During US presidential elections, most of the Indians especially people following right wing ideology supported and prayed for Donald Trump’s win just because he sounded more like an anti-Muslim but see what is happening. Now, there is no point in regretting when another communal leader has been voted to power in US…except the target now is all Non Americans – regardless of their religion, caste or creed. Surprisingly, our PM, President and External Affairs Minister have not condemned these racial attacks yet. Well, all the racist Indians supported Trump, thinking that Trump is like Prime Minister Narendra Modi. I guess now they are getting taste of their own medicine. Recently, three Indians were killed in US, one was 32-year old Indian engineer, Srinivas Kuchibhotla who was shot dead in a bar in Kansas. The assailant a 51-year old US Navy veteran Adam Purinton — had opened fire at him and his friend Alok Madasani, yelling “get out of my country” and a 39-year-old Sikh man was injured in the city of Kent, US, after an unidentified man shot him outside his home and shouted “go back to your own country”. Another businessman Harnish Patel shot dead outside his home.
The Sikh man has been identified by foreign ministry sources as Deep Rai, who is a US national. The incident is the latest in a series of apparent hate crimes targeting members of the Non-American community. In two incidences, attacker shouted ‘Go Back To Your Country’. It’s somewhat like when BJP tells dissenting voices in India to “go to Pakistan”. The growing number of incidents targeting Sikhs is reminiscent of the aftermath of the September 11 terror attacks. White American haters can’t differentiate a Sikh, Hindu and Muslim. They just hate Asians and attack them. They cry about losing their jobs but are busy with drugs and have no skills. They should protest against the companies who fires them and hires Indians. Native Americans lag behind everywhere perhaps this is the reason Asians are given preferences.
Dear Indians, time has come for you to return back and work for our nation’s development, but the hate mongering still won’t stop. Here also you will have to face similar situation.
According to me, no Mexican, Latino, Pakistani, Arab, Muslim etc. have been targeted, then why Sikhs and Hindus? Who is behind this? During election campaign, Trump said that he has the highest regards for Hindus etc. then why this conspiracy. Such attacks are creating wedge between USA and India. As promised during elections, Trump should assure protection to Indians in US, especially Hindus and Sikhs. At a time, when minorities in the US are experiencing an unprecedented rise in hate-fuelled crimes, Indian families are worried about their loved ones in the US. They don’t know in which form they are going to see or visit their own people.
Attack on Sikh man comes just days after a 43-year-old Indian-origin businessman Harnish Patel was found dead in his yard with bullet wounds in South Carolina. In another incident, two Indian engineers were shot at by a 51-year-old Navy veteran in a bar in Kansas. Srinivas Kuchibhotla, one of the victims, lost his life in the incident; our communities have become victims of hate speech or harassment. There is a rise in barb of violent hate crimes towards Chinese and Asian-Americans in different parts of the United States.
Not only Indians in particular but the sudden spike in violence against Asians may have been ignited by President Donald Trump’s constant portrayal of China as the “economic enemy” of the USA. Hate crimes targeting Asian-Americans, a great majority of which being anti-Chinese, has tripled from six to 18 in Los Angeles County in 2015, according to a report released by the county’s Commission on Human Relations. In 2015, Trump said that, “ISIS, China, Mexico are all beating us.” He then posed a question asking when the US had beaten China and Japan in trade? He also raised the issue about China “exponentially expanding its military power.”
Trump would continue to repeatedly refer to China as a “threat” throughout the duration of his campaign. Trump’s rhetoric reinforces the dangerous foreign enemy image, even though he describes China’s threat as one of trade. This is eerily similar to the anti-Japanese sentiment during the 1970s and 1980s, when Japan was portrayed as a threat to the auto industry. This was the premise that led to the murder of Vincent Chin in 1982, a Chinese-American who got into a confrontation with white auto workers after they mistook him for Japanese. In addition, the FBI found that the number of hate crimes against Muslim communities rose dramatically between 2014 and 2015 (67 per cent). That’s the biggest increase of any other group listed in the Hate Crimes Report.
Documented hate crimes against Asian-Americans extend as far back as the 1800s, when the white supremacist group Arsonists of the Order of Caucasians murdered four Chinese men whom they blamed for taking away jobs from white workers. The men were tied up, doused with kerosene and set on fire. In 1987, a Jersey City, N.J., gang calling itself the “Dotbusters” vowed to drive Indians out of Jersey City by vandalizing Indian-owned businesses. The gang used bricks to bludgeon a young South Asian male into a coma.
As disturbing as these stories are, they often don’t show up in national data. Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders frequently underreport hate incidents because they feel intimidated by law enforcement or are afraid of being seen as overly sensitive. Unfortunately, their silence on the issue makes them an even more attractive target for hate crimes. Racially motivated incidents that are reported are often filed as generic offenses and don’t show up in national data about hate crimes. Though! Various rights groups and ethnic Indian organisations are reaching out to the people from the community asking them not to succumb to fear and report any incident of hate crime or violence to law enforcement authorities. However, unless and until the government and law enforcement agencies do not act strictly, this hate crime against Asians is not going to stop. There is one option, we can ask all Indians, return home perhaps serving one’s own country is the way to go. However, India should provide job opportunities for them.
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