hate crimes | American Turban

The case for “mistaken identity”

January 20, 2016 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

In an article published in Lawfare, law professor Dawinder S. Sidhu offers an coincidental counterpoint to Monday’s post about the concept of “mistaken identity” and its use to explain hate crimes in which Sikh Americans are victims. Professor Sidhu finds that dismissing mistaken identity arguments is problematic and counter-productive to addressing hate crimes affecting the Sikh and Muslim communities in the post-9/11, post-Paris and post-San Bernardino environment.

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"A new problem for Uncle Sam." Political cartoon c. 1910 (source: Echoes of Freedom)

Let’s expunge “mistaken identity” from our vocabulary, first

January 18, 2016 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

“Mistaken identity” has become the de facto explanation for hate crimes perpetrated against members of the Sikh American community, the logic being that Sikhs are being targeted because their articles of faith — particularly the turban, men’s beard, and brown skin — are confused by attackers for identifiers of Muslims, the latter of whom are being confused as terrorists. Both law enforcement and Sikh community leaders have defaulted to this explanation, pointing to post-9/11 backlash as the causal motivation for […]

Categories: Civil Rights, Hate Crimes • Tags: Donald Trump, hate crimes, John McCain, mistaken identity, Uncle Sam, White supremacy, xenophobia

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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The “Dusky Peril” and locating race in racial violence

February 25, 2015 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

On The Vault (the history blog for Slate magazine), historian Peter Manseau recounts the history of the 1907 Bellingham riots in Washington state, in which Sikh laborers were attacked and driven out of the town’s lumber industry by mobs of white men: As reported across the country, in September 1907, a mob of disgruntled white workers rounded up hundreds of Sikhs, beat them in the street, and then forced them out of town. Many went north to British Columbia; others went […]

Categories: Civil Rights, Hate Crimes • Tags: "Washington, Bellingham, Bellingham riots, Chapel Hill, hate crime, hate crimes, North Carolina, Peter Manseau, Slate, The Vault, Washington State

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"President Obama delivers a traditional Indian greeting before he speaks on Jan. 27 in New Delhi, India. The president, who was guest of honor at India's Republic Day celebrations, wrapped up his visit by talking about the freedom to practice one's religion, the rights of women and the need to provide every child with equal opportunity." (Photo: European Pressphoto Agency. Source: USA Today.).

Obama cites Oak Creek massacre in New Delhi speech, site of 1984 anti-Sikh pogrom

February 12, 2015 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

While he didn’t visit the Sikh faith’s holiest site during his trip to India two weeks ago, President Obama did create a bit of a stir as he openly advocated for religious freedom and peaceful coexistence of faiths in India, citing in his speech the mass murder of Sikhs in Oak Creek, Wisconsin in 2012: Obama said no society is immune from man’s darkest impulses, as he raised the 2012 shooting at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin that killed six […]

Categories: 1984, Civil Rights, Politics • Tags: Ami Bera, Barack Obama, hate crimes, India, Narendra Modi, Oak Creek, Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, Wisconsin

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1984 Through Indian Eyes: Part III — Her Name Is Kaur, edited by Meeta Kaur

August 15, 2014 by American Turban Guest Contributor

1984 through Indian Eyes: Literary Accounts of Operation Blue Star and the Anti-Sikh Pogroms By Lori Way Part III – Her Name Is Kaur, edited by Meeta Kaur In commemoration of the 30th anniversary of Operation Bluestar in Amritsar, India, in June, 1984, and the anti-Sikh pogroms that took place the following November in New Delhi, Lori Way continues her series of essays discussing works of literature focusing upon these events. See also Part I and Part II of her series […]

Categories: 1984, Literature • Tags: Gunisha Kaur, Harleen Kaur, hate crime, hate crimes, Her Name is Kaur, Lori Way, Meeta Kaur, Oak Creek, Operation Blue Star, Operation Bluestar, Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, Wisconsin

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

America’s white supremacists

December 3, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

The website Salon prints an excerpt of sociologist Michael Kimmel’s book Angry White Men: American Masculinity at the End of an Era, in which the author describes larger patterns fueling America’s white supremacists: Most are in their mid-thirties to early forties, educated at least through high school and often beyond. (The average age of the guys I talked with was thirty-six.) They are the sons of skilled workers in industries like textiles and tobacco, the sons of the owners of small […]

Categories: Hate Crimes, Literature • Tags: Angry White Men: American Masculinity at the End of an Era, hate crimes, Michael Kimmel, Oak Creek, Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, Wade Michael Page, White supremacy, Wisconsin

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American Turban

Considering the experience of Sikhs in America.

Tag: hate crimes

The case for “mistaken identity”

Let’s expunge “mistaken identity” from our vocabulary, first

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

On being “one of them”

The “Dusky Peril” and locating race in racial violence

Obama cites Oak Creek massacre in New Delhi speech, site of 1984 anti-Sikh pogrom

1984 Through Indian Eyes: Part III — Her Name Is Kaur, edited by Meeta Kaur

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

America’s white supremacists