On August 5, 2012 white
supremacist Wade M. Page was behind the morbid shooting at a Sikh temple in a
suburban Milwaukee
town. He left seven dead, including himself. In a positive note, however, the
massacre brought the town closer town together, but there was also a different
response in a more bigot population. When this article first was appeared it
was thought that the supremacists mistook the Sikh’s for Muslim, because of
their uncut hair, turban, and beards. In actuality although, in this case yes
Mr. Page mistook the Sikh’s, there has been a history of Sikh violence
throughout history. A Sikh man reported that a vehicle pulled up next to him,
rolled down the window and said “We want to kill you all.” Ten days after the
initial shooting their was another incident where there was an armed robbery at
a convenient store, with a Sikh man working. Nevertheless a coincidence, it is
thought that it had more to do with the earlier episode. Reasoning for the
thought that the convenient store happening wasn’t a coincidence is because of
the statement neo-Nazi leader stated on his website “Take your dead and go back to India and dump their ashes in the Ganges, Sikhs. You don’t belong here in the country my
ancestors fought to found, and deeded to me and mine, their posterity. Even if
you came here legally, and even if you haven’t done anything wrong personally.
Go home, Sikhs. Go home to India
where you belong. This is not your country, it belongs to white men”. Since the
incidents the F.B.I. has become more aware and tracking Sikh violence.
I have always found hate crimes interesting. It’s
always viewed people as people, so it astounds me that people could actually
have resentment towards a group of anybody. Personally though yes, I think hate
crimes are a horrible thing, I think the best method we have to deal with such
situations is time. As generations go by there is less and less racism and
bigotry amongst Americans
Do you have statistical evidence that racism is decreasing in America? How will we ever really know that? In my opinion, misunderstanding is a huge component in matters such as these. I think that multicultural understanding is definitely becoming more mainstream, but as to whether racism is decreasing I'm still not so sure- the violence suggests otherwise.
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