nwasianweekly.com
April 26, 2008

(Photo provided by Singh’s attorney, Hardeep Rekhi)

This photo, released shortly after the attack Nov. 24, 2007, shows Sukhvir Singh’s injuries.

Hate-crime victim forgives attacker

Last November, just after Thanksgiving, cab driver Sukhvir Singh was brutally attacked by a drunk passenger, Luis Vazquez. Vazquez punched, bit and threatened to kill Singh, all the while calling him an “Iraqi terrorist.” Singh, who wears a turban, is of Indian descent and of the Sikh faith.

Last month, Vazquez pled guilty to second-degree assault and malicious harassment, the term for a hate crime in Washington state. Though the prosecution sought a sentence of two years, on April 18, King County Superior Court Judge Monica Benton issued a sentence of nine months, partly due to the victim’s call for forgiveness and mercy.

According to the Seattle Times, Singh said, “If someone has made a mistake, they should learn a lesson from it. They should be punished accordingly, and it should be known to society that it is not good to have hate toward any human being.”

Vazquez said he was grateful for Singh’s forgiveness and apologized to him in court.

Several members of the Sikh community also spoke at the hearing, explaining the prejudice they have endured since the Sept 11, 2001 attacks.

“I hope this message goes to the public,” said Gurdev Singh Mann, as reported in the Seattle Times. “You should not be judging people from what they look like.”

That such a basic, simple message still needs reinforcement, day in and day out, speaks to the pathetic state of race relations in this country. However, Singh’s generosity to his attacker — as well as the local Sikh community seizing this opportunity to educate, rather than blame, others — shows just how decently people can react to hate.

This doesn’t mean that the hate crime designation is unnecessary, of course. It is the clear identification and acknowledgement of the motivation behind such crimes that allows communities to overcome them, and ideally, as in Singh’s case, forgive the perpetrators.

Vazquez’s remorse also influenced Judge Benton to issue a lenient sentence. However, his remorse did not address the deeper issues of his attack. He simply blamed the alcohol for his actions that night and said he would never drink again.

Instead, he should have admitted that he lives in a culture that teaches it’s OK to racially profile, it’s OK to remain astoundingly ignorant — not only did he assume that anyone who looks vaguely Middle Eastern is a terrorist, he didn’t even realize that Singh is Indian, not Middle Eastern. Prejudice that can’t even get its target right would be laughable were it not so horrifying.

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