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BREAKING NEWS: There are racists on the internet

September 17, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

ATLANTIC CITY, NJ — After New York’s Nina Davuluri became the first Indian American to win the title of Miss America, racist tweets surfaced on Internet social media sites on Sunday, catching news outlets across the country by surprise. “Was there a terrorist attack or something?” one dumbfounded news editor asked. “We have a black president and everything so I’m not sure where the hate came from after what’s-her-name won the pageant. If she was Arab or Muslim or something, […]

Categories: Civil Rights, Hate Crimes, Humor • Tags: Miss America, Miss New York, New York, Nina Davuluri, Racism

"Santokh Singh Sahi speaks with guest during a meet-greet with members of the Sikh community, on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2013 at the Glen Avon Library. " (Credit: STAN LIM/Press-Enterprise)

“If you tell me why you shave, I’ll tell you why I keep my hair”

September 16, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

After a Gurdwara near Riverside, California, was vandalized in late July with the word “terrorist” spray-painted on its walls, the Sikh community held an open house to engage with its neighbors in the area: Santokh Singh Sahi, 72, a member of the temple, Riverside Gurdwara, said the open house Tuesday night, Sept. 10, and the support the temple has received leading up to it decreased the apprehension temple members felt after the vandalism. “We feel more safe and secure because […]

Categories: Hate Crimes, Interfaith • Tags: Antonio Arias, California, Graffiti, hate crimes, Jurupa Valley, open house, Riverside, Santokh Singh Sahi, Sikh Gurdwara of Riverside, vandalism

The US flag is raised in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks in 2001. (Source: Martin Ramirez)

“Since 9/11”

September 15, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

The neighborhood in which I live is one of those that sprung up during the real estate bubble eight years ago. The houses are, for the most part, very similar. Composed of four or five standard models, the streets offer a consistent character of a typical Californian subdivision. There is one house among the many, however, that is a bit different. It is unique in that an American flag waves outside its front door. The residents of that house are […]

Categories: Civil Rights, Events, Hate Crimes, Reflections • Tags: 9/11, hate crimes, Islamophobia, Sikhophobia, xenophobia

Guru Gobind Singh’s Zafarnama and Oak Creek, Wisconsin

August 27, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

What manliness you have shown by extinguishing a few sparks? You have made the conflagration brighter and more furious. — Guru Gobind Singh to Aurangzeb, Mughal emperor of India, 1705. In 1705, the tenth Guru of the Sikhs, Guru Gobind Singh, wrote a letter in Persian entitled Zafarnama (“Epistle of Victory”) to Aurangzeb, the Mughal emperor of India who engaged in a campaign to eradicate the Sikh people, resulting in the execution and deaths of the Guru’s four young sons […]

Categories: Civil Rights, Hate Crimes, Reflections • Tags: Aurangzeb, Guru Gobind Singh, hate crimes, Oak Creek, Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, Zafarnama

"A statue of Martin Luther King stands across from the historical Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala." (Photo: Ken Wells, Bloomberg. Source: USA Today)

Still “mountains to climb” to combat hate

August 26, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

In USA Today, Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center offers an assessment of where the country is today, 50 years after the March on Washington: “We still have mountains to climb. The best estimates suggest there are a stunning quarter-million hate crimes in this country every year. Hate groups have been rising steadily over the last decade and now number more than 1,000. Our public discourse, including that of a shameful number of politicians, preachers and pundits, is […]

Categories: Civil Rights, Hate Crimes, Reflections • Tags: 16 Street Baptist Church, Alabama, Birmingham, hate crimes, March on Washington, Mark Potok, Southern Poverty Law Center, USA Today, White supremacy

(Photo: Steve Rhodes/Flickr. Source: Asian American Writers' Workshop))

Are Asians Trayvon Martin?

August 21, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

In the Asian American Writers’ Workshop, I.Y. Lee discusses the Asian American experience in the context of the murder of Trayvon Martin: We are highly educated but increasingly unemployed, growing in political clout but under-represented, examples of the American success story who have on occasion been beaten, tortured, and killed for our race. To move beyond this binary, Asian Americans must find a politics that, through solidarity and activism, breaks the de facto apartheid that creates it. Read more here. […]

Categories: Civil Rights, Hate Crimes • Tags: Asian American, Asian American Writers Workshop, George Zimmerman, I.W. Yee, Trayvon Martin

Celebrating diversity in the wake of hate

August 16, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

After two Sikh grandfathers were shot and killed while on their daily walk in a suspected (and yet, unsolved) hate crime in Elk Grove, California, in March, 2011, the city council sought to promote the diversity of and among its residents: In October 2011, each council member appointed two of the more than 30 applicants to serve on the 10-member Elk Grove Multicultural Committee… “I thought the creation of it was very timely, not just because of the shootings but […]

Categories: Events, Hate Crimes • Tags: California, Elk Grove, Elk Grove Multicultural Festival, Gurmej Atwal, hate crimes, Sacramento, Surinder Singh

Vandal of Jurupa Valley, CA, Gurdwara, arrested

August 8, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

A juvenile has been arrested in last week’s vandalism of a Gurdwara in Jurupa Valley, California, when the word “terrorist” was spray-painted on the walls of the Sikh house of worship: Investigators conducted a lengthy investigation into the vandalism that led to the arrest of a juvenile responsible for the temple vandalism. Subsequent investigation revealed that the same juvenile was also responsible for an ongoing vandalism spree that began in August of 2012, resulting in 33 separate vandalism crimes, totaling […]

Categories: Hate Crimes • Tags: California, Graffiti, hate crimes, Jurupa Valley, SALDEF, Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund, vandalism

"Terrorist" spray-painted on a wall at the Sikh Gurdwara of Riverside, in Jurupa Valley, California. (Source: PEBloggers)

Gurdwara near Riverside, CA, vandalized with graffiti

July 30, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

Only days before the one-year anniversary of the shooting attack at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin in Oak Creek, the Sikh Gurdwara of Riverside, in Jurupa Valley, California, has been vandalized with the word “terrorist” spray-painted twice on its walls: “This is definitely a hate crime,” [Birpal Kaur, of SALDEF,] said. “It was very purposely targeted toward a minority community.” A police report was filed with the Riverside County Sheriff. Incidentally, Jurupa Valley, California, is also home to a school […]

Categories: Hate Crimes • Tags: California, Graffiti, hate crimes, Jurupa Valley, Riverside, SALDEF, Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Sikh Gurdwara of Riverside, vandalism

Considering the experience of Sikhs in America.

Category Archives: Hate Crimes