Pawan Dhingra

Pawan Dhingra with Obama

Pawan Dhingra is professor of American studies at Amherst College in Massachusetts and president of the Association for Asian American Studies. He regularly claims that Americans are racist against Asian Americans.

Indian-American GOP Nominees and their 'White, Christian Voter Base'

Sakshi Venkatraman X Post dated August 1 2023

In an article dated August 1, 2023, Sakshi Venkatraman interviewed Pawan Dhingra, professor of American studies at Amherst College in Massachusetts and Varun Nikore, executive director of the AAPI Victory Alliance and Harita Iswara, communications coordinator for Hindus for Human Rights about the GOP candidacies of Vivek Ramaswamy and Nikki Haley.

Sakshi Venkatraman posted the article on X:

"Among a sea of white candidates in the Republican primary, two Indian Americans are vying for the nomination — selling their identities to a white, Christian voter base that looks nothing like them."

Global Communication Summit on Anti-Asian Racism

Pawan Dhingra was the keynote speaker of a University of Houston February 2023 conference titled "Global Communication Summit on Anti-Asian Racism", which addressed the Stop AAPI Hate study claiming that Asian Americans are experiencing escalating racism. Pawan Dhingra's particular address during the conference was titled "Hate Crimes as the Tip of the Iceberg: Towards a Broader Conception of Anti-Asian Racism". Other attendees and speakers included Zhiwen Xiao, Yali Zou, Miya Shay of ABC 13 in Houston; Chi-mei Lin, CEO of Houston’s Chinese Community Center; Jennifer Evans, chief brand officer for RSi.

Anti-Asian Hate Crimes

Pawan Dhingra wrote an OpEd for Salon titled "Racism is behind anti-Asian American violence, even when it’s not a hate crime" dated March 20, 2021. Excerpt:

Over the past year, attacks on Asian Americans have increased more than 150% over the previous year, including the March 16 murders of eight people, including six Asian American women, in Atlanta.

"Some of these attacks may be classified as hate crimes. But whether they meet that legal definition or not, they all fit a long history of viewing Asian Americans in particular ways that make discrimination and violence against them more likely.

[...]

Other anti-Asian American racism isn't criminal at all, but still fits with the nation's racist history. As COVID-19 spread across the U.S., Asian-owned restaurants and stores were the first to experience declining revenue, even though most of the earliest cases in the U.S. came from Europe.

There is a long history of suspecting Asian Americans of carrying disease into the U.S., which made it seem natural for people to avoid Asian American-owned businesses. President Donald Trump's repeated public declarations that the "Kung Flu" virus came from China reinforced those feelings.

This race-based and erroneous assumption has resulted in Asian Americans having among the highest unemployment rates in the nation, though they had among the lowest before the pandemic.

It defies logic to claim that race isn't relevant in attacks on Asian Americans unless the perpetrator actively references it. Research has found that most Americans assume a person of Asian descent is foreign-born, unless there is some aspect of their appearance that clearly marks them as American – such as being overweight.

Open Letter to the Biden Campaign on 'Unprepared'

Open Letter to the Biden Campaign on “Unprepared” was released May 12 2020.

":Our demands: The country’s greatest priority at this moment is to beat the COVID-19 crisis, and this requires embracing principles of antiracist solidarity and international cooperation. The Biden campaign can and should beat Trump and the GOP with a message centered on our real public health needs and the progressive values that are required to meet those needs. The “Unprepared” ad must be taken down, and all campaign messaging that fuels anti-Asian racism and China-bashing must end. We refuse to allow the Biden campaign to sacrifice our dignity in the name of political expediency."

Signatories included Pawan Dhingra, Professor, Amherst College