After a series of phony “hate crimes” supposedly inspired by Donald Trump’s election, the liberal media obsession with uncovering an epidemic of anti-immigrant violence in Trump’s America has died down somewhat. But on Monday, Geeta Anand reported from Mumbai that the coverage of alleged racial and ethnic attacks in the United States has had an effect -- though of course Anand blamed Trump, not her media colleagues: “For Indians, America Under Trump Is a Land of Vanished Opportunity.” The text box: “In what was once a promised land, ‘they might just think that we’re terrorists.’”
Generations of Indians have admired the United States for almost everything. But many are infuriated and unnerved by what they see as a wave of racist violence under President Trump, souring America’s allure.
The reaction is not just anger and anxiety. Now, young Indians who have aspired to study, live and work in the United States are looking elsewhere.
“We don’t know what might happen to us while walking on the street there,” said Kanika Arora, a 20-year-old student in Mumbai who is reconsidering her plan to study in the United States. “They might just think that we’re terrorists.”
Recent attacks on people of Indian descent in the United States are explosive news in India. A country once viewed as the promised land now seems for many to be dangerously inhospitable.
Anand did nothing to dissuade such exaggerated fear and hostility, though evidence for any surge in hate crimes is strictly anecdotal, not official, and prone to hoaxes.
Like many others, Indians were offended by Mr. Trump’s promises to block the Mexico border with a wall and bar people from six predominantly Muslim countries. Some took solace that India was not targeted.
But they soon saw that anti-immigrant rage in America did not discriminate.
In February, two Indian immigrants were shot, one fatally, at a bar in Kansas by a man who witnesses said had shouted ethnic slurs and told them they did not belong in the United States.
Since then, several more attacks on Indian immigrants have been closely covered by the Indian news media. While the authorities have not linked all to anti-immigrant bigotry, the belief that Indians are under attack in America seems cemented in the minds of many.
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Ms. Arora said she, like her brother, “did aspire to work and study in America, but I’m reconsidering.”
The biggest reason, she said, was the violence directed against Indians.
Geeta talked to more geopolitical genius college students who had likely never actually been to America:
Ananya Gupta, 21, who studies financial management at K. C. College, laced his disappointment with contempt.
“That just shows where they stand intellectually, electing a person of Trump’s nature as a president,” he said.
When asked if he had an opinion on America under Mr. Trump, Mr. Gupta, standing across the street from his college, among other students at a beverage stand, replied, “Who doesn’t?”
This passed for positive commentary on the United States:
Not everyone is so negative about America under Mr. Trump. Devanshu Jain, 21, said he still planned to study and work there.
“There’s racism in India, too,” he said. “Who doesn’t want to work for Goldman Sachs in New York City, right?”
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Mr. Singh, who dreams about owning a pub some day, said he was scared by Mr. Trump’s recent bombings in Syria and Afghanistan.
“He might start World War III,” Mr. Singh said. “He might kill us all.”
The Times and the rest of the media are eager to find racism where it may not exist, or to highlight an ongoing regrettable pattern when it suits them politically. A front-page story from late February blared “Threats Leave Jews on Edge In Trump Era.” But the media’s assumption of Trump-inspired anti-Semitic crimes was knocked down by Seth Frantzman:
Overall, there was an average of 84 incidents a month under the Obama administration. Let’s step back for a moment and compare that to the 95 incidents between January and February 2017. That’s a 10% increase. It could be more once all the data comes in. But the media haven’t been telling us there is a slight increase; the narrative has been that there is an antisemitic wave sweeping the US. In Berlin, there was a 16% increase in antisemitic incidents by comparison. It was also “sweeping” the UK in 2014.
One of the key indicators of rising antisemitism during the Obama years was the number of physical assaults. From a low of 17 in 2012 they rose to 56 in 2015. The ADL noted a “dramatic rise” in assaults that year....Looking back almost a decade puts things in perspective. Where was the media in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 to highlight thousands of incidents of antisemitism?
