Posted on 05/28/2015 2:35:28 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Standing before a Kerman High School class on Wednesday, Raj Sra talked about being the only Punjabi kid at his Tulare schools growing up.
He was called many names.
“Everything you can imagine: raghead, camel jockey,” Sra said, who now works as an information systems and technology administrator for the Fresno County Office of Education. “People had no idea where India was. They thought anybody with a turban was Muslim or from Arabia. It was just some far-off place.”
Fresno County school officials, in partnership with local Sikh leaders, are working to change that skewed perception. Together, they produced a five-minute educational film about Sikh culture and dress that debuted Wednesday before a Punjabi language class. Principal Pam Sellick said Kerman High is one of only two public schools across the state that offer Punjabi as a language elective.
Filming the movie was spurred by a report released last year, titled “Go Home, Terrorist,” that documented the bullying of Sikh American students. The report was compiled by the Sikh Coalition, a national organization created after 9/11 in response to discrimination and violence against Sikh Americans.
Researchers surveyed more than 500 Sikh schoolchildren at forums in Fresno, Boston, Indianapolis and Seattle and found that around half of them were bullied. Fresno County had the second-highest percentage of students who reported being bullied (54.5%) after Indianapolis (55.8%).
At a Fresno State forum last spring that addressed such bullying, Simran Kaur, western regional director of the Sikh Coalition, recalled a young college student who grew up attending Fresno schools. He talked about how he became suicidal after constant bullying related to his traditional dress.
“In many ways, we all felt like we had let that young man down,” Kaur said. “And so I think that was educational for us all.”
(Excerpt) Read more at fresnobee.com ...
they think the bullying is bad now? Wait till the kids find out they took dads job
Very polite people who need to stop wearing the weird costumes.
And drop the exceedingly foreign customs.
Oh, and get a haircut.
Please.
Just like Christians, right? Get on board and start the gay marriage train!
Known a few Sikhs - they’re good folks.
Most Americans have have some basic geographically literacy, but there certainly are those who are not. But regardless - who should adapt to whose nation and customs??? I do not travel to India expecting them to know, or care, where Richmond VA is.
How is their treatment of women? We have an older Sikh couple that I sometimes see out walking. She walks 10 feet behind him.
Yep, they are.
I’m as white as they come, and I was bullied a lot in school.
And not people to trifle with.
Yep, Reagan said the same thing to them, about serving in the military.
Are you serious? “Weird costumes?” What do you care what they wear? Are they bothering you? Or anyone else? Ever Sikh i’ve ever known of has been hardworking and productive.
Right after 9/11 I was taking the daughters for doughnuts. There was a Sihk man in the seat in front of us on the double-deck Hong Kong bus. The younger daughter pointed at the back of his head and said in a really loud kid’s voice; “Look daddy, he has a towel on his head!”
The man turned around and laughed which really diffused and awkward moment. He then looked at the little girl and said “Yes and sometimes I use it to dry my hair!” He then explained to the kids in language they could understand that it was a turban and why he wore it.”
He told me it was something that children who were not from Sihk families often asked him about.
I know nothing about Sihks other than that encounter
Yes and all these years later, I apologize./s
Those are the types that should be trifled with.
Publik Skools!
They should do these things so you and people like you don’t have to bother learning who the Sikhs are and that they pose zero threat to you?
Lazy and willful ignorance a recent thing with you, or more of a lifetime goal you’ve admirably met and surpassed?
They should do these things so you and people like you don’t have to bother learning who the Sikhs are and that they pose zero threat to you?
Lazy and willful ignorance a recent thing with you, or more of a lifetime goal you’ve admirably met and surpassed?
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