The Biden campaign has launched an initiative to reach out to the Sikh community in the US and vowed to address the unique challenges, including xenophobia, being faced by the minority religious group in the country.It has plans for protecting Sikh-American youths in schools.
Sikh-Americans experience bullying at rates twice the national average and have reported a spike in these encounters since 2017, the campaign said in a press release on Sunday.
Kiran Kaur Gill, a prominent civil rights activist and member of the Sikh American National Leadership Council siad with Biden as the US president, Sikh-Americans can feel safer in schools and on the streets.
The Biden
campaign has said that if voted to power, the Biden administration would
allocate additional federal funding for anti-bullying initiatives.
Valarie Kaur
According to
civil rights activist Valarie Kaur, "This election is unlike any other.
Everything our Sikh ancestors fought for a world of dignity, equality, and
justice is at stake."
"A Biden
presidency would give us a chance to save our democracy, heal the earth, and
begin to birth a world where we are no stranger'. That's why I am proud to join
Sikhs for Biden and do everything in power to get out the vote. Our lives
depend on it," she said in a statement issued by the South Asians for
Biden on Sunday.
Japjee Singh, an
anti-bullying advocate, detailed the horrific bullying that took place at his
high school in Georgia. In 2013, when he was 17-year-old, Singh was repeatedly
targeted with verbal and physical harassment because of his Sikh faith. He was
called a "terrorist" and fellow students used to target him for
wearing turban. Singh's bullying case led to the first US Department of Justice
school bullying settlement on behalf of a Sikh student.
"A lot of
the systems in place prevent victims of bullying from being heard and
validated. Often these victims are perceived as the aggressors; they are not.
Biden is committed to change these systems, so we can provide survivors of
bullying with the support that they need," Singh said.
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