By Mike Matejka
Not In Our Town is holding another gathering, tonight at 6:30 p.m., at Illinois Wesleyan University’s Hansen Center on the north end of campus, opposite the Shirk Center.
Not In Our Town is calling people together at the request of our local South Asian community. Approximately 5,000 South Asians call McLean County home. They are Hindu, Sikh, Muslim, Christian or of no particular faith. Some are Indian, others Pakistani, Bhutanese, Nepalese or Sri Lankan.
Today, March 9, would have been the 33rd birthday of Srinivas Kuchibhotla, the young man shot in Olathe, Kansas on February 20. Since then, on March 2 Harnish Patel was killed in South Carolina and the next day, Deep Rai, a Sikh, was injured by gunfire outside his home in Kent, Washington.
Because their skin is brown, many people might presume South Asians are Arabs. Or perhaps, brown skin is enough to shout foreigner and invite hateful activity.
Locally, in the past week South Asians have reported hateful comments at local establishments. At one restaurant, some South Asians were approached and asked, “When you are going back to your country?” At a local car dealership, another man was rebuffed when he came looking for a car, told, “If you want a deal, go back to India.”
Unless you are a Native American, your ancestors were immigrants. I know my grandparents never learned English. Reading magazine articles from a century ago, there were frightening stories warning against immigrants like my grandparents, saying they would “mongrelize” and degrade America with their Eastern European blood. I don’t know what they felt or how they were treated, but they stayed, struggled and worked hard, separated from their homeland, but building a life for their children.
That’s the American story – come here, work hard and strive to succeed. Our local South Asians know that story well, as they are living it. They are not here to subvert our society or convert people to a particular religion. They are here just like everyone else is here, and hopefully can raise their families without worrying about their safety.
Mike Matejka is the Governmental Affairs director for the Great Plains Laborers District Council, covering 11,000 union Laborers in northern Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota. He lives in Normal. He served on the Bloomington City Council for 18 years, is a past president of the McLean County Historical Society and Vice-President of the Illinois Labor History Society.
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