Reflections | | Page 2

Sandeep Kaur of Fort Wayne, Indiana Sends a Message of Love and Unity in Nirbhau Nirvair Anthology

September 14, 2015 by American Turban Guest Contributor

After the news of another hate crime against a Sikh American last week, American Turban contributor Lori Way shares a timely poem from a young author from Fort Wayne, Indiana. Many thanks to Lori and author Sandeep Kaur for sharing this reflection. Sandeep Kaur is currently a pharmacy student at Manchester University in Fort Wayne, Indiana, but she was just 18 in the summer of 2013 when she wrote “A Land of Love.” The poem was selected for publication in […]

Categories: Art, Hate Crimes, Literature, Profiles, Reflections • Tags: "A Land of Love", Chicago, Fort Wayne, hate crime, hate crimes, Illinois, Inderjit Singh Mukker, Indiana, Lori Way, Poetry, Sandeep Kaur

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On being “one of them”

July 9, 2015 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

On Medium, in an address after the mass murder of nine black congregants at the hands of a white supremacist in Charleston, South Carolina, writer John Metta talks about the difficulty in having conversations about race: Despite what the Charleston Massacre makes things look like, people are dying not because individuals are racist, but because individuals are helping support a racist system by wanting to protect their own non-racist self beliefs. People are dying because we are supporting a racist system […]

Categories: Civil Rights, Hate Crimes, Reflections • Tags: Charleston, hate crimes, John Metta, Ku Klux Klan, mass shooting, Medium, Oak Creek, Racism, Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, South Carolina, White supremacy, Wisconsin

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In tribute: Hari Simran Singh Khalsa

January 19, 2015 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

I want to take a moment to pay brief tribute to Hari Simran Singh Khalsa, who passed away earlier this month in an apparent hiking accident. I had the opportunity to meet and spend a short time with Hari Simran as he participated in the Sikh Coalition’s Sikh Advocate Academy last June. It became very apparent to me early on that Hari Simran was unique. He lived his Sikhi in a way that was harmonious with his reality — his spirituality […]

Categories: Profiles, Reflections • Tags: Hari Simran Singh Khalsa, Sikh Coalition

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Members of the Dashmesh Sikh Gurudwara at the rose planting ceremony, August 5th, 2014 (photo by Lori Way).

Fort Wayne, IN, commemorates Oak Creek shooting with 6 Days of Seva

August 13, 2014 by American Turban Guest Contributor

Fort Wayne, Indiana, is a town located about four hours southeast of Oak Creek, Wisconsin. A small but growing Sikh population there recently commemorated the second anniversary of the mass shooting at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin in which six people were murdered by a white supremacist. Over six days, the community honored each of the victims with a seva (selfless service) project. Lori Way, a regular contributor to this blog and a Sikh Coalition Volunteer Advocate in Fort Wayne, […]

Categories: Civil Rights, Events, Hate Crimes, Reflections • Tags: 6 Days of Seva, Fort Wayne, hate crime, hate crimes, Indiana, Lori Way, Oak Creek, Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, Wisconsin

San Quentin State Prison, California. (Image: San Quentin News.)

Raising Sikh awareness — without and within

January 30, 2014 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

Co-blogged with Sundari. The Sikh Coalition, a civil rights organization, was recently asked to present to a group of inmates at San Quentin State Prison in Northern California. Organized by the Asian Prisoner Support Committee, which has a weekly class inside San Quentin State Prison called SQ ROOTS (Restoring Our Original True Selves), the organization was asked to make a presentation about the Sikh community. The class is modeled after Asian American Studies courses, covering topics such as history, culture, […]

Categories: Civil Rights, Reflections • Tags: California, San Quentin State Prison, Sikh awareness, Sikh Coalition, Sikh prisoners

"A woman on the deck of a boat headed to Ellis Island in New York." (Credit: Lucas Jackson/Reuters. Source: New York Times.)

A South Asian undocumented immigrant

November 6, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

On The New York Times blog India Ink, Piyali Bhattacharya pens an article about an undocumented South Asian immigrant from Nepal named Nirmal, who left his family to find work in New York (via AnjumChoudhry Nayyar): “There is nothing for me back in Nepal,” he said. “There are no job opportunities there. Better to suffer here and let my child live in peace. Maybe because of me, she will have a better life.” These motivations are not so different from […]

Categories: Profiles, Reflections • Tags: Immigration, India Ink, New York Times, Paramjit Singh, Piyali Bhattacharya, undocumented immigrants

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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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Depiction of the execution of Bhai Mani Singh in 1737.

Rejecting the victimhood narrative

October 10, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

There has been significant conversation from and within the Sikh community in regard to the recent hate attack on Dr. Prabhjot Singh a few weeks ago, of the response, and about what is needed to prevent future attacks and discrimination. Citing the story of Bhai Mani Singh (who was brutally executed in 1737), Simran Jeet Singh discusses the concept of victimhood (or lack therof) in the Sikh faith to provide context around the reaction by many Sikhs to the attack […]

Categories: Hate Crimes, Reflections, Sikhism • Tags: Bhai Mani Singh, New York, Prabhjot Singh, Simran Jeet Singh, victimhood

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Considering the experience of Sikhs in America.

Category Archives: Reflections

Sandeep Kaur of Fort Wayne, Indiana Sends a Message of Love and Unity in Nirbhau Nirvair Anthology

On being “one of them”

In tribute: Hari Simran Singh Khalsa

Fort Wayne, IN, commemorates Oak Creek shooting with 6 Days of Seva

Raising Sikh awareness — without and within

A South Asian undocumented immigrant

On American Sikh identification versus purpose

The cost of “American exceptionalism”

Rejecting the victimhood narrative