Tag: White supremacy

"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

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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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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"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

President Barack Obama outlines future counter-terrorism efforts in a speech on May 23, 2013. (Source: The Washington Post)

What the President said, and didn’t say, about the Oak Creek, WI, shooting

May 23, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

In his speech today about the US government’s counter-terrorism activities and strategy, President Barack Obama made reference to home-grown radicalized “individuals”, citing explicitly the mass shooting at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin in Oak Creek last August: Finally, we face a real threat from radicalized individuals here in the United States. Whether it’s a shooter at a Sikh Temple in Wisconsin; a plane flying into a building in Texas; or the extremists who killed 168 people at the Federal Building […]

Categories: Civil Rights, Hate Crimes, Politics • Tags: Barack Obama, hate crimes, Oak Creek, Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, Terrorism, White supremacy, Wisconsin

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"Geography of Hate" map showing concentrations of hate-based tweets on Twitter from June 2012 to April 2013. (source: Floating Sheep)

Quote of the Day

May 14, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

“FBI experts believe the Internet continues to serve as the primary radicalization instrument, used to recruit teenagers and young adults into the radical skinhead movement,” the warrant says. — A recently-released document by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reveals that Wade Michael Page was active on white supremacist websites and social media prior to his attack on the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin in Oak Creek last August, in which he murdered six Sikhs, severely wounding another and a police […]

Categories: Hate Crimes • Tags: FBI, Federal Bureau of Investigation, hate crimes, Oak Creek, Quote of the Day, Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, Wade Michael Page, White supremacy, Wisconsin

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Addressing domestic terrorism needs renewed focus

April 10, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

An article in the Dayton Daily News discusses white supremacist gangs in Ohio’s state prisons, and how that plague is now being seen outside of the prison system as well: “These guys are no joke,” said Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine. “This isn’t a club. These are tough, hard-core criminals. They’re nasty and we have to take them deadly seriously.” After recent violence in Texas and Colorado that has allegedly been at the hands of white supremacists, the issue of […]

Categories: Hate Crimes • Tags: Aryan Brotherhood, hate crimes, Oak Creek, Ohio, prison gangs, SpearIt, White supremacy, Wisconsin

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An editorial cartoon comparing accessibility of mental health and guns.

Profiling the mentally ill in the gun violence debate

February 22, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

Yesterday, in a speech delivered at a conference in Connecticut about gun violence, Vice President Joe Biden issued a challenge to Americans to take on the issue: “There’s a moral price to be paid for inaction,” he said. We have certainly seen significant debate around what action to take in addressing America’s gun violence epidemic. From universal background checks to regulation of video games, and from arming teachers to banning assault-style weapons, there are no shortage of proposals nor sides […]

Categories: Civil Rights, Politics • Tags: Adam Lanza, Anders Breivik, Aurora, Balbir Kaur Singh, Chris Dodd, Colorado, Concetta Falcone-Codding, Connecticut, Daryl Johnson, gun violence, hate crimes, Joe Biden, mental health, Michael Denzyl Smith, Motion Picture Association of America, Newtown, Oak Creek, Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, Sikholars, Wade Michael Page, White supremacy, Wisconsin

"Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker takes questions about his proposal to increase mental health funding by $30 million that he announced on Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2013, in Madison. Walker will propose the funding in his two-year state budget to be introduced on Feb. 20." (source: LaCross Tribune. Photo credit: Scott Bauer | Associated Press)

Would mental health services or gun control have prevented the Oak Creek massacre?

February 8, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

On Wednesday, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker announced plans to invest $30 million towards mental health in his state to address gun violence, particularly after the mass shooting of Sikhs in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, last August: “Initially, the discussion centered on those tragedies,” he said. “But it’s really much bigger than that, it’s much broader than that, it’s not just in reaction to that. There is a tremendous need in terms of addressing mental health in our society.” The intention behind […]

Categories: Civil Rights, Hate Crimes • Tags: Connecticut, gun control, hate crimes, mental health, Milwaukee, Oak Creek, Scott Walker, Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, Stamford, White supremacy, Wisconsin

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