The video has become a talking point after the increase in the number of hate crimes.
(Update: The video has been removed by the user after this post was published.)
The Indian American community, which is in a state of shock after a series of hate crimes against its members, has condemned a YouTube video smeared with racist insult against the community.
The video, titled Welcome to Columbus Ohio suburbs- Let’s take a walk to Indian park, was posted on the anti-immigration website SaveAmericanITJobs.org in August 2016. But it has become a talking point after an increase in the number of hate crimes against Indian Americans in the past few months.
The video went viral on social media after Indian Americans Srinivas Kuchinhotla and Harnish Patel were gunned down in two separate incidents, and a Sikh American was injured in an apparent racist attack — all in the span of two weeks.
The anti-immigration website is managed by 66-year-old Steve Pushor, who works as a computer programmer in Virginia.
The video shows a group of Indian Americans playing volleyball and a few others hanging out with their small children at a park in Ohio.
“The number of people from foreign countries blows my mind out here. You see this whole area is all Indian, amazing. It is an amazing number of jobs have been taken away from Americans. The Indian crowd has ravished the Midwest. It’s a takeover,” Pushor says.
He goes to the extent of calling the park a “mini Mumbai.” The description of the video posted on YouTube is filled with offensive and racist language.
“What we’re trying to point out is people in Ohio, IT workers, and other professional people have lost their jobs to foreign guest workers. That’s what our point is,” he adds.
The members of the Indian community and many other Americans have raised concerns about Pushor.
“I’m a white American and I’ve visited that park with my wife and children several times. I’ve made friends with several Indian American families during my visit. Based on my experience, the OP is wrong,” Andrew Woolman commented.
“Youtube should remove this, it may twist some kid’s head and make him do what he does not supposed to do,” another user, Shubham Kumar, wrote.