That’s not just a quote from a poli sci prof featured in this story about Jindal’s apparently insufficient Indian-ness. It’s also how the paper is promoting the story on social media.

Remember, all minority conservatives are racially inauthentic, even if “authenticity” in this case is vague to the point of meaninglessness.

As a child, he announced he wanted to go by the name “Bobby,” after a character in the “Brady Bunch.” He converted from Hinduism to Christianity as a teen, and was later baptized a Catholic as a student at Brown University — making his devotion to Christianity a centerpiece of his public life. He and his wife were quick to say in a “60 Minutes” interview in 2009 that they do not observe many Indian traditions — although they had two wedding ceremonies, one Hindu and one Catholic. He said recently he wants to be known simply as an American, not an Indian American…

“My mom was fully committed to raising us as Americans,” Jindal said. “That was a conscious decision. We ate food that would be familiar to other families in south Louisiana. She wanted to raise us like other kids in the neighborhood.”…

He began wearing cowboy boots more often [as governor] and got a hunting license. In December, he and wife Supriya were pictured on their Christmas card with their three kids decked out in camouflage. The governor said he started hunting regularly more recently in life and can’t recall much about his first kill.

When Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to the United States to visit last September, a host of politicians attended his rally at Madison Square Garden. Jindal did not. When Jindal’s name was mentioned, he was booed by the crowd.

“You can’t forget about your heritage. You can’t forget about your roots,” said a disappointed Indian-American doctor who donated to Jindal’s first campaign for governor and who, oh by the way, is a Democrat. Read the whole story if you want but here it is in two words: Jindal assimilated. And he did most of his assimilating long before he started his career in politics, when he had no electoral motive to do so. He was calling himself “Bobby” when he was a little kid. He became a Christian as a teenager. As noted in the excerpt, his own parents encouraged assimilation, even if they were understandably reluctant about his religious conversion at first. The only evidence here that Jindal’s inched further away from traditional Indian culture as governor because it might be a political liability is a story about his father allegedly telling Indian-American friends to wear western dress to his victory party the night he won the GOP gubernatorial primary in 2003. Jindal denies that that happened; even if it did, go figure that a young pol with national ambitions might be willing to cater a bit to the cultural biases of his region to build his career. Right, Hillary?

Makes me wonder how much more Indian culture Jindal would need to display for him to be deemed “sufficiently Indian.” He should start telling reporters that Thursday night is “curry night” in the Jindal household and that he’s always thought his wife looks hot in a sari. That’ll satisfy ’em. And incidentally, if you think Jindal’s having it tough from WaPo today, wait until Nikki Haley starts creeping up the VP ranks. Jindal retains his identifiably Indian surname and his wife is Indian-American; Haley’s husband is white and she took his Anglophone surname in marriage, so she’s extra inauthentic ‘n stuff. And candidly, she’s much more of a threat to Democrats politically than Jindal is at the moment: His polling right now is pitiful whereas she’s a legit contender to balance the GOP ticket against Hillary, especially after yesterday. The race-traitor hot takes about her from the left if and when the time comes will be *mwah* magnifique. Exit question: Is this payback from WaPo for conservative attacks on Elizabeth Warren? We made fun of their fake Indian so now they’re going to try to pull the same move on us?