United States: Police on Thursday arrested a Mexican-American woman who was seen hurling racist slurs at a group of four Indian-American women in the US state of Texas.
In a statement, the police said, “ASSAULT ARREST. On Thursday, August 25, 2022, at approximately 3:50 p.m., Plano Police Detectives arrested Esmeralda Upton of Plano on one charge of Assault Bodily Injury and one for Terroristic Threats and is being held on a total bond amount of $10,000. A jail photo is attached."
Mexican woman abuses Indians in Texas
A video had gone viral on social media that showed the Mexican-American woman, identified as Esmeralda Upton, accusing the Indians of ruining America and should go back to India. Upton is seen to be saying in the video, "I hate you Indian. All these Indians come to America because they want a better life."
She further asks the group of women to "Go back to India. You... people are ruining this country." This incident has caused shock waves among the Indian community living in the United States. The video shows Upton using racial slurs, and at one point physically smacking at least two of the women. The person who posted this video wrote, "this incident occurred in Dallas, Texas after my mom and her three friends went to dinner".
The mom is seen contesting the arguments made by the Mexican-American woman and requesting her not to make racial slurs. At one point in time, the Mexican-American woman, who says she was born in the United States, is seen assaulting the mom and her other friends as well. "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 inserting the f-word and suddenly started assaulting the four Indian women.
People react to the incident
"This is so scary. She actually had a gun and wanted to shoot because these Indian-American women had accents while speaking English. Disgusting. This awful woman needs to be prosecuted for a hate crime,” Reema Rasool said on Twitter.
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," 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. Chanda Parbhoo, executive director of South Asian American Voter Engagement of Texas, said in a statement: ”While we are relieved our community members are safe, listening to their cries for help from the verbal, physical, and racist abuse this woman was unleashing in that dark parking lot is infuriating.”
(With Inputs from PTI)
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