Horrific Racist Attack In Texas Has Us All Shocked
Just a few days after Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson declared August 15 as Indian American Day, we saw a shocking racist attack. Four Indian-American women were racially abused and smacked by a woman, who hurled racist slurs at them that they are “ruining” America and should “go back to India”.
The incident took place on Wednesday night in a parking lot in Dallas, Texas. The woman, who has now been arrested, is seen in a viral video identifying herself as a Mexican-American and assaulting the group.
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“I hate you Indian. All these Indians come to America because they want a better life,” Esmeralda Upton said in the video. “You Indians are everywhere,” she added.
The video shows her telling the group of women to “Go back to India. You… people are ruining this country.” The person who posted this video wrote, “this incident occurred in Dallas, Texas after my mom and her three friends went to dinner.”
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The Indian women are seen contesting the arguments made by the abuser while remaining calm and even requesting the attacker not to make racial slurs.
“Everywhere I go, you Indians are everywhere,” she is seen screaming in the video. “If life was so great in India, why are you here,” she shouted while hurling the f-word.
She also assaults the four women.
Plano Police detectives arrested Esmeralda Upton of Plano on Thursday afternoon. She has been charged with assault, bodily injury, and terroristic threats and is being held on a total bond amount of USD 10,000.
This incident is currently under investigation by the Plano Police Department’s Crime Against Persons Unit as a hate crime.
Groups in North Texas with ties to the South Asian American community condemned the attack and said they were relieved that a suspect had been arrested.
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, The Dallas Morning News reported.
“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,” Urmeet Juneja 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,” said Saatvik Ahluwalia, a spokesman for Asian Texans for Justice was quoted as saying by the report.
