May Day 2012: Why We Should Take to the Streets
Tomorrow, May 1st, is International Workers Day and may very well be one of the largest days of mass action and protest we’ve seen in the North America in some time. Also known as May Day, the day has a long and rich history of working people courageously fighting for dignity and justice.
May...
My Turban is My Resistance: Vaisakhi 2012 Reflections
The last few weeks, Sikhs around the world have been celebrating the anniversary of the birth of the Khalsa. I intended to do a Vaisakhi post earlier, but travels have kept me from sitting down and writing down some of my reflections until now. I have found myself in small and medium-sized towns...
21st Century Lynching with Impunity
17-year-old Trayvon Martin’s life was taken away from him a few weeks ago in a gated community in Florida simply because of the color of his skin. On his way back from picking up a pack of Skittles and an iced tea at the local 7-11, he was shot dead by 26-year-old George Zimmerman, who was a...
Tracking Anti-Sikh Hate Attacks
Over ten years after 9/11, the persistence of hate attacks targeting Sikhs in the US, whether in the form of bullying in schools, vandalism of gurdwaras, or even cold blooded murder, is a sobering reality for our community. Jodha and I have both discussed elsewhere that the root cause of much of the...
Anti-Muslim Bigotry Strikes Michigan Gurdwara
It’s sobering (and depressing) to hear about another hate attack in the United States fueled by Islamophobia, this one in the form of racist graffiti on a gurdwara under construction in Sterling Heights, Michigan. SALDEF‘s recent statement about the incident states:
…the vandalism...
Jay Leno loves to antagonize us
Chances are you’ve probably heard about Tonight Show host Jay Leno’s joke last week that has angered a lot of Sikhs in the US and around the world. In the segment, the voiceover stated, “Here’s a look at Mitt Romney’s summer home on Lake Winnipesaukee,” as a photo...
Rumble in London: Dhadi meets Hip Hop
I found this new video that Mandeep Sethi released last month beautiful and inspiring. Shot in London, the young San Francisco-based hip hop artist links up with a dhadi jatha for a freestyle session unlike any other.
I’ve always loved the power, poignancy, and rhythm funkyness of dhadi jathas....
CENSORED: Take Action to Protect Internet Freedom
As you may have noticed, today is a national day of action to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act and the PROTECT IP Act, two bills being decided on in US Congress right now. Tons of sites, including Wikipedia, are on a 24-hour blackout to protest the bills and urge action.
Needless to say, we at The...
Breaking the Silence: Reflections on Surat-Lalkaar
I spent this weekend in Fort Lee, New Jersey across the river from Manhattan at the Surat-Lalkaar Conference, “Kaur Voices: Exalt, Express, Empower.” As discussed previously, this event was a new collaboration between organizers of the popular Surat Conference in NY/NJ and California’s...
Obama Rings in the New Year with Indefinite Detentions
As many of us in the US and around the world have been celebrating the beginning of a new year this past week as well as the Gurpurab of Guru Gobind Singh, a new draconian law has been brought upon us in the United States with near silence from the mainstream media. On New Year’s Eve, President...
Burqa ban crosses the Atlantic
The legal banning of the burqa and niqab has once again been in the headlines this last week, but this time beyond Europe, in Canada (or as Tanmit from G.N.E. called it last week at Lahir, “America’s pagh”).
Minister of Citizenship, Immigration, and Multiculturalism Jason Kenney, known...
A taste of Lahir via music and poetry (part 2)
As promised, here is my follow-up to Monday’s post about the Inquilab hip hop workshop in New York.
This past Saturday night brought together hundreds of Sikhs (and others) for the fourth annual Lahir: Move the Movement. I always seemed to have a conflict the last several years, but finally made...
A taste of Inquilab via hip hop and poetry (part 1)
As Sundari blogged about a few days ago, we just had an exciting weekend of Sikh youth art and activism in the NY/NJ area. I was lucky enough to sit in on the Sikh Coalition’s “Inquilab: Raising Our Voices” hip hop workshop for a few hours on Saturday and then ride the bus to New...
A Sikh Minstrel Show?
This video from the popular South Indian television show Adhurs Ultimate Talent Show has gone viral in the last couple of days. In it, the so-called Warriors of Goja, a group of Sikh men “performing” with a giant Khanda as their backdrop and upbeat bhangra music as their soundtrack, win...
Dhan Dhan Guru Nanak Sahib!
From all of us here at The Langar Hall, wishing you a very happy and inspired Gurpurab.
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Sikhs Occupying Wall Street
In October I wrote a piece about Sikhs and the Occupy Wall Street movement, stating, “I haven’t seen one other person who was easily identifiable as a Sikh. I’m sure other Sikhs have come through at different times, but to be sure, this is no significant Sikh presence.” I am glad...
This is what profiling looks like
It’s been quite a day here in New York City. I woke up at 3am this morning and arrived at Liberty Square at 4:00 to protect the Occupy Wall Street encampment from eviction. Sleep deprived but fired up, I joined with thousands of others who showed up to stand in solidarity with this growing...
Sikh runner featured in NYC marathon: Cast your vote!
Following in the footsteps of great Sikh marathon runners like Fauja Singh, a young Sikh Ph.D. student named Simran Singh is currently training to run the largest marathon in the world — the New York City Marathon. And he’s running for a good cause. Simran is working with Team in Training...
Afghanistan: 10 years of war, 10 years of occupation
Occupation has come to carry a different connotation of late as the #OccupyWallStreet movement quickly spreads throughout the country. But for millions in Afghanistan it still means U.S. militarism. It still means war. It still means injustice. Today marks the 10th anniversary of the U.S. invasion...
Wall Street Sikhs, Corporate Tyranny, and the 99%
By now I imagine most of you have heard about Occupy Wall Street in New York City and the growing “Occupy” movement all over the country. Inspired by the mass uprisings of the Arab Spring, the movement is uniting under the banner, “We are the 99%”, in its protest of unprecedented...
