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US Professor calls India ‘Sh**hole’, Indian Americans slam remarks

This is not the first time Wax’s controversial comments about race have gone viral…reports Asian Lite News

Leading Indian-Americans, including US Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, have slammed a law professor from University of Pennsylvania for her disparaging comments about the Asian American community, with a specific disdain for Indian-Americans.

In a recent interview to Fox News, Prof Amy Wax from the University of Pennsylvania alleged that “Blacks” and “non-Western” groups have “a tremendous amount of resentment and shame against western people for [their] outsized achievements and contributions.” “Here’s the problem. They’re taught that they are better than everybody else because they are Brahmin elites and yet, on some level, their country is a sh**hole,” Wax, who has a long history of inflammatory remarks, said.

She also said that the westerners have outgunned and outclassed the Asian Americans in every way.

“They’ve realised that we’ve outgunned and outclassed them in every way… They feel anger. They feel envy. They feel shame. It creates ingratitude of the most monstrous kind,” she said.

Wax then targeted the influential Indian-American doctors’ community as well. “They are on the ramparts for the antiracism initiative for ‘dump on America,’” she alleged.

The comment was condemned by the Indian-Americans across the US.

“After President Trump left office, I thought the days of calling others “sh**hole” countries were over,” Krishnamoorthi said in a tweet.

“As an Indian-American immigrant, I’m disgusted to hear this UPenn Professor define Indian-American immigrants, and all non-white Americans, in such insulting terms,” he said.

Stating that such comments are borne of hatred and fear, he emphasised that such talks make it much harder to accomplish common-sense immigration reform.

“Comments like these are borne of hatred and fear, and they lead to real harm for my constituents and our minority communities. They fuel hate crimes against minorities, and they make it much harder to accomplish common-sense immigration reform,” Krishnamoorthi said.

Indian-American Law professor Neil Makhija also slammed Wax for her comments.

“It’s irresponsible to use your position to lend credibility to these overtly racist sentiments that don’t recognise Indian-Americans for who we are,” he told Axios.

Indian-American Impact is slated to hold a summit next month in DC Makjiha told Axios he’s planning to adjust programming to discuss the incident and create solutions against anti-Asian and South Asian hate in educational settings.

“The most unfortunate thing is that we have a lot of brilliant and incredible students at the law school,” he told NBC News.

“It makes you question whether she can fairly grade or educate,” he said.

This is not the first time Wax’s controversial comments about race have gone viral, the US media reported.

Her appearance on Carlson’s show is not the first time Wax has made anti-Asian remarks. In an interview in December, she said that Indians Americans should be more “grateful” to be in the US and that the country would be “better off with fewer Asians.” Penn has confirmed that the school is in the middle of disciplinary proceedings against Wax, NBC News reported.

“The University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School has previously made clear that Professor Wax’s views do not reflect our values or practices,” it quoted a representative as saying.

“In January 2022, Dean Ruger announced that he would move forward with a University Faculty Senate process to address Professor Wax’s escalating conduct, and that process is underway,” the report quoted the Penn representative as saying.

‘1 in 2 Indian-Americans discriminated’

Indian-Americans, who constitute the second-largest immigrant group in the US, regularly encounter discrimination and polarisation, according to a survey released on Wednesday.

The report, ‘Social Realities of Indian Americans: Results from the 2020 Indian American Attitudes Survey” draws on the Indian-American Attitudes Survey (IAAS) — a collaboration between the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Johns Hopkins-SAIS, and the University of Pennsylvania.

The findings of the report are based on a nationally representative online survey of 1,200 Indian-American residents in the US — the 2020 IAAS — conducted between September 1 and September 20, 2020, in partnership with the research and analytics firm YouGov, it said in a statement.

“Indian-Americans regularly encounter discrimination. One in two Indian Americans reports being discriminated against in the past one year, with discrimination based on skin colour identified as the most common form of bias.

“Somewhat surprisingly, Indian-Americans born in the United States are much more likely to report being victims of discrimination than their foreign-born counterparts,” said the report.

According to the report, Indian-Americans exhibit very high rates of marriage within their community.

While eight out of 10 respondents have a spouse or partner of Indian-origin, US-born Indian-Americans are four times more likely to have a spouse or partner who is of Indian-origin but was born in the United States.

The survey found that religion plays a central role in the lives of Indian-Americans but religious practice varies.

While nearly three-quarters of Indian-Americans state that religion plays an important role in their lives, religious practice is less pronounced.

Forty per cent of respondents pray at least once a day and 27 per cent attend religious services at least once a week.

The report notes that roughly half of all Hindu Indian-Americans identify with a caste group. Foreign-born respondents are significantly more likely than US-born respondents to espouse a caste identity. The overwhelming majority of Hindus with a caste identity — more than eight in 10 — self-identify as belonging to the category of General or upper caste.

“Indian-American” itself is a contested identity. While Indian-American is a commonly used shorthand to describe people of Indian-origin, it is not universally embraced. Only four in 10 respondents believe that “Indian-American” is the term that best captures their background, the report said.

Civic and political engagement varies considerably by one’s citizenship status. Across nearly all metrics of civic and political participation, US-born citizens report the highest levels of engagement, followed by foreign-born US citizens, with non-citizens trailing behind.

Indian-Americans’ social communities are heavily populated by other people of Indian-origin. Indian-Americans — especially members of the first generation — tend to socialise with other Indian-Americans.

Internally, the social networks of Indian-Americans are more homogenous in terms of religion than either Indian region (state) of origin or caste.

The report says that polarisation among Indian-Americans reflects broader trends in the American society.

“While religious polarisation is less pronounced at an individual level, partisan polarisation — linked to political preferences both in India and the United States — is rife. However, this polarisation is asymmetric: Democrats are much less comfortable having close friends who are Republicans than the converse,” it said.

The same is true of Congress Party supporters vis-a-vis supporters of the BJP.

“To some extent, divisions in India are being reproduced within the Indian-American community. While only a minority of respondents are concerned about the importation of political divisions from India to the United States, those who identify religion, political leadership and political parties in India as the most common factors,” the report added.

Indian-Americans comprise slightly more than 1 per cent of the total US population-and less than 1 per cent of all registered voters.

Indian Americans are the second-largest immigrant group in the United States. There are 4.2 million people of Indian origin residing in the United States, according to 2018 data.

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-Top News Economy USA

Biden eyes narrowing racial wealth gap

Biden detailed a raft of policies intended to bolster homeownership and help minority-owned small businesses and entrepreneurs….reports Asian Lite News

US President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced a series of measures aimed at narrowing the wealth gap among racial groups in a speech commemorating the 100th anniversary of Tulsa massacre, one of the most atrocious racial violence in US history.

In less than 24 hours between May 31 and June 1, 1921, a mob of white attackers killed over 300 Black Americans in the Greenwood neighbourhood of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and burned down 35 square blocks of that business district built by Black Americans — so prosperous at the time that it was then referred to as Black Wall Street. Roughly 10,000 Greenwood residents were displaced and the community has never come close to recovering, the Xinhua news agency reported.

Yet, Tulsa officials, in efforts to cover up the massacre, framed the atrocity as “riot,” and the mass killings received scant mentions in media reports, school curriculum and civil and governmental conversations in the decades that followed. It wasn’t until recent years that the horrendous events were eventually included in American history textbooks.

“My fellow Americans, this was not a riot. This was a massacre. Among the worst in our history,” Biden said in his speech as the audience rose to their feet. “Some injustices are so heinous, so horrific, so grievous they can’t be buried no matter how hard people try,” the president said earlier during the speech.

Biden detailed a raft of policies intended to bolster homeownership and help minority-owned small businesses and entrepreneurs.

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The measures include using federal purchasing power to invest more money into minority-owned businesses and allocate $10 billion in infrastructure funds to rebuild disadvantaged neighbourhoods across the country.

The first President to come to Tulsa and commemorate the massacre, Biden also plans to enhance the Fair Housing Act in ways that the Department of Housing and Urban Development will “more vigorously enforce” the law, according to a senior administration official, who added that the goal is to increase Black homeownership.

Flames across the Greenwood section of Tulsa(WIKIPEDIA)

Missing in the Biden initiative, however, was a plan to cancel student debt, which disproportionately affects Black students. The rollout also failed to address the issue of reparations for relatives of massacre victims, who said the federal payments could restore what was erased during the attacks.

Biden in his speech also announced that Vice President Kamala Harris will lead the administration’s efforts on protecting Americans’ voting rights. The White House has accused the restrictive voting laws recently enacted in several Republican-leaning states of making it harder for Americans to cast their ballots.

Biden on Monday proclaimed May 31, 2021, to be a “Day of Remembrance: 100 Years After The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.” He said in the proclamation that the “Federal Government must reckon with and acknowledge the role that it has played in stripping wealth and opportunity from Black communities.”

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-Top News COVID-19 USA

Racial disparities continue in US vax campaign

Only 22 per cent of African-Americans have received a shot, and the rates still trail those of Whites in almost every state…reports Asian Lite News

Months into the US’ Covid-19 inoculation campaign, African-Americans’ vaccination rates are still lagging behind, while Hispanics are closing the gap and Native Americans show the highest rates overall, latest federal data has revealed.

Only 22 per cent of African-Americans have received a shot, and the rates still trail those of Whites in almost every state, according to the data obtained and released on Thursday by Kaiser Health News from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The data revealed a sweeping national look at the race and ethnicity of vaccinated people on a state-by-state basis, reports Xinhua news agency.

Targeted efforts have raised vaccination rates among other minority groups.

People head to the entrance of a mass COVID-19 vaccination site at the United Center in Chicago, the United States,
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Hispanics in eight states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico are now vaccinated at higher rates than non-Hispanic Whites.

Yet 29 per cent of Hispanics are vaccinated nationally, compared with 33 per cent of Whites, according to the data.

While 45 per cent of Native Americans have received at least one dose, stark differences exist depending on where they live, and Asian vaccination rates are high in most states, with 41 per cent getting a shot.

“The analysis underscores how vaccine disparities have improved as availability has opened up and (Joe) Biden administration officials have attempted to prioritize equitable distribution.

“Still, gaps persist even as minority groups have suffered much higher mortality rates from the pandemic than Whites and are at risk of infection as states move to reopen and lift mask mandates,” CNN said in a report on Thursday citing the figures and rates.

Currently, some 47.9 per cent of Americans have received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, according to official figures.

The government has set a goal to have 70 per cent of Americans get at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine before July 4.

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-Top News USA

Derek Chauvin guilty of George Floyd’s murder

The former police officer was charged with killing Floyd by kneeling on his neck for more than nine minutes, which was captured on video footage in May 2020…reports Asian Lite News

Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin has been found guilty on all charges in the murder trial of African-American George Floyd by a jury in the Hennepin County court.

The 12 jurors found Chauvin guilty of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in Floyd’s death in May 2020.

It further reported that the maximum sentence for second-degree unintentional murder is imprisonment of not more than 40 years. The maximum sentence for third-degree murder is imprisonment of not more than 25 years. The maximum sentence for second-degree manslaughter is 10 years and/or USD 20,000.

Chauvin was handcuffed in the courtroom and taken into custody by the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office.

Judge Peter Cahill said, “eight weeks from now we will have sentencing.” Cahill thanked the jurors for what he called “heavy duty” service in the case.

The former officer was charged with killing Floyd by kneeling on his neck for more than nine minutes, which was captured on video footage in May 2020 and triggered nationwide demonstrations for racial justice.

Attorney Ben Crump and Floyd’s family released a statement following the conviction of Chauvin, saying, “today’s verdict goes far beyond this city and has significant implications for the country and even the world,” CNN reported.

US President-Elect Joe Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris.
Biden, Harris speaks to Floyd’s family

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday spoke to the family of George Floyd after a jury found former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin guilty of the African-American’s death.

“We’re all so relieved, not just one verdict but all three. Guilty on all three counts. It’s really important,” The Hill quoted Biden as saying. He said that “I’m anxious to see you guys. We’re going to get a lot more done. We’re going to do a lot. We’re going to stay at it until we get it done”.

Biden told the family he had been watching the verdict come in alongside senior adviser Cedric Richmond and Harris.

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Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represents the Floyd family, expressed optimism that the outcome of the trial could spur action on the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. Biden said he would fly the family out to Washington DC, on Air Force One for the occasion, The Hill reported.

Harris praised the Floyd family as “real leaders” at a pivotal moment in history.

“In George’s name and memory we are going to make sure his legacy is intact and that history will look back at this moment,” The Hill quoted Harris as saying. “But we really do believe that with your leadership and the President that we have in the White House that we’re going to make something good come out of this tragedy.”

‘A giant step forward’

Nothing can ever bring George Floyd back but this can be a giant step forward on the march towards justice in America, President said after Chauvin’s conviction.

While addressing the nation, Biden said “Today, a jury in Minnesota found former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin guilty of murdering George Floyd. The verdict is a step forward. And while nothing can ever bring George Floyd back, this can be a giant step forward on the march towards justice in America.”

“No one should be above the law. Today’s verdict sends that message, but it is not enough. We can’t stop here. In order to deliver real change and reform, we can and we must do more to reduce the likelihood that tragedies like this ever occur.

“There’s meaningful police reform legislation in George Floyd’s name, but it shouldn’t take a year to get it done. I assured the Floyd family that we’re going to continue to fight for the passage of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act so I can sign it into law right away,” he added.

The US President further said: “‘I can’t breathe’ — those were George Floyd’s last words. We cannot let them die with him. We have to keep hearing them. We must not turn away. We cannot turn away.”

“This can be a moment of significant change.

“Let there be a legacy of peace, not violence. Those who see to exploit raw emotions of the moment, fan the flames of division, we can’t let them succeed. This is the time to unite as Americans and fight racial prejudice,” he added.

‘Right thing, but requires much more’

Hour after Derek Chauvin was found guilty on all charges in the murder trial of African-American George Floyd, former US President Barack Obama said the jury did the right thing but true justice requires much more.

Issuing a statement on Twitter, Obama said, “For almost a year, George Floyd’s death under the knee of a police officer has reverberated around the world inspiring murals and marches, sparking conversations in living rooms and new legislation. But a more basic question has always remained: would justice be done?

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“In this case, at least, we have our answer. But if we’re being honest with ourselves, we know that true justice is about much more than a single verdict in a single trial.”

“True justice requires that we come to terms with the fact that Black Americans are treated differently, every day. While today’s verdict may have been a necessary step on the road to progress, it was far from a sufficient one. We cannot rest,” he added.

MINNEAPOLIS, May 30, 2020 (Xinhua) — Protesters hold their hands in the air during a protest in Minneapolis, the United States, May 29, 2020. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey announced on Friday a mandatory nighttime curfew following three straight nights of growing protests and violence in the biggest city in U.S. midwest state of Minnesota over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, in police custody. (Photo by Angus Alexander/Xinhua/IANS)

Obama further said: “We will need to follow through with the concrete reforms that will reduce and ultimately eliminate racial bias in our criminal justice system. We will need to redouble efforts to expand economic opportunity for those communities that have been too long marginalised.”

“And as we continue the fight, we can draw strength from the millions of people especially young people who have marched and protested and spoken up over the last year, shining a light on inequity and calling for change. Justice is closer today not simply because of this verdict, but because of their work,” his statement added.

Offering prayers to the Floyd family, the former US President said, “Michelle and I send our prayers to the Floyd family, and we stand with all those who are committed to guaranteeing every American the full measure of justice that George and so many others have been denied.”

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