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Remembering Balbir Singh Sodhi 20 years after post-9/11 hate crime
https://www.yahoo.com/news/remembering-balbir-singh-sodhi-20-153046701.htmlThu, September 16, 2021, 8:30 AM·3 min read
Four days after the 9/11 attacks, a white man who allegedly said he wanted to go “shoot some towel-heads” attacked Balbir Singh Sodhi as Sodhi was planting flowers in front of the gas station he owned.
Why it matters: Balbir's death marked the first deadly post-9/11 hate crime and kicked off what would become a rising stream of hate incidents against Muslims, Arabs and South Asians. Twenty years later, on the anniversary of his death, community leaders, lawmakers and advocates gathered to honor his life and legacy.
Context: Between 2000 and 2001, hate crimes against Muslims surged 1617%, according to the FBI. The Sikh Coalition documented over 300 cases of violence and discrimination against Sikh Americans in the first month after the 9/11 attacks.
"Children were harassed on their way to school and taunted as 'terrorists;' immigration crackdowns tore apart communities like Little Pakistan in Brooklyn; and an NYPD surveillance program spied on innocent people in New York and beyond for more than a decade," The City writes.
9 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
I remember 😔this, but I didn't know he was planting flowers at the time
