THE SUICIDAL APATHY OF THE INDIAN IN AMERICA

These are thoughts provoked by the police attack on the innocent grandfather in Alabama -  a ghastly attack that took more than a week to hit the media and result in some action on the part of the authorities.

It keeps happening too often, somewhere or the other in America.  An innocent, unarmed, peaceful person of Indian origin being attacked or harassed, sometimes even by uniformed officials.  Go to any Indian party, you will hear someone complaining of being targeted in some way or the other.  But ask them even to sign a petition, they will shrink, however.   That is how scared they are of a backlash.   Sometimes, at an individual level they will rationalize by even saying they themselves have not suffered anything (so far). Does it  then surprise you that these things continue happening and get ignored by the media and the authorities  who act as though race problems in America are only incurred by African Americans and Jews (and now Muslims) ?

Will it change if the community suffers silently ?  If we are to settle for this, then what type of a place are we leaving our children and their children in ?  Are we really better off for having made the USA our home ? How do these change perceptions of America itself ?  How much cynicism will it grow in our own kids ?  Does it occur to you that this is the only country they know and can't run back to India like you and me if things get worse ?  They didn't ask us to bring them and leave them here.  Are we being good parents and grandparents if we continue our apathy ?

In case you wonder about the level of apathy, please just read the older blog of mine from some years back repeated below.  PLEASE ACT FOR YOUR CHILDREN.  No, you need not demonstrate on the street.  But at least participate in written appeals and  donate to organizations like the NAACP, The Southern Poverty Law Center, and the like that work to alleviate racial problems.  And above all stand up for your individual rights as a tax payer !

In the least, please share this in your own pages or mail a link to your contacts !!!
Also, if you are an Asian Indian in the USA, please take this absolutely anonymous survey of 10 multiple choice questions. It is a pilot study on racial bias, if any, towards Asian Indians in the USA. Please help the community with your unbiased responses !!!

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2526JL8

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A touching memorial

I went, as did my wife to the memorial. Neither of us knew Dr. Divyendu Sinha, nor had we seen him before. But we went, for, it could very well have been either of us, or YOU the reader. After all, Dr. Sinha was brutally killed by five teenagers right on his street in Old Bridge, NJ and right in front of his wife and children when the family was taking a walk. For just fun or some gang initiation or because he was brown, no one seems to know yet.

We were a bit late and I got worried that parking would be a problem. But thankfully, it was not.

Or should I say thankfully? A graffiti on a synagogue would have filled up the football field in the Old Bridge High School but the murder of an Indian brings but a few hundred. Indians? Aren't we, after all, Bengalis, Tamilians, Telugus, Malayalees, Gujaratis, ... ? I thought I knew a good 400 Indian families in Central Jersey alone but could recognize only three faces in the assembly. Let me hope they came and left early before me. Otherwise, I must dread at the thought that unless we learn to show a large presence at such important gatherings, we will be easy victims, and police and law enforcement will take the easy way out and not seek full justice as we would like them to. But that is a different matter.

There was a large portrait of Dr. Sinha. Obviously he was a very kind and harmless man with a scholarly and kind countenance. A number of people sang Bhajans in a soothing voice cultured in Hindustani. They asked for only little: shanti (peace) and forgiveness for one's lapses. The speeches that followed were short and the tributes genuine and heart wrenching. The FIA

(Federation of Indian Associations) president noted that their inquiry had found that many complaints had been made to school authorities and police in Old Bridge during the previous year by community members but no action was taken. They called for action and said they are watching. The town council, mayor, school board members all came and said sweet things. But like the FIA president asked: what are they really going to do?

That aside what are WE going to do? Let us just hope that there is no next time.

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