Who are WE? 

I can still remember that shivering dark chilly feeling I got crawling up my back when I found out that an elderly Sikh man was attacked and robbed. 

“Hey, did you see the post on Instagram?” said my sister. 

“No, what post are you talking about?” I replied. 

“The post about Richmond Hill! Here, look at it!” said my sister. 

He looked like my grandfather. The first thing I did was turn on my phone and see if the news was true. I remember the feeling of the teardrops seeping down the side of my checks and going to my parents to ask if they had seen what had happened. 

“Ya, It’s terrible, Today's world is no longer safe. I thought you would have known about it. This happened two days ago.” my mother said. 

I was shocked. It was just a couple of streets away from my uncle's house. It was a bright peaceful neighborhood where everyone knew each other. 

“Mom, tell grandma not to go outside without uncle. I feel scared. What if that was grandma?” I said slowly crying. 

I kept thinking omg, this can not be true. I wonder how his family must be feeling. Onkar Singh, an 82-year-old older man, was walking through Richmond Hill around 112th Street and Liberty Avenue when two people approached him from behind and repeatedly beat the life out of him. He gave everything he had on him to them but they continued to beat him up and throw him to the ground. 

“Mom Dad, did you see the news? An elderly man was robbed and beaten just a couple of blocks away from grandma’s house.” I said loudly to my parents. 

I couldn’t imagine the pain that Onkar Singh’s family is going through. I know I would have been devastated and scared to step outside my house again. The fact that scares me is that this could have been anyone elderly or not. What scares me to death is that shortly after this there was another attack. Where another elderly man (also named Singh), was beaten to death. 

Singh was just taking a walk in Richmond Hill when he was suddenly punched in the face by an unidentified individual repeatedly. Police say that it was that same person who had beaten Onkar Singh the week prior. This sickness stuck to my stomach. 

Thinking to myself I said, “Why are they after the older men if they want to beat up people, target the young Sikh Americans and hurt the fragile older men?”

When I saw the image of Singh sitting outside of the Sikh temple, blood on his beard and jacket. His entire face and turban were gushing and covered with blood. I hoped and prayed that he would be okay. I can't believe this is happening in today's world. I thought we were supposed to be safe. All I could think of was how this man was still alive. I was relieved to know that he was okay with minor injuries. 

I vaguely remember seeing the interview play on the tv and thanking god saying, “ਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂ ਜੀ ਸਭ ਨੂੰ ਚੜਦੀ ਕਲਾ ਵਿੱਚ ਰੱਖਣ ਜੀ ਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂ ਜੀ।” (May God keep everyone in good health).

But what hurt was that Singh had just come from India and was visiting family when it occurred to leave him. I can't begin to imagine what he must be thinking about this nation now. People praise America for this great country and now he was a victim of a hate crime because he was a Sikh who also wore a turban. Now this incident was very similar to the other one. 

I remember thinking to myself, “Why aren't they both being charged with a hate crime? Ya, I agree he was robbed but he was also brutally beaten up and left on the street in the bright early morning. However, they both were older Sikh men wearing turbans who were attached.”

This attack didn't only scare the Sikh population here but also in India and people who were supposed to come to America, the great country, were now scared to come to the US because they feel that they might be assaulted like Onkar Singh and Singh or worse killed. 

You would think that over time that things changed but nothing has changed going back to as early as the 2000s. After the catastrophic brutal attack on American soil, 9/11, things have not been the same. Yes, they were peaceful at some times but most of the time we all the Sikh community constantly live in fear. We are scared that we might be characterized as Muslim or a terrorist because of that many mothers have decided not to keep their son's hair long so that they can better fit in the population and don't have to be the targets. Sikhs were living in constant threat, especially the Sikhs who kept their hair and wore turbans, whenever someone approached them they would look at them differently or say something racist. 

“You Raghead, get the f*ck out of my country why don’t you go back to your fricking country!” people would say. 

“Hey you, Towel head, do you have a hidden bomb in there! Are you about to blow up this country?” people said.

The Sikh Coalition is in touch with the NYPD Hate Crimes Taskforce in Onkar Singh and Singh’s case. Giselle Klapper, the Sikh Coalition senior staff attorney, said in a statement to NBC News, “Everyone should feel safe enough to go for a walk simply, but the continued rise in hate crimes and bias incidents is increasingly making that impossible for far too many people. No one deserves to be targeted by hate because of how they look, how they worship, or any other reason, she added. We are glad that the NYPD is investigating this incident as a hate crime because approaching these incidents with bias in mind is the first step to reducing violent hate among our communities.” 

I am upset about how elderly people are being beaten up for embracing their race. Thanks to the Sikh Coalition organization who are always here to take care of and report attacks occurring to Sikh Americans making us feel somewhat safe. Especially during the hard times after 9/11. 

I wondered, “What would have happened if there wasn’t an organization helping us back then? Would we be put in camps like the American Japanese in WWII? Would history repeat itself?”

During the first dark months after the 9/11 attack, the Sikh Coalition documented over 300 cases of violence and discrimination against Sikh Americans throughout the United States. While the FBI recorded over 9000 hate crimes nationwide in 2008 (out of a population of 300 million in the US), 10 percent of Sikhs in the San Francisco Bay Area reported being the target of hate crimes during the same period according to Sikh Coalition survey of over 1,000 Sikhs in the San Francisco Bay Area. Sikh Americans weren’t just getting targeted in California but all over the world. Anyone that would see us would think of us as a terrorist. 

I still remember this one time when I was almost 6 years old, I went to the grocery store with my dad who was wearing a turban at the time after we visited the gurdwara (temple) and this caucasian lady came up to my father and scared, “Go back to your country!! You terrorist!!” 

I remember my father holding my hand and picking me up and rushing out of the story he then drove us straight home. The whole ride home I was quietly weeping in the back seat. 

About a decade later there was a rise in hate toward Sikh Americans once again. A 2010 Sikh Coalition survey revealed that 69% of turban-wearing Sikh students in the Bay Area of San Francisco have suffered bullying and harassment because of their religion and that 30% of them had been hit or involuntarily touched because of their turbans. And you would think a peaceful and perfect place like San Francisco would have such dark incidents occurring. These attacks occur because the Sikh articles of faith – in particular, the turban – are associated with terrorism and 9/11.

An even scarier fact is that about 12% of Sikhs in the San Francisco Bay Area have reported suffering employment discrimination, which makes clear that Sikhs are exponentially more likely to suffer employment discrimination than the general population. San Francisco is home to a large population of Sikh Americans. 

At some airports in the United States, Sikhs are subjected to secondary screening 100 percent of the time by Transportation Security Administration (TSA) personnel. TSA consistently refuses to audit its screening policies to determine whether Sikh travelers are being profiled. 

I remember just recently but not too recently in July of 2017, we were coming back from my cousin's wedding which was in Seattle so our flight was right after the ceremony. And my dad was all dressed up and he was wearing a turban which he doesn’t do daily. So when we went through TSA they asked him to step aside and gave him a whole pat down and took something like fingerprints. I remember standing there with my younger sibling and my brother asking why dad is still going through security. All I could have said to this 7-year-old was, “Oh ya, everything is fine, dad was wearing a bracelet so they had to check him again.”

I thought that as I grew older that people would begin to realize but I was once again proven wrong. It was in elementary school and it was a beautiful spring day. I was so excited at school to present for the first time the moment I was attacked. I had gotten an assignment to do a family tree project and had to present it in front of the class.

Someone, a loser of a kid, screamed in front of the entire class as I was about to start my presentation, “Your Muslim, Do you know Osama Bin Laden?”

Crying, screaming, and running out of the class I said, “No, I am not!! I’m different,  I am Sikh!!! I am not Muslim”.

My bright day was not so bright after all. 

“Are you okay?” asked the teacher. 

Crying I said, “No, I am not okay. That kid is stupid, why would he say such a thing? I am not Muslim okay!! I am Sikh. I am an American Sikh!!!” 

I was questioning myself and my identity. I started to develop anxiety that was targeted any time I was called on. I started to act out and didn’t want to go to school anymore. I wanted to stay alone and not talk to anyone. It wasn’t until my teacher told my parents about the incident that I told her not to tell my parents. After they had a conversation with my teacher, they decided they needed to give me “The Talk”. My parents explained to me how I was different from others but in a positive way that stood out. I was different in a good way which made me feel very good about myself. And helped me stop fighting with myself and questioning myself about who I am. I accepted the fact that there is and will always be hatred in the world and I must do my best to ignore or to use it as a lesson to move forward and not backward. 

I still remember how during the pandemic everyone had the right to be free and express themselves. I felt that I could have done anything. These experiences have made me stronger than before and continue to motivate me and give me strength. I am happy that I can now wear a Punjabi suit and step into the real world without being judged. 

I can now proudly say, “I am proud to be an American Sikh. Nothing can change this!!”