Two Indians were attacked in a crowded Austins Bar and Grill in Olathe, Kansas City on Wednesday night. While one of them is dead, another is reportedly in a critical state. The shooting has been dubbed as a "racial attack" by the witnesses who saw the assailant hurling racial slurs at the victims. However, American authorities are yet to deem the incident as a hate crime.
Kansas shooting: Indian engineer Srinivas Kuchibhotla killed, 2 others injured in 'racial attack'
It is no news that hate crimes in the United States have risen ever since the 2016 presidential elections campaign began, particularly after the US President Donald Trump's xenophobic rhetoric against immigrants in America.
A rise in the percentage of hate crime against immigrants, particularly Muslims over the years was widely reported last. However, there is another community in the US, which is bearing the brunt of a spike in hate crimes almost similar to the levels which were witnessed the year after 9/11 terror attacks: South Asians, particularly Indians.
South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT), a leading national South Asian American advocacy organisation, released a report titled "Power, Pain and Potential."
According to a report titled "Power, Pain and Potential" released by from November 15, 2015 to November 15, 2016 (between the Paris attacks and the week after the Presidential elections), there were 207 documented cases of hate crimes and xenophobic political rhetoric targeting the South Asian communities.
Here are some instances of hate crimes reported against Indians under Donald Trump's regime:
'Go back, need to get rid of Indians': South Asian family wakes up to hate crime letter
After the US President Donald Trump assumed office, an Indian family woke up in January to a flyer which read "we need to get rid of Muslims, Indians and Jews." The hate letter asked the outside communities to "go back." The incident occurred in Fort Fort Bend district, a suburb in Houston where the majority of the population is of South Asian origin.
The flyer read, "Our new President, Donald J Trump, is God's gift to the white nation. We need to get rid of Muslims, Indians and Jews," telling them to "get out of Texas and go back to where you came from," according to India Tribune reports. The family was reportedly too frightened to report the case to the police.
Sikh Man In US Targeted With Hateful Words, Theft At His Eatery
A restaurant owned by a Sikh man in California allegedly became a target of hate crime on January 26 after abuses like "terrorist" and the "N" word were seen written on the eatery's front wall.
CJ Singh, owner of Quiznos in Woodland, California said: "Someone also unsuccessfully tried to light the business on fire and stole money I saved for donations. They even got away with the DVR for the surveillance cameras, likely to avoid getting caught."
When Singh came out to work on Monday he saw slurs like terrorist" and the "N" word written on the front wall of his restaurant. "This is, like, scary," he was quoted as saying by the Fox40.com.
Indian youth from Warrangal killed in California
An Indian youth, Vamshichander Reddy Mamidala, was shot dead in California on February 12 by a man who reportedly was trying to steal and escape in Reddy's car. The youth went to the United States in September 2015 to do MS in Silicon Valley University, and was looking for a job as his course was about to end. Although Reddy's culprit was arrested later, it is still ambiguous whether the case was not related to hate crime. US authorities state that the assailant was a drug addict and was just trying to escape in a car.
Indian-American Couple's Home Vandalized With Dog Feces and Racial Slurs
An Indian-American couple's home was reportedly vandalised with feces and racial slurs on February 9 in a series of latest hate crimes in El Paso County, Colorado. The couple was reportedly woken up by their neighbours who found out vandalism smeared on their garage.
The homeowner identified as Saravanan said that about 10 percent of the messages were racial slurs against the couple stating "You brown or Indian shouldn't be here,' something like that. So it was frightening."
He was further quoted as saying: "We saw more than 50 papers stuck everywhere on our door, window, car. They smeared dog poop everywhere and they had thrown at least, like, 40 eggs on our walls, on our ceilings, everywhere outside," he said.
