Some disappointing news from last week:

Vandals this week sprayed several swastikas and racial epithets on property that includes a Sikh temple at the northeast corner of Armstrong Road and West Lane.

Lodi, CA is a city that is 90 miles northeast of the bay. The vandalism went down at a site where plans for a larger Gurudwara were approved by the San Joaquin County Planning Commission. I don’t think the vandals’ choice of targets was coincidental.

Apparently there are close to a dozen groups of White Supremacists in the county. No one believes me out here on the right coast when I mention that I grew up near Klan members; they can’t get past the Golden Gate bridge/Hollywood sign in their heads. All the peaceful, flaky, uber-tolerant golden state stereotypes just make more sense, not that I can blame anyone for their disbelief. Unfortunately, stories like this validate a point I never cared to prove.

Nirmal Samra owns the 8.6-acre property and said he noticed the graffiti on his produce stand and a big-rig trailer Monday morning. The vandalism included remarks such as “killers” and “white power” along with other racial epithets directed at Muslims of Middle Eastern origin.

Nirmal Uncle is a grape farmer who

has never before experienced prejudice in his 30 years living in Lodi…

And I want to stress the following point: my experiences aren’t meant to be a blanket statement regarding racism or ignorance in the bay area or NorCal. Use Mutineer Manish’s statements for that. He went to the better school. ;)

I’ve always thought that ghettoizing ourselves was part of our problem and that we needed to be full members of our neighborhoods and communities, but I grimly note that in this case, “getting involved” wasn’t enough:

But many have mistaken Sikhs for Muslims because they wear turbans, Samra said. The fear of such misdirected hate inspired the Sikh community in 2001 to increase its participation in many community events in hopes of educating the public about the two different religions.

This wasn’t art:

According to Detective Rex Yturri, deputies have responded to scattered incidents of swastika graffiti this year, but none recently on this scale. Most gangs leave their identification in their graffiti. The graffiti on the Sikh property contained no such marks, he said.

At least we’re presenting a united front:

“I’m really, really upset, and I have my sympathies for the Sikh community,” said Taj Khan, a member of the Breakthrough Project’s board of directors, after hearing about the incident on Thursday.
Khan, a Pakistani Muslim, said he and other Breakthrough Project members will visit the site today and extend their support to the Sikh community. The Breakthrough Project was created to promote unity and diversity and fight hate crimes in the Lodi area after a cross-burning at Tokay High School in 1998.

I hope that by the time I have children, our fellow citizens can tell the difference between a Muslim and a Sikh. I also hope that such distinctions are only necessary for the purposes of eradicating a benign type of ignorance, not so we can separate “us” vs “them”.