Mutineer Umair alerts us to a case of lottery fraud in Sacramento, via our news tab. Apparently, a cashier at a Roseville-area 7-11 tried to keep a winning “Mega Million” ticket for herself. Here’s the backstory:
…the customer whose ticket was stolen was unaware he’d won more than half a million dollars when he went to the store Aug. 16.
The man, who officials said has a language barrier, purchased five sets of numbers at the 7-Eleven market at 1900 Douglas Blvd. two days earlier and had used his own numbers to play.
He handed his winning ticket to the clerk to run through a validation machine to determine the amount won, Currier said.
However, after running the ticket, Kaur told the man, “You’ve won four dollars,” and paid him that amount, Currier said. The attorney said Kaur kept the winning ticket, apparently with designs to cash it later.
Currier said that in the ensuing days, the victim saw news reports about the prize money being unclaimed and that the winning ticket had been purchased at the 7-Eleven in Roseville.
On Tuesday, the man called the lottery office, which referred his complaint to its security and law enforcement division.
Working with Roseville police, the lottery agents, who are sworn peace officers, went to the store to investigate, Currier said. [SacBee]
Yeah, I bolded that last bit because I had no idea that lottery agents are sworn peace officers!
Getting back to the news and the tip which introduced me to it: the link Umair left was for a local television station, whose story had “comments” enabled, much like a blog. I read the entire thread, which at this point includes 40 comments. My, my…what a stunning display of hate. Some of the best remarks follow, for your enragement and edification.
BlueBlood, in Charlotte, NC pithily said:
one way ticket to the border
BOOMER of Tampa, FL charmingly declared:
DEPORT THAT 3RD WORLD TRASH. SHE SHOULD BE GLAD IT WASN’T ME SHE TRIED TO DE-FRAUD, SHE’D BE IN INTENSIVE CARE TONIGHT.
Booboo of Sikeston, MO has some interesting views:
Sorry, but the name sounds Hindi, and I am not surprised. Every time a hotel Patel or shop clerk has tried to rip me off to my face it was an Asian Indian. Muslims might kill you but won’t rip you off….
Mike H of Sacramento, CA (finally! A local!) responded thusly:
this 7-11 clerk doesnt LOOK foreign…she IS foreign…whens the last time u walked into a 7-11 and the clerk had less than 12 letters in their name?
Never mind that there have been Sikhs in North America for generations, right?
I Hate Whiners of Los Angeles, CA brilliantly articulates:
You’re an idiot !
First off she middle eastern……now a days = no good.
Secondly, she’s a scumbag.
And finally, quit sticking up for your pals.
Bottom line, she’s a thief, liar and a plain no good “human”.
Then, THIS appositely-handled genius from Elk Grove, CA , What_The, pipes up:
Actually, India, until recent years, was always considered to be the MidEast. Nowadays, they are more popularly associated with SouthEast Asia. That doesn’t change their history, though.
Take heart, my brownies. Some humans valiantly tried to fight the good fight…
Lana of Sacramento, CA:
She is not Middle Eastern. Go study geography before you make such accusations against people.
Disbelief from Japan is just too sensible:
I can’t believe how many people are so quick to jump on the nationality/ethnicity issue. It would hardly be productive to call commenters like Booboo (#19), Boomer (#16), or stupid (#1) dumb racist honkies. Nor would it be productive to call people like The Silence (#15) or wow (#6) granola-munching tree-hugging hippies. Let’s not forget that every country has jails, and the prison system in the US incarcerates people of various ethnic backgrounds and of different nationalities.
Unless you are a Native American, you too are a “dirty foreigner”.
Denver, Colorado’s The Silence tried to inject reason, too:
Oh my gosh! How do you even know she’s not an American? She could still speak with an accent even if she’s lived in the country all of her life. What she did was VERY stupid. She can post bond for $55000 because in most states, you only have to pay a bondsman 10% of the total. So someone would have had to put up $5,500 to get her out. Yes expensive, but no that expensive if someone has good credit cards, 2nd mortgage, etc.,
And finally, Listen to all the hate, of Normal, IL, said:
To the ones so ready to deport … What would be your answer to a 4th generation American white guy/girl that did the same thing? Just jail or violence, eh? Look foreign, and it’s time to deport. Stupid. [News10 and News10]
I’m disturbed at how many of the people who chose to comment, did so from way beyond Sacramento (I’ve seen that elsewhere, SFGate.com, most notably…wtf is up with that? Do they troll for far-flung opportunities to show off bigotry? Busy life they must lead…). But, I’m also heartened by those who stepped up to do the futile– disabuse idiots of their ideas.
The commenter I quoted above, from Illinois, is right– there is an obvious double standard.
Donald Currier, the lottery’s chief legal counsel, said it was the second time in two years that a retail clerk had been arrested for allegedly stealing a winning ticket. [SacBee]
…yes, and I wonder if people wanted to send THAT criminal back to wherever, or if they generalized about an entire culture, because of a single, shady clerk’s behavior. News10 chose to use the title, “There’s a Lesson Here“, which made me uncomfortable– my spider sense was tingling. I’m sure they meant to instill a sense of caution in the public, but it feels uglier than that…but maybe that’s just me. After reading fecal matter in the comments section.
Rajinder Kaur, 40, is free on $50,000 bail after her arrest Tuesday on grand theft…
The ticket owner’s name is being withheld until the lottery completes its investigation, Johnston said. [News10]
Indians. Can’t trust ’em, can’t live without their incredibly vast contributions to this nation and her prosperity.
Really? That’s your explanation? That a certain Indian shopkeeper who tried to steal a lottery ticket is representative of all Indian shopkeepers everywhere? I bow down to your breathtaking insight.
I was waiting for someone to pounce on that! I used the phrase ‘Indian shopkeepers’. Note that I didn’t use ‘all’ or ‘every’ or even ‘most.
Secondly, I didn’t specify what behaviour. You assumed that since the subject of the blog reports an Indian shopkeepers misdeeds, I (also) am talking about misdeeds here.
You bow down to my breathtaking insight? I bow down to your truly breathtaking, yet entirely incorrect assumption about my intent.
@Anna/29: No worries, I’m not here to invalidate your post (my use of the word ‘ignorant’ was a play on your title). I thought you had something going when you were getting into the tone of the news article, then for me you lost it when you focused on the comments. Consider it feedback, and like any feedback, I guess it can be tossed over the fence; I know the act of writing is a personal thing.
I get a knee-jerk reaction to posts/comments that seem to point a finger at ‘racist America,’ which is usually generalized as the rural parts of the country, which means that the finger is also being pointed at my mom and dad, and it’s a title that doesn’t fit them. (Not to say it doesn’t exist there.) Of course it’s an irrational reaction, but similar to you, it’s what I feel. You hate the brown-ignorance, I hate the rural-ignorance.
Anyway, looking forward to your next post, unless it’s about makeup or eyebrows…
which means that the finger is also being pointed at my mom and dad, and it’s a title that doesn’t fit them.
Have a look at this insightful article written by someone who also felt the title didn’t fit their family as well.
Sometimes I wonder where all the “haters” have all of these experiences…. In my 36 years as a “white guy” I have never met anyone of any “foreign ethnicity” that ever tried to “rip me off” or defraud me in any way…..much to the contrary, I find everyone I meet of middle Eastern or South Asian origins to generally be much kinder and more outgoing types of folks than my own tribe of “whiteys.” Moreover….EVERY TIME I have ever had a run in with a scammer or con-artist, they have all been, without fail, typical “white folks.” It seems strange to me that the most Xenophobic portion of the population would ever have that much exposure to folks from other lands….as they tend to stay in their own little biggoted communities and never leave home anyway.
So you comment on a blogpost about an Indian shopkeeper’s misdeeds and you want people NOT to assume that you’re talking about her misdeeds. You are a troll.
SM Intern, please correct me if this is not a troll.
As appalling as this may have been, lets sit back and look at ourselves one more time. Before we start pointing fingers at how racist the Americans are, let ask ourselves how racist we are.
Ever noticed how white tourists in India get ‘preferential’ treatment? How people who would give another Indian a second look are all nice and polite to them. Ever noticed how, in a government office, if you happen to speak the same language as the clerk (esp. if the language is not the ‘official language’ of the state), the files seems to move faster? Ever heard of ‘Mumbai for Mumbaikars’? I can go on and on with illustrative examples, but I think I made my point. We are as bigoted as anyone else on this planet. We may not do so based on skin color (oh, but we do! Does ‘Fair and lovely’ ring a bell?), but we have other means of discrimination.
So what makes racism in US such an easy target? IMHO a lot of their racism stems from anger and paranoia. They have a president who has them convinced that god sanctioned the war in Iraq, and anyone from that general area (given their idea of world being US, friends, and enemies) is got to be their enemy. Adding fuel to this hatred is the whole outsourcing debate which has been blown out of proportion, and the hype associated with the issue has convinced people that they dont have a job because its all been bangalored (notwithstanding the fact that most of the people complaining about it dont even have a high-school diploma).
This paranoia coupled with ignorance is so high that there are hoards of people convinced that most of the problems that America faces today is because of illegal immigration. I know of a case where a woman, answering a survey, said that the biggest source of pollution in US are the illegal immigrants!
Also, note that the Internet is far more accessible to the average stupid american, than it is to the average stupid indian. Consequently you see more stupid american comments, than stupid indian comments on the web. If the web was as pervasive in india as it is in the US, I think we’d give americans a run for their money as far as bigotry goes.
The German aren’t doing too shabbily in that regard…
semantic overload, while i would agree that many indians can be racist, that is not the point. for one thing, the posters here presumably would not engage in such behaviour, and thus would be upset with anybody – desi or otherwise – who does act so.
personally, what irks me about this is that the US (government and citizens) has and does laud itself as the greatest nation ever, freedom for all, equality for all, eradicated of its racist history blah blah blah – if the first thing some americans see is a person’s skin colour/ethnicity in this sort of crime, then that rhetoric is not deeply held by many americans, and this country needs to acknowledge that. perhaps the most relevant difference between the US and india is that an indian might not actually be offended by the title of ‘racist.’
Did you mean “wouldn’t give”?
But your post raises an important point:
It is true that some places in India give preferential treatment to white tourists, especially (in my experience) at tourist hot spots themselves. I suspect however that this is not entirely racially driven, but simply because a person who looks like an obvious foreigner may hand out bigger tips, or be fleeced into paying more. That fleecing business is sometimes officially enforced. I have seen boards at some places (including those run by Government departments like the Archaeological Survey of India) that charge an entry fee of “Indians: Rs. 5. Non-Indians: $5”. And by non-Indian, they don’t mean “other South Asian” either – if you can pass for Indian, you’re not charged 40 times the price for the same service. I have Sri Lankan friends who weren’t made to pay more.
But I personally don’t know whether this is racism or some extreme sort of Nehruvian socialism on crack, where you pay more if you can look as though you can afford it irrespective of whether you get better service or not.
My response to comment #54 by Vedauwoo
In my 31 years as a Desi/Brown guys I have never met any white person that has ever tried to rip me off. But with brown/desi people on the other hand I have many times have to deal with this crap. I find almost every one I have met of white orgin to be very kind that I have met in both Canada and the United States. Where as alot of the brown people I have met the last 5 years in the Vancouver area are the most close minded/backward/racist people who live in there little brown neighborhoods just outside of Vancouver in Surrey and Abbortsford.
Ak, I used to think something similar, and I was surprised how wrong it could be. I had a colleague who was anti-Pakistan for some reason. I mean that his vitriol towards Pakistan was surpassed only by his patronizing attitude towards Pakistanis. But when asked whether he was aware of his racism, he would hotly deny that he was racist, because “we’re all the same race”! He had the same reaction to substitutes like “bigotry” or “jingoism”. So apparently some people can be extremely racist (or bigoted or jingoist) while deluding themselves into thinking that they are totally fair.
And that sort of unconscious racism is quite the most damaging sort. That is what makes the cries of “deport her” so discomforting, not because it is trial-by-media of a suspect, but because it is trial-by-media of a suspect treated as “them”.
But I personally don’t know whether this is racism or some extreme sort of Nehruvian socialism on crack, where you pay more if you can look as though you can afford it irrespective of whether you get better service or not.
Dude, this has nothing to do with Nehruvian socialism or crack.
This was done for a simple principle.
All the tourist spots need to be self-sustained and revenue generating enterprise.
On Rs. 5 for everyone, they will make pittance revenue. A Taj Mahal on Rs. 5 will not have money to maintain it. In that event, the money will come from tax payers.
$5 is a critical amount that rack to decent earning for these monuments to be self-sustained. In reality, none of them are. They are either unkept or need Government/ tax payer money.
However, However,
You cannot expect majority of Indians to pay equivalent of $5. They do not earn that much. Also, these are national monuments.
There is no official policy that Indian looking should be charged Rs. 5 irrespective of their passport, that is how it gets played out.
There is no racism in play.
Agreed.
Agreed.
So why not charge, say, 20 rupees for everyone irrespective of passport? It’s not like a person who pays more gets any better service. It’s the same ticket.
I agree with you that the two-level policy was not implemented in order to be racist, but it doesn’t leave a good impression on anybody.
pingpong, perhaps you are right, but i also don’t apply this to everybody living in south asia or DBDS here. when i was writing it, i was thinking of my mother – who is racist, but hates being called so; i attribute much of this defensiveness to her american exposure – i.e. PC-ness. on the other hand, when i have called relatives, DBD friends etc racist, they seem to not have an issue with it. but as per the denied lot being the most damaging, it’s true. i think in the instance of calls for deportation, it reveals that it takes certain criteria to be considered american/not ‘them’ – even being a citizen, naturalized or native-born, doesn’t cut it for some people. which i find odd, but it reveals a clear dichotomy between the cultural and political definitions of american. i tend to think the political definition should be given more weight, but it doesn’t seem so to many.
I agree with you that the two-level policy was not implemented in order to be racist, but it doesn’t leave a good impression on anybody.
In 2003, and 2004, I was in Hyderabad, with huge international conferences with people from 30-40 countries. We all did lot of site seeing.
Mind you, none of them complained about the two-tier payment system. In fact, everyone, thought Indian tourist spots, and monuments are poor revenue making enterprises, and should be more aggressive in generating enough cash so that they do not fall apart, have adequate staff, and have money for constant upkeep.
In Charminar (Hyderabad), if you pay equivalent of $5, you enter by a different line, and you are in the monument earlier. A Canadian friend of mine wanted to be in line with everyone else, as he did not wanted to be treated differently. I think Golcondo fort has a flat rate.
In some sense, even in America, they have special rates for senior citizens, children, veterans, and some others for these places.
AK: your comments have disgusted me enough to leave SM.
Well then you won’t be missed, if you’re that much of a knee-jerk reactionary, though I think you’ll be missing out, since AK is a thoughtful, intelligent commenter.
AK didn’t leave that comment. A troll did. There’s nothing which stops people from “impersonating” regulars. When we see such nefarious activity, we delete it. Please don’t fall for troll tricks; if you do, the terrorists have won.
To pingpong
So you comment on a blogpost about an Indian shopkeeper’s misdeeds and you want people NOT to assume that you’re talking about her misdeeds. You are a troll.
SM Intern, please correct me if this is not a troll.
For God’s (whichever you believe in, FSM would do fine too ) sake, READ what I typed. I didn’t talk about ANYONE’s misdeeds. I just talked about ‘behaviour’. It could have meant good, bad or worse behaviour. Your prejudiced mind couldn’t see beyond your parochial views, so you assumed (wrongly at that) that I meant ONLY bad behaviour. Your diseased outlook couldn’t interpret anything else, could it?
And no, I am not a troll. Another baseless assumption/ conclusion on your part. I just wanted the expose the psychology that’s behind the celebrated 40 comments that are the subject of so much discussion.
Just as the aforementioned comments & their commentators exposed their racist streaks when they connected ONE shopkeepers behaviour with her race & proceeded to display their intelligence, you did the same by misinterpreting my statement.
You twisted my single-line comment to mean what you wanted it to mean, just so that you could please yourself by refuting it. Bad luck, your narrow-mindedness stands exposed.
And if you have noticed, only you have replied to my posts. Now, who is a troll?
Stupid bigots all over. BUT does it behoove us to create a sense of persecution and paranoia or is it more important to have a thicker skin and work towards higher goals
I have been to some site where Indian folks think that there are no Black Doctors and the only thing we are good for is robbing and spreading AIDS,also I have been to sites where blacks are down on Indians so we all have a bit of a racist streak in our collective cultures and group circles.I don’t think the lady shgould be deported but if she is a immigrant they will most likely do that after her jail term on a sidenote I have seen them deport both blacks and white immigrants who have commited crimes.
Was he a “foreigner” too?
What about that?
@56
maybe just wrong choice of words. but it’s my understanding we, most bloggers and commenters, here are Americans as well.
Yes, that’s why it probably hurts you more when people say “go back to where you came from” or suggest that you don’t belong in America. It’s a little easier for us first generation immigrants to accept. (Still ticks us off, though.)
but can not first-gens be americans as well? to me, being american is more a political concept than a cultural one, and because of this, i think you are as american as you feel – i.e. you define how american you are, and not anybody else. my parents, who have been here for over forty years, are not americans for the very simple fact that they don’t define themselves as such – they perpetually distinguish themselves (and their children) from ‘americans.’ however, plenty of non-native borns would identify themselves as americans. shlok was not clear whether he was referring to ABDs or DBDs, but i think his statement could just as easily apply to our DBD bloggers as to their ABD counterparts.
Public comments to news articles are interesting. I know Yahoo News had the ability to reply to news articles enabled for years and I was repeatedly disheartened at the horrendous things people would say in them, even for the most innocuous news events. It seemed to me that people were hateful–just because they could be.
I’m not at all excusing the racist posters highlighted in this piece, I have no doubt they believe in their hearts the vitrol they write about. However, I do think that the whole blog culture and the anonymity they offer commenters is something to be looked it. I wonder if it taps into the darker side of the human psyche. Just random thoughts…
The behavoir of the commenters wasn’t anything exceptional. But there’s no reason ANNA shouldn’t call it out when she sees it – being quiet about it isn’t going to make it any less socially permissable.
You think people aren’t saying nasty things about Michael Vick’s color in closed company? Of course they are, but because people call out racism against black people they are much less likely to do it in public for fear of being ostracized. That’s obviously not the case with browns (yet)
how you doing Seahawks fan,
i’m actually a 1.5 from banaras. regardless, i was just really showing my frustration with the way folks treat our immigrant brothers round here in jersey. oh and this guy, steve, commenting on this post on sajaforum.org look at the a$$013’s link when you click on his name.