Sikh American Children and Bullying

The Sikh Coalition recently released a report, Go Home Terrorist: A Report on the Bullying of Sikh American School Children. The findings of this report (including staggering statistics such as 67% of turbaned youth have experienced bullying and harassment in California) lead to the topic of discussion for our May membership drive episode of APA Compass on KBOO Community Radio. Joined by fellow Compass-er, Andrew Yeh, and Ethnic Studies scholar, Jaideep Singh, we spent most of the episode discussing the devastating experiences of Sikh American youth as well as what their parents face.

Andrew Yeh took an interest in how schools manage bullying at the K-12 level, right here in Portland, OR. Jaideep Singh is an independent scholar affiliated with the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF) and he is affiliated with the Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project, at UC Berkeley’s Center for the Study of Race and Gender. Additionally, he is in the early stages of getting funding for a national Sikh American hate crimes study.

 

The fact of the matter is that the bullying these students face goes hand-in-hand with the hate crimes their parents experience. Check out the podcast and listen to the discussion on this crucial topic! While you’re at it, Jaideep Singh *strongly* suggests reading this article on Teaching Tolerance by Melissa Moyer.

**Super special thanks to Andrew Yeh for all of his help with this segment!

Air date: 5/2/2014