Hyderabad: Are Indians, who earn highest among the salaried in the United States — an average $88,000 against $49,800 by US households — and the highly educated among racial or ethnic groups, often falling victims of hate crime?
No, as per Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) records revealed under hate crime statistics act. Among the hate crimes, only 0.4 per cent are of an anti-Hindu nature.
According to the 2015 FBI statistics, out of 1,402 victims of anti-religious hate crimes in the US, around 52.1 per cent were victims of crimes motivated by their offenders’ anti-Jewish bias. This was followed by 21.9 per cent who were victims of anti-Islamic (Muslim) bias. Some 4.3 per cent were of anti-Catholic bias.
The FBI report included seven additional religious anti-bias categories namely anti-Buddhist, anti-Eastern Orthodox, anti-Hindu, anti-Jehovah’s Witness, anti-Mormon, anti-other Christian, and anti-Sikh as well as an anti-Arab bias motivation behind such crimes.
Referring to this, AP government special representative Komati Jayaram told the media, ”Not all white Americans are problematic. There is no need for any fear.” However experts warn that, like the anger once built up against Jews who owned a majority of the media establishments and other business establishments, the newly rising Indians in the US could be targeted more in future.
When it comes to race, only 3.2 per cent were victims of anti-Asian bias whereas 52.2 per cent were victims of crimes motivated by their offenders’ anti-Black or African American bias, and 18.7 per cent were victims of anti-White bias followed by Hispanics.
According to Drew Desilver of Pew Research Centre, Indian Americans are generally well-off with median annual household income. This, for Indian Americans in 2010, was of $88,000, that is much higher than that of all Asian Americans, who are having $66,000 as average income, followed by US households with $49,800. This is because of Indians’ high education levels.
Research showed that only 9 per cent of the adult Indian Americans were in the poor segment, earning less, compared with 13 per cent of the US population being poor. Most Indian Americans worked in science and engineering fields.
Interestingly, the Pew Research Centre also revealed that only 51 per cent of Indian Americans were Hindus, and 18 per cent of the Indians including Haley and Jindal identified themselves as Christians, and 10 per cent were Muslims. It noted that Indian-Americans were among the highest-educated of racial or ethnic groups in the US.
Of them, 70 per cent aged above 25 years old had college degrees which was 2.5 times the rate among the overall US population. Around 40 per cent of Indians had post graduation or professional degrees and 32 per cent had degrees.
NRI Rekha Durga Narumanchi of New Jersey said, ”There is a feeling that Indians make much more money and the average Indian earns around $90,000 and there are some Indians who carry a million dollar as pay check. Owning p cars, housing, business, Indians are doing good. Indians are hard-working and work on weekends, midnights, and off shore.”
