SAALT (South Asian American Leaders of Tomorrow) has put together a document listing examples of racist rhetoric, aimed generally at South Asian, Muslim, and Sikh communities as a whole, or targeted specifically at South Asian candidates running for elected office since 9/11.
More after the fold
Examples include the following:
-On August 13th, 2006, Saqib Ali, who is running for a seat in the Maryland House of Delegates, was harassed by a man outside his home. The man sat outside Ali's home in Gaithersburg, MD, with a sign reading, "Islam Sucks," and a shirt with the slogan, "This mind is an Allah-free zone."
-John Cooksey (Republican congressman from Louisiana between 1997-2003) made the following comments shortly after September 11th which reflect religious and ethnic prejudice:"If I see someone (who) comes in that's got a diaper on his head and a fan belt wrapped around the diaper on his head, that guy needs to be pulled over."
- Tom Tancredo (R-CO)'s comments about immigrants have been welldocumented by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The SPLC's Intelligence Report includes the following examples:
o Tancredo's warnings that undocumented immigrants are "coming here to kill you and to kill me and our families."
o More recently, on a radio talk show, Tancredo suggested that the United States should "take out" Mecca and other Islamic holy sites if America is targeted in another attack launched by Muslims.
And then of course, there is Macacagate.
The report is available at their website, and includes tips for responding to such rhetoric (much of which is probably old hat for kossacks), in addition to a letter sent to Howard Dean, Mike Honda and Ken Mehlman (yeah, I know) asking them to respond to the prevalence of xenophobic rhetoric targeting these communities.
Please read and forward to any interested individuals.
UPDATE: And the stupidity just keeps on coming:
Burns says terrorists drive taxis by day