Civil Rights |

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

Have you hugged a Sikh today? (Photo: Karaminder Ghuman)

November is California Sikh American Awareness and Appreciation Month

November 5, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

As it did in 2010 and 2012, the California state legislature has declared November 2013 as “Sikh American Awareness and Appreciation Month” across the state. The bill (Assembly Concurrent Resolution 25) was introduced by Assemblymember Robert Wieckowski, and it passed through the State Assembly and Senate in September. From the resolution: Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, the Senate thereof concurring, That the Legislature hereby designates the month of November 2013 to be California’s Sikh American Awareness and […]

Categories: Civil Rights, Education, Events, Resources • Tags: ACR-25, California, California Sikh American Awareness and Appreciation Month, California State Assembly, California State Senate, Sikh American Awareness and Appreciation Month, Sikh Awareness Month, Sikh Coalition

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“Break the Silence” from the Kaur Foundation

November 5, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

The Kaur Foundation, a non-profit Sikh awareness and educational organization (featured on this blog in June), has released a video featuring a variety of Sikhs in different occupations imploring students to “break the silence” around bullying — an issue that particularly plagues Sikh children in schools. The video is well-done and is particularly compelling. The participants in the video both empathize and demonstrate what is possible for Sikh children who may feel marginalized. See the video above, and visit the […]

Categories: Civil Rights, Resources, TV/Movies • Tags: "Break the Silence", bullying, Kaur Foundation

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"Sikh residents take part in a June 2013 parade in Salem, Oregon. Credit: Creative Commons/PhotoAtelier." (Source: Tikkun)

On American Sikh identification versus purpose

October 25, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

Simran Jeet Singh and Dr. Prabhjot Singh consider the Sikh American balance of identity: American Sikhs walk a thin rhetorical line between declaring what we are—a group that aims to elevate the consciousness of all people to appreciate our common divinity—and declaring what we are not in order to avoid the short-term consequences of popular confusion. Within this tension lies the key to how American Sikhs can and should negotiate political life: we must engage with group cohesion in such […]

Categories: Civil Rights, Reflections • Tags: Prabhjot Singh, Simran Jeet Singh, Tikkun

The discrepancy between perception and reality as it pertains to what makes America exceptional. (Source: Visual.ly)

The cost of “American exceptionalism”

October 16, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

Ahead of a review of the United States before a United Nations human rights committee, Hansdeep Singh, Jaspreet Singh and Hannah Shirley of the International Center for Advocates Against Discrimination (ICAAD) discuss how the concept of “American exceptionalism” has evolved to negatively impact ethnic and racial communities within our borders: Crudely put, the current notion of American exceptionalism at home spreads the ideas that: Muslims, Arabs, Sikhs, and south Asians are not American (and are often terrorists), Blacks and Latinos […]

Categories: Civil Rights, Hate Crimes, Reflections • Tags: American exceptionalism, Hannah Shirley, Hansdeep Singh, ICAAD, International Center for Advocates Against Discrimination, Jaspreet Singh, United Nations Human Rights Committee

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Recognize Columbus Day as Mistaken Identity Day

October 11, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

Never admitting that he had reached a continent previously unknown to Europeans, rather than the East Indies he had set out for, Columbus called the inhabitants of the lands he visited indios (Spanish for “Indians“). — Wikipedia entry on Christopher Columbus. Americans celebrate Columbus Day in October each year in honor Christopher Columbus, the Spanish explorer who landed in the Caribbean in search of a westerly trade route to Asia in 1492. This year, the commemoration occurs on Monday, October 14. […]

Categories: Civil Rights, Events, Hate Crimes • Tags: Caribbean, Christopher Columbus, Columbus Day, Harleen Kaur, mistaken identity, New World

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Have we reached racial equality? It depends on whom you ask.

October 9, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

A recent article in The Los Angeles Times describes the disparity between whites and blacks in how each group perceives the state of racial equality in the United States, as described in a Pew Research Center survey published in August: Many experts argue that “structural racism” — advantages and disadvantages that perpetuate themselves even without people choosing to discriminate — plays a big part in continued inequality. For instance, even if companies don’t try to avoid hiring blacks, blacks may […]

Categories: Civil Rights, Reports/Studies • Tags: Discrimination, Pew Forum, Pew Research Center, racial equality

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Prabhjot Singh (left) speaks at a press conference with Amardeep Singh (middle) of the Sikh Coalition and Jasjit Singh (right) of SALDEF on September 23, 2013. (Source: The Sikh Coalition)

Where do we go from here?

October 4, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

It has been an interesting two weeks for the Sikh American community. It was during this time that events came to light that were, in many ways, a microcosm of the Sikh American experience as it relates to prejudice and discrimination. There was, of course, the attack on Dr. Prabhjot Singh almost two weeks ago in New York, in which his attackers hurled upon him slurs of “terrorist” and “Osama” before swarming and assaulting him. The story of Jagjeet Singh […]

Categories: Civil Rights, Hate Crimes, Reflections • Tags: Amardeep Singh, Balbir Kaur Singh, Jaideep Singh, Manan Ahmed Asif, Manmeet Kaur, Prabhjot Singh, Simran Kaur

Considering the experience of Sikhs in America.

Category Archives: Civil Rights

The Sikh Captain America takes on New York

Racism linked with gun ownership among US whites

November is California Sikh American Awareness and Appreciation Month

“Break the Silence” from the Kaur Foundation

On American Sikh identification versus purpose

The cost of “American exceptionalism”

Recognize Columbus Day as Mistaken Identity Day

Have we reached racial equality? It depends on whom you ask.

Where do we go from here?