Hate Crimes Reported In Wake of Terror
Just some information sharing about how different communities are being affected by the rise of racism and xenophobia, particularly the South Asian and Arab communities. It's long email from SAJA that put together a bunch different articles reporting on racist/hate violence. jhc
Source : Southeast Asian Journalists Association
[SAJA means Southeast Asian Journalists Association]
Dear colleagues:
It's Thursday morning, almost exactly 48 hours since the WTC attacks began. As the focus of the coverage and the investigation shifts toward South Asia, the South Asian community in the U.S. is receiving attention
in ways it never has before. Anger about the attacks is causing SOME Americans to lash out at Muslims, Arabs, Sikhs and South Asians in general.
Reports of hatemail, physical threats and harassment and worse are coming in from various cities. It is crucial that we not add to the confusion by spreading unconfirmed reports. We are doing our best to get as many facts as possible. Please be patient as we sort through all this and DO NOT PANIC. PLEASE DO NOT SPREAD UNSUBSTANTIATED E-MAIL MESSAGES.
Below you will find articles from the NYT, Newsday & Rediff that give you a hint of what's happening. The case of the Sikh pulled off a train by police is especially disturbing.
SAJA HQ itself has received vicious hatemail and at least one SAJA Executive Board member was verbally abused while reporting in Queens.
SAJA, led by its president JYOTI THOTTAM and the Executive Board is doing several things.
1. A guide for the media on covering the South Asian community (and for the public to understand us better) will be on http://www.saja.org by Thursday afternoon.
2. Connecting the media with sources who can provide a South Asian perspective on the attacks and the aftermath.
3. This Saturday, Sept. 15 from 11 am - 1 pm at Maharaja Restaurant (230 E. 44th St, btw 2nd & 3rd Aves), we are going to hold a panel discussion with senior journalists about the terrorist attacks and how the South Asia community has been covered. Details coming to http://www.saja.org
4. Coordinating a South Asian community press conference in Washington that will take place on Thursday or Friday. Will let you know more as soon as we have it.
In advance of the material being published on SAJA.org, couple of coordinates you can use.
1. SAJA-NY contacts:
Jyoti Thottam, thottam@hotmail.com (she will be out of town starting this Saturday)
Sreenath Sreenivasan, 212-854-5979; saja@columbia.edu
2. AALDEF contacts:
Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund is collecting reports of bias attacks and hate crimes agains the South Asian community:
212-760-9110
http://www.aaldef.org
Of course, all of this is happening while we know dozens of desis are injured/dead/still missing after the WTC collapsed. Sites such as http://www.nyhug.org and http://wtc.ny.com are building databases about the victims & survivors.
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