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Author Topic: Doesn't mater if it's COVID or 9/11, haters will find any excuse to hate  (Read 119 times)

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Offline theking

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A Sikh man was the first victim of a wave of post-9/11 hate crimes on turbaned men


Balbir Singh Sodhi and his brother Rana Singh Sodhi, both turbaned Sikhs living in Mesa, Arizona, began immediately experiencing harassment the day after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. Friends of their faith called them with similar experiences.

Hoping to curb racism in the area and protect their loved ones, Rana Singh Sodhi said he and his brother swiftly set up meetings with local Sikh leaders. They planned a news conference around Sunday service in hopes of showing others what Sikhs look like and what they stand for.

But days later, Frank Silva Roque, a white aircraft mechanic who said he was going to “shoot some towel-heads” as retaliation for the attacks, mistook Balbir Singh Sodhi to be Muslim and murdered him on Sept. 15, 2001 outside the gas station he ran.

“That person, he killed my brother on Saturday,” Rana Singh Sodhi said. “We don’t even reach Sunday.”

Balbir Singh Sodhi's body was found in the landscaping area where he had just been finalizing plans to plant more flowers in front of his store, his brother said.

Balbir Singh Sodhi became the first documented hate crime casualty of an avalanche of bias incidents targeting South Asian and Muslim communities that followed.

As the nation marks the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks Saturday — just after a chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan and in the shadow of the previous administration’s policies that have been criticized as Islamophobic and racist — many of these communities once again feel their fears around racism and discrimination intensifying.

Experts said that without proper action from the government and media outlets, the U.S. risks slipping into its sometimes-fatal mistakes of its past.

“Every time, my wife asks me and my children to make sure whenever you go, look around and really be careful, especially because people think the Taliban look like us,” Rana Singh Sodhi said. “I don’t know how we can avoid it. … The only thing I look at is if you can educate people enough to be understanding and respect other people, that’s the key point.”




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