Leaders from the Indian-American community sharply criticised a California lawmaker this week, for making a racist gesture against Native Americans while confusing them with Indian-Americans.
Democrat and U.S. Representative Loretta Sanchez came under fire from the community and from her party colleagues over the weekend when she made a derogatory allusion to Native Americans’ “war cry.”
Ms. Sanchez, who announced last week her campaign for a U.S. Senate seat, made the gesture while speaking to an Indian American group at the California Democratic Party’s convention in Anaheim, and a video shot by a member of the audience there has since gone viral. In it Ms. Sanchez can be seen describing a meeting she had with an Indian-American supporter, who apparently invited her to a community event.
Then she said, “I am going to his office, thinking that I am going to meet with a [patting her hand over her mouth and making a whooping noise]… Right? Because he said Indian American.”
She went on to add, “And I go in there and it was great. It was just great because he said, ‘I want to get my community involved.’ Involved. And that was the first time that we saw the Indian American community really come to the fight” Ms. Sanchez said.
California Attorney General Kamala Harris, who is of Indian descent, described Ms. Sanchez’s remarks as “shocking,” adding, “There is no place for that in our public discourse.”
Ms. Sanchez’s gaffe also elicited a quick reaction from what has been described as California’s “growing roster of Indian American political candidates and the donor class that is behind them,” including three candidates for the State Assembly and Congressman Ami Bera, the only Indian-American currently serving in the House of Representatives.
Media reports quoted Sayu Bhojwani, New York City’s former commissioner of immigrant affairs saying, “I was taken aback, as many others in the audience were, at her insensitivity, which immediately alienated non-Indian guests as well.”
Mr. Bhojwani added that her comments were a “stark reminder” that “racial insensitivity is not the purview of Republicans or whites, but is pervasive across party and ethnic lines.”
While Ms. Sanchez initially attempted to explain her comments as being made in a lighter vein and even fled on foot from gathering media on a subsequent occasion, she later apologised saying she uttered the slur amidst a “crazy and exciting rush of meetings,” but “I said something offensive, and for that I sincerely apologise.”
She added, “It’s hard to put yourself out there and do what leaders need to do day in and day out. Sooner or later, we all make mistakes. We’re all human.”