Wife Of Indian Hate Crime Victim In The US Asks ‘Do We Belong?’

Wife Of Indian Hate Crime Victim In The US Asks ‘Do We Belong?’
Facebook/Sunayana Dumala

Sunayana Dumala and Srinivas Kuchibhotla met on Orkut – both Hyderabad natives, they connected over the social media platform and over time the attraction only grew.
Srinivas was based in the US, and he counselled Sunayana on how to relocate too. “The way he guided me [for visa applications], he was caring. That is what attracted me to him, and I think that is what he saw in me too. We planned to meet when he came to India and he suggested a temple near my house. I knew that he was tall but I didn’t expect him to be 6’2! I’m like, trying to figure it out, how am I going to be always looking at him like this *lifts head up and gestures*,” she says.

Getting married in October 2012, the couple built their home in Olathe, Kansas, in early 2014, settling down in a house that was Srinivas’ dream. He was employed by a company called Garmin in their aviation department, an engineer working on an autopiloting system for helicopters.

“This was our first house. So obviously, it was both of our dreams. Srinu comes from a middle-class family. To be able to build our own house was a huge accomplishment for him. I remember when we had to choose the paint he had sleepless nights for 3 days. The builder said you can do a trial paint on this prototype program where you can do all the painting. When he saw that picture I think he was able to sleep finally!” she adds.

Sunayana talks lovingly about her husband – he was polite, kind, loved dancing, his family and happy hour with his buddies. It was during one of these happy hours with his friend that Srinivas was told “get out of my country” before he was shot and killed in a hate crime by a US Navy Veteran.

Srinivas’s untimely death was the result of hate. The harrowing situation really hit home for Sofian Khan, who went on to interview Sunayana resulting in a poignant short documentary film titled ‘Do We Belong?’ which was released online by The Atlantic.

The film’s producer Pulkit Datta put us in touch with Khan who recounted the entire filming process, his interaction with Sunayana and shares his own experience of growing up brown-skinned in a dominant Caucasian society in the US. ‘Do We Belong?’ is an important film for many reasons. It makes us question the identity of an ‘immigrant’ and the place they hold in society. As fear of the Other increases around the world, racial tensions and suspicion crippling our societal cohesion, hate and fear are worn on our sleeves and tragedies such as the death of Srinivas become more than a rare occurrence. There was a time where thousands would flock to the States in hopes of a better life – it provided refugee and an acceptance that many didn’t find back home, but is America still the land of opportunities it once used to be?

Khan sheds light on such such realities in our interview and through the film – on racism, xenophobia and Islamophobia. What he also shows us, though, is the compassion that many in Sunayana’s society still have.

Below are excerpts from our interview with Sofian Khan:

A still from the film. Source: 'Do We Belong?'

HG: What about this tragedy in particular made you want to pick up the camera and document it?

Sofian Khan: “My father came to the US in the 80’s as a software engineer from India’s western neighbor, Pakistan, with a work ethic and ambition that reminded me of what I was reading about Srinivas. Even more than that, the descriptions of Srinivas’ positive nature and playful humor also felt very familiar. There was a sense that I somehow knew him.

As kids growing up in Long Island, we would hear about hate crimes against Muslims and other South Asians and Arabs, regardless of their religious backgrounds, following events like the first World Trade Center bombing, the launching of Desert Storm, and, of course, in the wake of 9/11. It was something we talked a lot about in our community, and I remember worrying that something would happen to my father when he went into the city for work. And then, as I grew older, he worried about me as I traveled around the country.

Thankfully nothing serious happened to my father, or me, or anyone in our community that I knew of. But, as we’ve seen over the years, there have been many unfortunate victims of the kind of Islamophobic backlash that we feared all across the country. And this recent election has ushered in another major increase, the likes of which we haven’t seen since the days after 9/11.

It is in this context that the tragedy in Olathe, Kansas took place. Although Srinivas was a Hindu, he was identified with the same amorphous threat, by a man who seemed to be searching for a suitable target for his hatred and frustration. It’s an all too common story. This was the worst kind of result: murder. But incidents borne from the same kind of ignorance and malice are happening every day. From hurled insults to broken bones, to shattered windows and burned down houses of worship.

I knew that I was interested in doing something about the case in Kansas, but there wasn’t an opportunity to do so directly in the aftermath, amidst the swirl of media coverage. Later in the year, however, with the help of Kavipriya Muthuramalingam, I reached out to Sunayana and proposed the idea of making a short piece about Srinivas and her experience in the months afterwards. I took a detour to Kansas while filming for another project in Tennessee, to have a coffee with her and discuss what the piece might look like. A few days later, she agreed to be involved. And that was how the project took seed.”

Sunayana and Srinivas during the building of their home. Source: 'Do We Belong?' still

HG: Can you tell us a bit about your own experience of being a person of colour in a white society?

SK: “I grew up with pretty much all white kids, lots of Jewish kids too, and was one of the few South Asians in the entire school, and maybe one of two Muslims aside from my siblings. It was a pre-9/11 existence, though, so that wasn’t charged the same way. I know a lot of Muslim kids are being bullied very badly now, especially in the current political climate, but my childhood and adolescence were pretty quiet that way. There was a sense of solidarity with the Jews, actually, over not eating pork and being circumcised (although most American boys are anyway).

But I really awoke to the effect of my skin color and appearance on people’s perceptions after 9/11, living in New York. People associate the city with liberal values and tolerance but there were a lot of incidents in those years after the towers fell, and that continues to be the case. Personally, I was lucky – my experiences were all verbal attacks from people who seemed to be somewhat unhinged to start with. In one more serious case I was citizen’s arrested by a construction worker who accused me of filming a bridge while I was getting shots for a music video, which resulted in an hours long ordeal waiting for the police, and then having to answer some very invasive questions from a pair of detectives. I’m now wondering if the report they generated was actually filed somewhere, and perhaps accessible?

But aside from these incidents, it was the day-to-day interaction with (mostly white) Americans who were clearly ignorant about Muslims that made me cognizant of how things had changed. Usually their ignorance was harmless, and they were happy to listen and learn. But often times they came to the table with some nasty assumptions and a clear attitude of superiority. And sometimes I was met with what was obviously a hateful person, even if they didn’t want to admit the full extent of their feelings openly. I know now it’s an all too common experience for any person of colour in this country to be confronted with these attitudes. The assumptions and labels are different for every group. But having to constantly face narratives of white superiority, whether overt or not, is a common thread that runs throughout all of our experiences. For those who never face that – like my younger self in high school, for example – I say you’re lucky, and be grateful, but know that most do, or will at some point, in one way or another.”

Source: Errabus

HG: What drives people to commit hate crimes? Is it more influenced by a person’s upbringing and education? Is it being furthered by the current political climate of the United States?

SK: “Hate crimes follow very clear patterns. They tend to rise in connection with larger political and world events. Aside from the obvious flashpoints like 9/11, or the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq, elections have historically provided fertile grounds for Islamophobia. This was certainly true in 2016. But the effects of the Trump presidency seem to have had a more lasting effect. We’re currently enduring a prolonged rise in anti-Muslim rhetoric, spoken openly by politicians, official and pundits alike. And, as a result, we are seeing more acts of violence against Muslims – or those who are perceived to be Muslim.

That was the case with Srinivas’ tragic death. Other communities, especially Sikhs, have also borne the brunt of Islamophobia. And the travel ban has sent a clear message that whole populations can now be criminalized with the stroke of a pen. So it’s no wonder that people with hatred in their hearts are feeling emboldened to act out. The professor of law and author Khaled Beydoun, whose book ‘American Islamophobia’ was released this year, has incisively observed the connection between government policy and hate crimes enacted by individuals.

‘State policy and policing targeting Muslims is viewed as entirely divorced from the private hatemongering sweeping throughout the United States today. This limited framing diminishes grassroots, political, and legal challenges to Islamophobia, which must contemplate the state’s manifold role in advancing Islamophobic policies and emboldening private violence. Therefore, my definition of Islamophobia frames the state as a potent collaborator that influences and (periodically) drives the acts of individual hatemongers, or Islamophobes, making it complicit in the range of hate crimes and hate incidents targeting Muslim individuals and institutions.”
-Khaled Beydoun, ‘American Islamophobia’”

Source: Still from 'Do We Belong?'

HG: How do you feel people now view the ‘American Dream’, in particular, people of colour? Is It really a dream worth reaching for, at the risk of violence, abuse, and even death?

SK: “I believe that, despite everything that’s happening right now, the American dream is still alive. Even while there’s an effort to exclude some from attaining it, it will take more than one bad administration to erase the hard-fought progress won over the last two centuries in this country, from the abolition of slavery to the civil rights movement and beyond.

But it’s also clear that opportunities for financial success that draw some very smart and talented people to this country are now available in other places around the world that don’t have the same ugly underbelly of resentment and racism. And if those smart and talented people happen to have brown skin, and are made to feel vulnerable here, they may very well think twice before coming to pursue our particular brand of dream. That idea probably makes the nationalists here happy. But it will almost certainly weaken the nation they claim to love, while those places that openly embrace other people and new ideas will prosper.”

‘Do We Belong?’ is available for viewing on The Atlantic.

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