Reports/Studies |

California Rep. Mike Honda Questions FBI Director on the need for additional categories in the FBI’s Hate Crime Statistics Act data collection mandate. (source: C-SPAN, via SALDEF)

According to US Department of Justice, most hate crimes not reported

March 26, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

While the FBI reports hate crimes based on voluntary reporting by law enforcement agencies (a database which is rife with issues) around the country, the most recent study by the US Department of Justice based on the National Crime Victimization Survey (a survey of victims of crime) continues to shed more light about the nature of hate crimes in the United States. According to the new report issued by the Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics, a quarter of a million […]

Categories: Hate Crimes, Politics, Reports/Studies • Tags: FBI, FBI Hate Crime Statistics, Federal Bureau of Investigation, hate crime, Hate Crime Statistics, National Crime Victimization Survey, United States Bureau of Justice Statistics

Behavioral economist Keith Chen introduces a fascinating pattern from his research: that languages without a concept for the future -- "It rain tomorrow," instead of "It will rain tomorrow" -- correlate strongly with high savings rates.

Future-less languages, saving money, and the Guru Granth Sahib

March 20, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

Referring to the people of South Asia, Salman Rushdie writes in his novel Midnight’s Children (which is among my favorite reads): “…no people whose word for “yesterday” is the same as their word for “tomorrow” can be said to have a firm grip on the time.” It is an interesting observation that the word kal in Punjabi or Hindi can refer to day prior or to the day after the present day. While Salman Rushdie might have been lamenting about […]

Categories: Reports/Studies • Tags: future-less language, Keith Chen, language, Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie, TED, TEDx

The 2011 FBI Hate Crimes Statistics Report provides data about the 6,222 incidents reported to the database in 2011. (source: FBI Hate Crimes Statistics 2011)

The FBI Hate Crimes database offers little help to authorities

March 18, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

As stories have emerged this year about continued hate crimes against Sikhs in Port Orange, Florida, and Green Bay, Wisconsin, ironically, in the current state of the FBI Hate Crimes Statistics reporting, these crimes (in addition to the mass murder of six Sikhs in Oak Creek, Wisconsin last August) would not be explicitly identified as hate crimes targeting Sikhs, and may not even appear in the FBI’s Hate Crimes statistics at all. Similarly, this also is the case for attacks […]

Categories: Hate Crimes, Reports/Studies, Resources • Tags: FBI, FBI Hate Crime Statistics, Federal Bureau of Investigation, hate crimes, Sikh Coalition

Cover of The Blind Spot. (source: Blind Spot website)

Identifying and challenging our invisible prejudices

March 7, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

Psychologists Mahzarin Banaji of Harvard University and Anthony Greenwald of the University of Washington are authors of the book The Blind Spot, which examines the existence of implicit biases and prejudices that we often carry, of which we are not even aware: “Blindspot” is a metaphor to capture that portion of the mind that houses hidden biases. The authors use it to ask about the extent to which social groups – without our awareness or conscious control – shape our […]

Categories: Reports/Studies • Tags: Anthony Greenwald, Blindspot, Implicit Association Test, Mahzarin Banaji, Prejudice, stereotypes

The Boy With Long Hair, by Pushpinder Kaur, is a coloring book published by the Sikh Foundation. (source: The Sikh Foundation)

SALDEF reports high rate of bullying of Sikh children in southern CA

February 21, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

67% of Sikh American children surveyed were bullied or harassed within the last school year and 31% have been threatened with physical violence or harm. These numbers are staggering compared to national averages and an indication of the serious challenges that our children continue to endure on a regular basis. — Jasjit Singh, Executive Director of the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF), reports from a survey taken by SALDEF of Sikh American students in southern California. A […]

Categories: Civil Rights, Reports/Studies • Tags: bullying, California, Jasjit Singh, SALDEF, Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Southern California, The Boy With Long Hair

The Southern Poverty Law Center counted 1,018 active hate groups in the United States in 2011. (source: Southern Poverty Law Center)

The Southern Poverty Law Center Hate Map

January 22, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a “nonprofit civil rights organization dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry, and to seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of society,” counted 1,018 hate groups in the United States in 2011: This list was compiled using hate group publications and websites, citizen and law enforcement reports, field sources and news reports. Hate group activities can include criminal acts, marches, rallies, speeches, meetings, leafleting or publishing. Websites appearing to be merely the work of […]

Categories: Hate Crimes, Reports/Studies, Resources • Tags: California, Elk Grove, Gurmej Atwal, hate crime, Hate Crime Statistics, hate groups, New Jersey, New York, Oak Creek, Sacramento, Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, Southern Poverty Law Center, Surinder Singh, Wisconsin

The body-mind feedback loop

January 11, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

In a TED Talk in June 2012, Dr. Amy Cuddy, a social psychologist from Harvard Business School, discusses the bidirectional relationship between how we see ourselves and our nonverbal language, such as external behavior and body language: Dr. Cuddy’s findings are actually part of a rapidly growing body of evidence that, across a range of important human experiences, feeling often follows action. We tend to assume it’s our personality — the sum total of our attitudes, motivations and emotions — […]

Categories: Reports/Studies • Tags: Amy Cuddy, Harvard Business School, Nonverbal communication, TED

The relationship between religious affiliation and birth rate

January 4, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

In the TED Talk above recorded last May, Hans Rosling examines the trends of birth rates around the world by religious affiliation, and then by country and per-capita income: Hans Rosling had a question: Do some religions have a higher birth rate than others — and how does this affect global population growth? Speaking at the TEDxSummit in Doha, Qatar, he graphs data over time and across religions. With his trademark humor and sharp insight, Hans reaches a surprising conclusion […]

Categories: Reports/Studies

Pew Forum discusses lack of available census data on Sikhs

December 20, 2012 by American Turban Guest Contributor

Alan Cooperman is the Associate Director for Research at the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion and Public Life. In response to yesterday’s post about the Pew Forum’s latest report The Global Religious Landscape, Mr. Cooperman provides more insight about the study, and about the dearth of statistics available related to Sikh counts in countries around the world. His feedback and the information that he provides is very much appreciated and acknowledged. You can read more about Alan Cooperman at […]

Categories: Reports/Studies • Tags: Alan Cooperman, Global Religious Landscape, Pew Forum, Pew Forum of Religion and Public Life, Pew Research Center, Sikh census

Considering the experience of Sikhs in America.

Category Archives: Reports/Studies