African-American" or "black" despite his natural appearance, and clearly against his wishes. It almost seems as if some editors are driven by an agenda to impose their outsiders' identification upon him, just like "deadnaming" does to trans-people. It's "dead-racing". Who has the right to do that to another person, and why should WP allow it? Bricology (talk) 10:52, 26 January 2023 (UTC)

@User:Bricology, seems to me that since his father was African American and his mother was mixed (also also considered African American), and both his parents were descended from enslaved African people that African American is objectively what he was. “Light-skin” is an adjective used amongst African-Americans to describe themselves, not usually to describe white or Indian people. Furthermore Korla famously passed himself off as Indian, when he had no Indian heritage. No matter what race Korla said he was Wikipedia should be objective and stick to the truth, which all sources say is African American. Yours and my own opinion are not important. What’s important are what the sources say. Grey Wanderer (talk) 14:41, 26 January 2023 (UTC)

Seriously? We go by reliable sources, not personal musings. Binksternet (talk) 15:45, 26 January 2023 (UTC)

@Binksternet: We agree exactly then! African American is what the reliable source say. Your suggestion to classify him otherwise is more of a personal musing. Grey Wanderer (talk) 20:19, 26 January 2023 (UTC)

A ping only works if you also sign your username in the same edit. You can see by the level of indentation that we both were responding to Bricology. I agree with your viewpoint, so it's all good. Binksternet (talk) 21:23, 26 January 2023 (UTC)

Ah! Thanks for the info. Apparently I saw two usernames that starts “B” and my brain stopped working. Grey Wanderer (talk) 23:23, 26 January 2023 (UTC)

Reliable sources also say he self-identified as an Indian man by the name of Korla Pandit. After he changed his name, why does the article continue to call him "Redd"?98.166.163.235 (talk) 01:38, 17 April 2024 (UTC)

His Social Security record says he was "Black". Presumably that's what he declared when he applied for a Social Security number.[3] Muzilon (talk) 19:48, 26 January 2023 (UTC)