Headline from KIRO: “19-year-old stabs cab driver in anger, claiming he was denied Gonzaga entry.” Headline from Hindustan Times: “22-year-old Sikh man stabbed to death in US, Victim’s family believes that it was a race attack.” If you read both stories but at different times of the day, you would not know they were reporting on the same incident.
KIRO’s post is all about a white suspect (Jacob Coleman of Puyallup) who badly wanted to get into Gonzaga but didn’t, and so he flew from Seattle to Spokane, got into a cab, and out of anger at the college killed its driver with a knife. It all sounds as if this unpleasant incident could easily have been avoided with a few anger management classes or a little time in rage room. Later in the KIRO post, we learn the suspect never even applied to Gonzaga, and so this cannot really be the story. What might the killer’s real motive be?
In Hindustan Times‘ post, we are told another story. It’s of a young Sikh student, Gagandeep Singh, who was about to graduate with a degree in computer science. He and his family settled in Spokane in 2003. He made ends meet by driving a cab. He picked up a young white man at Spokane International Airport, drove him to some remote part of Idaho, and got stabbed to death. According to the police, the young man claimed to be upset about not getting into Gonzaga. But the family of the murdered man believe Singh was the victim of a hate crime.
Singh’s uncle in India to Hindustan Times:
“My nephew became a victim of racial hatred. As the Trump government is now showing exit doors to the Asians due to few job opportunities, Indians and Asians as a whole are becoming the victims of racial hatred…”
The fact race is not mentioned in the KIRO is stunning. Many white American racists have terrorized Sikhs, whom they often confuse with Muslims. A Sikh shot this spring in Kent was certain it was because of racial hate. Rajanpreet Kaur Pannu of the Sikh Coalition announced this month that the Sikh community of Kent is commemorating “the five-year anniversary of one of the deadliest mass shootings in a place of worship in American history.” This racially motivated massacre happened in a Sikh temple in Wisconsin. Attacks of Sikhs and Indians in general have increased in our times.
Not one word about race in KIRO’s post about a Sikh the police believe was killed by a young white man. Indeed, it seems here in Seattle, the Trump mentality is alive and well.
