Rupinder Mohan Singh |

Celebrating Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Guru of the Sikhs

January 17, 2014 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

Last week, the Sikh community around the world celebrated the birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Sikh Guru (and last in human form) who was born on January 5, 1666. The specific date of the anniversary has been clouded with (almost ridiculous) confusion as various elements within the community debate the use of various Sikh calendar constructs. According to the Nanakshahi calendar, the anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh’s birth was on January 5. The actual date on which we […]

Categories: Sikhism • Tags: gurpurab, Guru Gobind Singh, Professor Puran Singh

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“an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”

December 9, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

Nelson Mandela’s struggle was already decades old by the time I — a young child — first learned of his story when watching the late night news with my father in the early 1980s. By then, the issue of apartheid and the subjugation of the blacks in South Africa was a well-known issue. I recall watching his interview with the BBC recorded in 1961, the black-and-white video of a mysterious man who spoke of a struggle for harmony and equal dignity. It […]

Categories: Civil Rights, Profiles • Tags: Apartheid, Nelson Mandela, South Africa

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A sign displayed outside a college provides instructions in several languages. (Source: The Economist)

The effects of multi-lingualism on personality

December 4, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

An article in The Economist discusses the impact of multilingualism on the personality of the speaker: Yet it is different to claim—as many people do—to have a different personality when using a different language. A former Economist colleague, for example,reported being ruder in Hebrew than in English. So what is going on here? Benjamin Lee Whorf, an American linguist who died in 1941, held that each language encodes a worldview that significantly influences its speakers. Often called “Whorfianism”, this idea has its sceptics, […]

Categories: Reports/Studies • Tags: Benjamin Lee Whorf, Guru Granth Sahib, language, Whorfianism

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Sikh asylum-seekers protest detention in El Paso, TX

December 4, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

The website Colorlines provides a report about a protest by 40 asylum-seekers in detention at a facility in El Paso, Texas, operated by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Many of these individuals are of Indian nationality with Sikh names, and they have been incarcerated for months (nod to Meeta Kaur for the link): Colorlines has obtained a document smuggled out of the detention facility that lists 32 Indian men who have passed their credible fear interview but remain in detention […]

Categories: Civil Rights • Tags: Colorlines, El Paso, political asylum, solitary confinement, Texas, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, undocumented immigrants

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Vishavjit Singh, of SikhToons.com, speaks to MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry about being the Sikh Captain America. (Source: MSNBC)

Captain America speaks to MSNBC

December 4, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

After his appearance as the Sikh Captain America on Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell last month, cartoonist Vishavjit Singh (of sikhtoons.com) speaks to MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry about donning the superhero’s costume in New York. I had the pleasure of meeting Vishavjit Singh in person at the SikhLens Film Festival in Southern California a couple of weeks ago. He is a very insightful and well-spoken representative for our community. See Vishavjit Singh’s full interview on MSNBC here.

Categories: Civil Rights, Profiles, TV/Movies • Tags: Captain America, Melissa Harris-Perry, MSNBC, Sikhtoons, Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell, Vishavjit Singh

America’s white supremacists

December 3, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

The website Salon prints an excerpt of sociologist Michael Kimmel’s book Angry White Men: American Masculinity at the End of an Era, in which the author describes larger patterns fueling America’s white supremacists: Most are in their mid-thirties to early forties, educated at least through high school and often beyond. (The average age of the guys I talked with was thirty-six.) They are the sons of skilled workers in industries like textiles and tobacco, the sons of the owners of small […]

Categories: Hate Crimes, Literature • Tags: Angry White Men: American Masculinity at the End of an Era, hate crimes, Michael Kimmel, Oak Creek, Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, Wade Michael Page, White supremacy, Wisconsin

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A primer on everyday racism

December 3, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

The blog A Kaur’s Thoughts offers a four-part primer on micro-aggression — the subtle, everyday messaging in our culture about racial stereotyping and bias — particularly from a Sikh perspective: For about 10 years of my life, starting in 4th or 5th grade and going through high school, I felt like I didn’t belong; I felt excluded and out of place. School was a semi-hostile place for me. I wasn’t beat up or physically hurt. I had friends, and was […]

Categories: Resources • Tags: A Kaur's Thoughts, microaggression

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The Sikh Captain America takes on New York

November 7, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

The FXX network’s television show Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell has not shied away from Sikh-related topics. After the mass shooting of Sikhs by a white supremacist in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, in August of last year, the show featured a segment to help eliminate confusion about the Sikh identity, and last month, highlighted the issues Sikh Americans face with TSA screening policies. Vishavjit Singh is an editorial cartoonist who in the past year experimented with wearing a Captain America […]

Categories: Art, Civil Rights, TV/Movies • Tags: Captain America, Hari Kondabolu, New York, Totally Biased, Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell, Vishavjit Singh

A Pew Research Center survey in 2010 shows racial disparity on opinions about gun control. (Source: Pew Research Center.)

Racism linked with gun ownership among US whites

November 6, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

After a white supremacist murdered six Sikh worshipers last year in at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin in Oak Creek, the relationship between racist attitudes, gun ownership and/or acts of violence has been topical on this blog. It is for this reason that a recent study published in the journal PLOS ONE drew some attention. The study completed at The University of Manchester and entitled “Racism, Gun Ownership and Gun Control: Biased Attitudes in US Whites May Influence Policy Decisions” suggests […]

Categories: Civil Rights, Hate Crimes, Reports/Studies • Tags: Dermot Lynott, gun control, gun ownership, Kerry O'Brien, Michael Daly, Pew Research Center, PLOS ONE, Racism, Walter Forrest

Considering the experience of Sikhs in America.

Author Archives: Rupinder Mohan Singh

Celebrating Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Guru of the Sikhs

“an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”

The effects of multi-lingualism on personality

Sikh asylum-seekers protest detention in El Paso, TX

Captain America speaks to MSNBC

America’s white supremacists

A primer on everyday racism

The Sikh Captain America takes on New York

Racism linked with gun ownership among US whites