"you Indians are f*****g everywhere."
A video of four US Indian women being racially abused has gone viral on social media.
The incident took place on the night of August 24, 2022, in the car park of Sixty Vines restaurant in Dallas, Texas.
In the video, a woman tells the group to “go back to India”.
She then tells them: “I hate you f*****g Indians.”
The woman, who identified herself as Mexican-American, filmed the group and said:
“All these f*****g Indians, they come to America because they want a better life but they’re obviously not living the great life in India.”
When one of the group members questions her need to use racist language, the woman tells her:
“You come to our country and want everything for free. I am a Mexican-American and I was born here.”
The woman then asks the group if they were born in the United States. She then points out their Indian accent.
She continues her racist rant: “Everywhere I f*****g go, you Indians are f*****g everywhere.”
The woman continues to confront the group:
“If life was so great in India, why are you here?”
The woman then seemingly tries to resolve matters, telling the group to stop recording.
But when they refused, her behaviour became aggressive as she is seen hitting one of the group. She also hits another woman.
The police were then called but the woman’s aggressive behaviour continued.
It escalated when she threatened to shoot the women, putting her hand in her bag to seemingly reach for her gun.
She told them: “Turn the goddamn phone off or I swear to god I’ll shoot your a**.”
This is so scary. She actually had a gun and wanted to shoot because these Indian American women had accents while speaking English.
Disgusting. This awful woman needs to be prosecuted for a hate crime. pic.twitter.com/SNewEXRt3z
— Reema Rasool (@reemarasool) August 25, 2022
The video went viral and officers from the Plano Police Department arrested the perpetrator, who was identified as Esmeralda Upton.
She was charged with assault, bodily injury and terroristic threats and was being held on a total bond amount of $10,000.
Police said the incident is currently under investigation as a hate crime.
A statement added: “Additional charges may be forthcoming.”
The video was shared by Reema Rasool and she captioned it:
“This is so scary.
“She actually had a gun and wanted to shoot because these Indian-American women had accents while speaking English. Disgusting.”
“This awful woman needs to be prosecuted for a hate crime.”
The video sent shockwaves among the US Indian community in Texas.
Urmeet Juneja, president of the India Association of North Texas, said he thinks North Texas has largely been a welcoming and safe place for people who are of South Asian descent.
He said: ”We are happy that law enforcement has taken swift action and arrested this person.
“Still, we also think that they should conduct a fair investigation and get to the bottom of the matter and take this hate crime investigation to its conclusion.”
Saatvik Ahluwalia, a spokesperson for Asian Texans for Justice, said:
“The events in Plano remind me of stories my parents and their friends told me over and over in the wake of 9/11 — of fellow Americans seeing them as others and enemies.”
Chanda Parbhoo, executive director of South Asian American Voter Engagement of Texas, said in a statement:
“While we are relieved our community members are safe, listening to their cries for help from the verbal, physical, and racist abuse this woman was unleashing in that dark parking lot is infuriating.”
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