Some disappointing news from last week:
Vandals this week sprayed several swastikas and racial epithets on property that includes a Sikh temple at the northeast corner of Armstrong Road and West Lane.
Lodi, CA is a city that is 90 miles northeast of the bay. The vandalism went down at a site where plans for a larger Gurudwara were approved by the San Joaquin County Planning Commission. I don’t think the vandals’ choice of targets was coincidental.
Apparently there are close to a dozen groups of White Supremacists in the county. No one believes me out here on the right coast when I mention that I grew up near Klan members; they can’t get past the Golden Gate bridge/Hollywood sign in their heads. All the peaceful, flaky, uber-tolerant golden state stereotypes just make more sense, not that I can blame anyone for their disbelief. Unfortunately, stories like this validate a point I never cared to prove.
Nirmal Samra owns the 8.6-acre property and said he noticed the graffiti on his produce stand and a big-rig trailer Monday morning. The vandalism included remarks such as “killers” and “white power” along with other racial epithets directed at Muslims of Middle Eastern origin.
Nirmal Uncle is a grape farmer who
has never before experienced prejudice in his 30 years living in Lodi…
And I want to stress the following point: my experiences aren’t meant to be a blanket statement regarding racism or ignorance in the bay area or NorCal. Use Mutineer Manish’s statements for that. He went to the better school. 😉
I’ve always thought that ghettoizing ourselves was part of our problem and that we needed to be full members of our neighborhoods and communities, but I grimly note that in this case, “getting involved” wasn’t enough:
But many have mistaken Sikhs for Muslims because they wear turbans, Samra said. The fear of such misdirected hate inspired the Sikh community in 2001 to increase its participation in many community events in hopes of educating the public about the two different religions.
This wasn’t art:
According to Detective Rex Yturri, deputies have responded to scattered incidents of swastika graffiti this year, but none recently on this scale. Most gangs leave their identification in their graffiti. The graffiti on the Sikh property contained no such marks, he said.
At least we’re presenting a united front:
“I’m really, really upset, and I have my sympathies for the Sikh community,” said Taj Khan, a member of the Breakthrough Project’s board of directors, after hearing about the incident on Thursday.
Khan, a Pakistani Muslim, said he and other Breakthrough Project members will visit the site today and extend their support to the Sikh community. The Breakthrough Project was created to promote unity and diversity and fight hate crimes in the Lodi area after a cross-burning at Tokay High School in 1998.
I hope that by the time I have children, our fellow citizens can tell the difference between a Muslim and a Sikh. I also hope that such distinctions are only necessary for the purposes of eradicating a benign type of ignorance, not so we can separate “us” vs “them”.
Made worse by Anna’s absence 😉
The Nazis are on the march. They also incited a riot in Toledo, Ohio this week.
klan? i live near the headquarters in lovely georgia.. when i moved here from california, people warned me not to go outside the perimeter, etc… and sometimes you do come across folks who look at you funny because you’re brown… but luckily i tend to stay within the confines of ATL… and otherwise vamoose my way down to Hartsfield…and racism whether you’re sikh, muslim, hindu occurs anywhere, in any state.. heck my next door neighbors growing up were racists pigs… the slurs i heard everyday towards me, my family, and those that visited were downright horrible..
stuff that happened in lodi is sad… but it’s not surprising to me…
I Live in South Africa and racism is a part of life here, from small remarks that are made from my white collegues on a daily basis to explicitly mocking my muslim colleagues calling them terrorists! But once the athorities get to know about it they are severely dealt with. Ignorant people are everywhere, we just need to know how to deal with them.
mocking my muslim colleagues calling them terrorists!
Thats so unfair. I know of atleast two Muslims who are not terrorists. Also I have this distant cousin who we all suspect loves freedom.
Thats so unfair. I know of atleast two Muslims who are not terrorists. Also I have this distant cousin who we all suspect loves freedom.
Well why do you sound surprised? While I was in university I grew a beard, and one night when I was in club the bouncers upon entering told me not to do anything silly like bombing the place. How do you think I felt? I’m malayalee christian the meekest of beings to fall upon the earth for crying out loud! But hey its all good, that guy is still a bouncer earning peanuts, while i am way better off than him, so I just smile and carry on with life 😉
Its unfortunate that such things happen. It will take a very long time for society to outgrown such stigma.
On a similar note….I remember the racial slur from Bend it Like Beckham, where she is labelled a “Paki” during a football game.
And just the other day, i met the blogger turbanhead and on querying him about his blogname he told me that even though he was a propah mallu kid from India studying in Phili, he was still labelled as a turbanhead in his school.
damnit, don’t blow up my spot! do i seem meek? 😀 if you tell people our secret, then EVERYONE will try and inherit the earth. 😉
Yeah, you’re a real winner, loser…
Here I was, a Catholic in a Catholic school, and they still called me Hindoo, A-rab, and dot-head.
I mean, you’d think the fact that I’d memorized the Nicene Creed would resonate somehow in their teeny little brains, but nope… 1. all those funny-lookin colored people are the same 2. the FLCP couldn’t possibly have any connection to anything outside the stereotype box.
‘course, they prolly wanted to hate cuz I was a FOB with a thick accent and still got the best grades in English.
(what, me?! hold grudges much? never!)
Was watching Spike Lee’s “25th Hour” earlier, was struck by the hero’s (almost) all-encompassing ‘Fuck you’ rant, which included :
“Fuck the Sikhs and the Pakistanis bombing down the avenues in decrepit cabs, curry steaming out their pores and stinking up my day. Terrorists in fucking training. Slow the fuck down! “
I googled out the full text, it’s here.
Bay Area-based ASATA has been doing know-your-rights outreach work in Lodi this summer with the Sikh and Pakistani Muslim communities. There are articles online about some of the visits, discussing FBI surveillance of the local Pakistani community, and outreach work at the mosque and gurdwara.
From a July conversation at the recently vandalized gurdwara:
That was a good movie, 25th hour. sniff