The role of media in creating and reinforcing stereotypes. The issues surrounding the hyphenated name. The irony in America’s tendency to attract so many immigrants to the country while simultaneously pushing them away. These were just some of the topics covered by last week’s religious pluralism forum hosted by the Los Angeles Human Relations Commission. SALDEF Managing Director Kavneet Singh shared the Sikh perspective on a panel that included representatives from the Coptic, Muslim, Armenian Christian, and Israeli Jewish communities. The evening was a great exercise in discussing the ways in which such diverse communities can agree on certain issues for the ultimate benefit of all their communities. Approximately 40% of the Los Angeles population is foreign born, yet these immigrants are vital to the functioning of the city, filling jobs and contributing to the economy. However, their ethnic and religious backgrounds often cause others to undermine their value. The panel moderator, Brie Loskota, noted that such a high percentage reminds us of the image of America reaching out and welcoming immigrant communities with one hand and pushing away immigrants who test acceptable boundaries with the other. Thus, those with foreign backgrounds would fare far better when working together with their fellow “hyphenated Americans” than working alone. And during the course of the evening, quite a bit of attention was given to the idea of the hyphenated Americans. One woman asked why there was even a need to even identify oneself as a “Sikh-American” or a “Coptic-American,” and so on. We are all Americans, why the need to indicate a more specific identity? I believe Kavneet Singh answered this question most adequately – we shouldn’t think of the hyphenation as something negative; we should think of it as something being added to being American. Hyphenations do not take away from being American, but add to the diversity that marks the uniqueness of America. There is a difference between acculturation and assimilation that is critical to the hyphenated name. To lose Coptic-, Sikh-, Christian-, Chinese-, Israeli-, is to lose part of one’s history, culture and background. Acculturation to American values and way of life is different from assimilation. To assimilate is to forget roots and history of an ethnic or religious background, and without individuals’ pride in their ties to a certain history, America would be much less interesting place. Religious pluralism, thus, is not only a matter of recognizing and merely tolerating other religions. It is the acceptance of other 
religions and the ability to be open-minded towards working with one another to reach goals such as religious freedom in the workplace or the ability to wear religious headdress as a teacher. Many religions face similar problems. Ms. Loskota pointed out that if you want to get a temperature reading of Islamaphobia, ask a Sikh. The targets of many hate-motivated attacks are based on a highly biased perceptions, perpetrated by media, of who the “enemy” is – identified as turbaned, Muslim fundamentalists. Thus anyone that looks Middle Eastern and anyone with religious headdress is targeted and because 97% of those who wear turbans in America are Sikhs, they are especially stereotyped as threats. The media, probably the most powerful tool in creating such biased stereotypes, had done very little to change such biases. Even to this day, major news stations will use images of Sikhs in conjunction with reports about terrorists in the Middle East. The misrecognition and blatant disregard for reality runs deep. That is why it is up to targeted communities to work together and rally behind this idea of religious pluralism in order to create change and overcome the negative perceptions about those who look different from the average Caucasian American, have foreign accents, or alternative religious practices. The forum was a small but very positive step in a direction of needed change in America’s perceptions of the unknown. I commend SALDEF for contributing to the evening and hope that the Sikh community can continue to be involved with discussions such as these in the future.
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