Hate crime against Indians in US: Now, Sikh woman harassed in New York

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Sikh woman attack
Sikh woman attack

Los Angeles : Hate crime against Indians in US have been on the rise and an addition in the issue was made on Sunday when a Sikh-American girl was harassed on a subway train in New York by a white man.

The case is a latest in a series of Hate crimes against people of South-Asian origin as the man mistook the girl from the Middle East and allegedly shouted "go back to Lebanon".

As per Rajpreet Heir, "I was taking the subway train to a friend's birthday party in Manhattan when the white man began shouting at me."

Her story was published in a Times section called 'This Week in Hate', which highlights hate crimes and harassment around the country since the election of President Donald Trump.

According to Heir, "I was looking at my phone when the white man shouted at me saying, 'Do you even know what a Marine looks like? Do you know what they have to see? What they do for this country? Because of people like you'."

The man also used expletives and told Heir he hoped she was sent "back to Lebanon". "You don't belong in this country," he said before leaving the subway.

Heir, a Sikh, said she was born 30 miles from Lebanon, not the Middle Eastern country but a namesake city in the American state of Indiana.

"What had just happened provided evidence of what I had sensed beneath the surface for a long time - racism that can turn violent and lately does. A woman then stepped in to help Heir after the incident on the train. She tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I was all right. That meant something because when you're a minority, you're so used to just experiencing things on your own," Heir said.

Another woman reported the incident to a police officer at a subway station.

Recently, New York City has seen a rise in reports of discrimination and harassment. Last month, Indian-origin woman Ekta Desai posted a video online of an African-American man racially abusing her and calling her inappropriate names as she was traveling on a subway train.

Fear and anxiety had gripped the Indian community following the tragic shooting in Kansas of 32-year old Indian engineer Srinivas Kuchibhotla and attack on 39-year-old Sikh man+ who was shot while working on his car in his driveway in Washington state.