bullying | American Turban

“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

Leave a comment

"One Step Forward, Half a Step Back" -- A study by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund and the Sikh Coalition about bullying in NYC schools, was released earlier this month. (Source: Sikh Coalition)

Study of Asian American students in NY finds increase in reports of bullying

September 18, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

Two weeks ago, the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) and the Sikh Coalition released a report entitled “One Step Forward, Half a Step Back,” gauging the implementation of New York Schools Chancellor’s Regulation A-832, issued in 2008 “which established policies and procedures on how New York City schools should respond to bias-based harassment, intimidation, and bullying in schools.” The New York City Department of Education serves 1.1 million students across 1,800 schools. For Sikh American students, the […]

Categories: Civil Rights, Education, Reports/Studies • Tags: AALDEF, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, bullying, New York, New York City Department of Education, One Step Forward Half a Step Back, Sikh Coalition

Leave a comment

"Widening the Lens on Boys and Men of Color." (Source: Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy)

The experiences of Asian American males in California

June 11, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

The website Colorlines summarizes seven findings of a study entitled “Widening the Lens on Boys and Men of Color” by the organization Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy (AAPIP). The seven findings presented by Colorlines about boys and men in the Californian Asian American/Pacific Islander (AAPI) and Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim and South Asian (what the study abbreviates as “AMEMSA”) communities debunk the “model minority” myth that is often used to describe Asian Americans. One such conclusion discusses the experiences of […]

Categories: Civil Rights, Reports/Studies • Tags: AAPI, AAPIP, AMEMSA, Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy, Bhujangi Youth Academy, bullying, California, Colorlines, Jakara Movement, model minority, Widening the Lens on Boys and Men of Color

Leave a comment

Scene from "Neel" by David Woo (source: YouTube)

US DoJ settles with Georgia school district in case of bullied Sikh student

May 10, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

In Georgia, the DeKalb County School District in Stone Mountain recently reached a settlement agreement with the US Department of Justice in the case of a Sikh student who was harassed and bullied in a middle school in their district: The complaint said school officials did nothing to help the boy, who had allegedly been subjected to verbal and physical harassment because of his Sikh faith. According to the complaint, a student had tried to cut the boy’s hair, he […]

Categories: Civil Rights • Tags: bullying, Civil Rights Act of 1964, David Woo, DeKalb County School District, Georgia, Neel, Sikh Coalition, Stone Mountain, Title IV, United States Department of Justice

Still from "To This Day", a spoken word poem by Shane Koyczan.

Safe Schools Improvement Act reintroduced in US Congress

April 18, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

A recent post on the Hyphen Magazine blog shares the parallel experience of two Sikh American men who were bullied in their school years: For both Gurwinder and I, physical confrontation became a matter of daily course at school. Gurwinder recalled, “A kid in class came up from behind and started hitting me. There were six other kids with him; they had me on the floor, stomping on my arms and back.” It is a story not uncommon for many […]

Categories: Civil Rights, Reports/Studies • Tags: bullying, Safe Schools Improvement Act, SALDEF, Shane Koyczan, Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund, To This Day

Leave a comment

"Kirty Singh, Gurwinder Singh, Namit Satara plan an upcoming trip to Washington D.C. for members of the Sikh Junior Coalition." (credit: Jo Piazza | The Wall Street Journal)

Sikh Coalition program empowers Sikh youth to tackle challenges

April 10, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

An article in The Wall Street Journal describes the Junior Sikh Coalition, a Sikh youth group in the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut area organized by the Sikh Coalition to develop leadership skills among young Sikhs and to take on issues such as school bullying: “When we were alone it was really hard,” said Rajan Kaur, a 17-year-old from Morristown, N.J. “But, when we are together we feel like we can accomplish anything.” When I was a young student, I was often […]

Categories: Civil Rights, Profiles • Tags: bullying, Connecticut, Gurwinder Singh, Junior Sikh Coalition, Kirty Singh, Namit Satara, New Jersey, New York, Rajan Kaur, Sikh Coalition, Wall Street Journal

Leave a comment

Screen shot of Patka Spotting, a website designed to poke fun of Sikh men who wear patkas.

For I have seen the patka on your soul

February 26, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

Making its way through social media today is a website called Patka Spotting. According to the website: Patka Spotting was created for the sole purpose to shout out all the guys in our community who are just too old to be wearing children’s patka’s around and about. A patka is the head-covering commonly worn by Sikh children — mainly boys — before they adopt the full turban as adults. Much like a bandana, a patka is a small piece of […]

Categories: Reflections • Tags: bullying, patka, Patka Spotting, Turban

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

Sikh student and teacher (Kulpreet Singh | About.com Sikhism)

Moving beyond tolerance in the classroom

November 27, 2012 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

In an article published on the Not In Our Town blog, Amrit Kaur Sidhu, an intern with United Sikhs, relates personal experience to make the salient distinction between promoting diversity (“plurality”) and promoting pluralism — “the active engagement of plurality” — in the classroom: I realized that schools are the first institutions that must become a model of pluralism, in order for pluralism to seep out into the rest of society. Students are placed in a social setting with other […]

Categories: Civil Rights, Hate Crimes, Reflections • Tags: Amrit Kaur Sidhu, bullying, CREATE Wisconsin, Education, hate crimes, Navjot Kaur, Not In Our Town, Oak Creek, pluralism, Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, Wisconsin

Leave a comment

American Turban

Considering the experience of Sikhs in America.

Tag: bullying

“Break the Silence” from the Kaur Foundation

Study of Asian American students in NY finds increase in reports of bullying

The experiences of Asian American males in California

US DoJ settles with Georgia school district in case of bullied Sikh student

Safe Schools Improvement Act reintroduced in US Congress

Sikh Coalition program empowers Sikh youth to tackle challenges

For I have seen the patka on your soul

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

Moving beyond tolerance in the classroom