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Racist Snapchat Story Targeting A Sikh Man On Airplane Sparks Outrage

Social media users were outraged when a series of racist Snapchat posts by an airline passenger who mistakenly believed a Sikh man was a terrorist went viral. An airline passenger posted a series of vile Snapchat ‘jokes’ claiming that a nearby Sikh looked like a terrorist, and he ‘might not make it’.

The Sikh man identified as Simran Jeet Singh, who is a professor at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas posted a thread about how a Sikh man was taken to be a Muslim on a flight. Professor Simran Jeet Singh teaches ‘Religion’ at the San Antonio College, took screenshots of a Snapchat user traveling to Indianapolis.

The unknown Snapchat user posted, ‘Never mind I might not make it to Indy’ and ‘Update I’m still alive’ after seeing a passenger wearing a turban.

Another of the messages said, ‘Please God just let the man sleep.

Another photo shows the Snapchat user taking a selfie. The caption reads: ‘OK he just walk to the back of the Plane then to the front then to his seat.’ The caption ends with a number of emojis indicating fear or alarm.

Simran Jeet Singh wrote, ‘This series of snaps should give you a sense of what it’s like for anyone who appears to be Muslim to travel by plane.’

The Professor has frequently spoken out against xenophobia and says he often experiences “uncomfortable stares and misguided fears” while traveling.

Some of Mr. Singh’s 19,700 followers expressed their dismay over the pictures, which were retweeted and shared more than 15,600 times.

Sikhs have increasingly been the victims of discrimination in the US following 9/11 and are sometimes mistaken for Muslims because they wear turbans and often have long beards.

This series of tweets evoked Twitter outrage:

According to the Sikh Coalition, there were over 300 cases of violence and discrimination against Sikhs in the US in the first month after 9/11. In the 15 years that have followed 9/11, Sikhs remain hundreds of times more likely to be targeted in cases of profiling, bigotry, and backlash than the average American, according to the organization.

The Sikhs are a religious group that numbers 27million followers. The faith originated on the Indian subcontinent. There are an estimated 500,000 Sikhs living in the US.