Racists are targeting East Indian Americans
Last month, FBI Director Kash Patel wished his followers on X a happy Diwali. It did not go over well.Far-right Christian nationalist and white nationalist accounts flooded his post with bigoted memes and rhetoric. “Go back home and worship your sand demons,” a far-right pastor wrote. “Get the f**k out of my country,” read another reply. Said another, “This is America. We don’t do this.” These responses, some of which were seen millions of times, were on the tamer end of the spectrum.
Similar hostility followed Diwali greetings on X from former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon, as well as posts about the holiday from the White House, the State Department, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
Against this backdrop of racist and economic grievance, the success and prominence of Indian Americans make them an easy target, said Rohit Chopra, a professor at Santa Clara University who studies far-right online communities and who co-authored the reports for the Center for the Study of Organized Hate with Naik. Indian immigrants and Indian Americans are among the highest-earning ethnic groups in the US, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of census data. They’ve ascended to top government posts and are CEOs of billion-dollar companies. They’re represented at the highest levels of media, entertainment, technology, business, medicine and academia.