A wave of racist posts against Indians flooded social media following reports indicating that the container ship involved in the collision with the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, US, on Tuesday, had Indians as crew members. Officials said the Singapore-flagged ship 'Dali' suffered a "power issue" and issued a distress call moments before the crash.
The collision had led to the collapse of the bridge, marking one of the most major accidents in the United States since 2007.
Around six people were reported missing and presumed dead in the tragic event.
All the 22 crew members on board the cargo ship that collided with the Baltimore bridge early Tuesday are Indians, the Synergy Marine Group — which manages the ship, said in a statement on Tuesday.
All the crew members are safe, the company added.
US President Joe Biden and Maryland Governor Wes Moore hailed Dali's crew members for their quick-thinking and sending a Mayday call.
Biden said that the crew "undoubtedly saved lives" by swiftly alerting transportation officials about losing control of the container ship. This had resulted in closing the bridge on time.
Governor Moore said, "These people are heroes, they saved lives last night."
Meanwhile, racially motivated social media users started hurling abuses at Indians blaming them for the collapse of the bridge.
A racially insensitive cartoon was produced by Foxford Comics, a US-based webcomic recognized for its politically incorrect content. The cartoon was specifically aimed at Indian crew members aboard the unfortunate 'Dali' container ship involved in the collision.
The cartoon depicts Indian crew members in 'brownface attire', standing inside the ship's control room amid murky water. They are wearing dhotis and appear shocked as the ship approaches the bridge ahead of collision.
A far-right American political activist remarked on X, "A bunch of Pajeets pulverizing an American bridge named after the man who wrote America’s national anthem really is almost prophetic."
Pajeet is a racist slur in the West to mock Sikhs who often have names ending with "jeet".
Many Indian X users opined that casual racism against Indians is normalised on the platform and when pointed out, the handles which posts such memes would often say "Indians cannot take a joke."
Over the years, Indian-Americans have significantly increased their influence in American society, making strides in the political arena, with a growing number of affluent native Indians and Indian-origin lawmakers, as evidenced by their status as top earners in the US, surpassing individuals from other countries like Sri Lanka, Japan, China, and Pakistan, according to a recent census conducted in August 2022, where the average household income of Indians in the US was reported to be at $123,700, as per PTI news agency. Some Indians on X have said that this phenomenon has made the White Americans racist towards Indians.
There has also been a concerning rise in assaults and fatalities involving individuals of Indian descent and Indian-Americans in the United States recently. The Indians residing in the United States see these attacks as part of a racially motivated move against Indians.
In January, Vivek Saini, a part-time student employed at a department store, tragically lost his life after being attacked by a drug addict in Lithonia, Georgia.
On February 7, Vivek Taneja, a 41-year-old man of Indian origin, succumbed to injuries sustained in an assault in downtown Washington.
Similarly, Syed Mazahir Ali, another Indian national was subjected to vicious attack in Chicago on February 4, prompting investigations by local authorities and the Indian Consulate in Chicago.
Shreyas Reddy Benigeri, an Indian-origin student at the Lindner School of Business in Cincinnati was found dead in Ohio in February.
Recently, an Indian student named Neel Acharya was found dead in the Purdue University campus. An Indian-American student named Akul Dhawan was discovered dead outside the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). The initial findings of the autopsy suggested he died from hypothermia.
23-year-old Indian-American Sameer Kamath, a student at Purdue University, was found dead in a nature preserve in Indiana last month.
The White House had said that US President Joe Biden and his administration were working very hard to thwart and disrupt attacks on Indian and Indian American students.
The statement was made by John Kirby who is the Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council in the White House.
Further, he had asserted that there is no excuse for violence based on race, gender or any other factor and called it unacceptable in the US.
