Article of Faith: A Portrait of a Sikh-American Activist

When I met Sonny, I felt that his story demanded to be told. I was moved by his willingness to share difficult stories about how racism, xenophobia, and islamophobia impact him in a very daily and intimate ways. But more importantly, I was inspired by how he had turned this hardship into a motivation to fight for social justice for all people. I was welcomed with incredible warmth, and inspired by the Sikh traditions seeing the divine in all people, and fighting for equality. – Christina Antonakos-Wallace, Producer and Director of Article of Faith

To continue a discussion about bullying and bias-based harassment that seems to be appearing both here on The Langar Hall and also within langar halls across the nation, we wanted to take the time to highlight an inspiring documentary which discusses this very issue. Article of Faith is a short film, directed and produced by Christina Antonakos-Wallace, portraying one Sikh activist, Sonny Singh, who organizes New York City Sikh youth to combat harassment in their schools.  Sonny shares his own, very personal experience with bullying recognizing how incredibly important it is for us to openly dialogue about these issues, so that other children who are experience similar challenges do not feel like they are alone.

The film is part of an online film festival, aptly named “Media That Matters” and each year the films reach hundreds of thousands of people.  Using projects like this to showcase lives of Sikhs is an impactful way of educating others about the Sikh community.  Rather than relying on others to tell our story, Sonny shows us how, through activism and engagement, we can change negative biases and perceptions of the Sikh community.

As the film notes – Sonny’s work with The Sikh Coalition and partner organizations led the NYC Department of Education to adopt a regulation that protects 1.1 million students from harassment based on race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, ability and size.

We encourage you to share this video and use it as a way to have discussions with Sikh youth in your local communities about bullying and bias based harassment.  Also, please feel free to use this space to dialogue with other TLH readers about your own experiences or perhaps what your children or people you know have gone through.

As the recent how to tie a patka video says, “When we learn something new… it makes each of us stronger”.