Sikh man called Osama in US
New York, June 10: A Sikh-American post-doctoral fellow at New York University was called “Osama” by a teenager, in a fresh incident of racism towards members of the community.
Simran Jeet Singh, a post-doctoral fellow at NYU’s Centre for Religion and Media and a senior religion fellow for advocacy group Sikh Coalition, recalled the encounter in an essay on NBC News. Mr Singh also writes about how he did not remain silent at being called racial slurs.
Mr Singh said he was running along the Hudson River in the city on Thursday. Even though he had headphones in his ears, he could could still hear someone shouting at him, “Osama! Osama!” along with another inappropriate expletive. When he turned to see who was yelling, he saw a group of three young teenagers.
Mr Singh said he had first decided to continue on his way but he soon recalled another incident from the past week, when an older woman had called him a different racial slur. He had regretted not confronting her.
Mr Singh turned around and after deciding it was relatively safe, he slowly approached the teenager who had shouted at him. As Mr Singh approached him, the teenager said he was joking and apologised. “It hurts when people say racist stuff towards me ... it hurts even more because you know exactly how it feels,” he told the teen.
Mr Singh said in the essay that he told the young man that “people in this country used to say hateful stuff to your grandparents”.
The young man again apologised, he said adding that he shook his hand and asked him to be more thoughtful. — PTI