At 8:25 a.m. this past Thursday, Kanwar Singh was walking through Downtown Crossing when a woman screamed at him to "Go back to your country!" Singh, who became an American citizen in Faneuil Hall in 2014 and who served in the US military, ponders the racist:
Did she want me to go back to Malden? Because that’s where I live, and that’s my home. ...
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Comments
this was just one crazy
By berkleealum
Mon, 07/22/2019 - 1:43pm
this was just one crazy person. i find it hard to believe that any sane person would yell that out their window at a stranger in boston of all places.
/s
let's see if we can make this 2 for 2 today.
Unfortunately this is
By anon
Mon, 07/22/2019 - 1:58pm
Unfortunately this is becoming a more common occurrence. This happened to a Pakistani doctor walking across Longwood Ave. An American with Pakistani parents who went to Dartmouth and Harvard was told by med school admissions the same thing in so many words during interviews. Medical doctors.
Now, THAT's interesting.
By dmcboston
Tue, 07/23/2019 - 2:46pm
"An American with Pakistani parents who went to Dartmouth and Harvard was told by med school admissions the same thing in so many words during interviews."
Fascinating. Please, tell us more.
Dewey, Cheatham & Howe will be glad to take that case on contingency.
Nah, it's a false flag! I'm
By Brent Jeffries
Mon, 07/22/2019 - 2:11pm
Nah, it's a false flag! I'm just waiting to see how a certain muck-dwelling amphibian tries to make the argument while somehow blaming Dukakis in the process.
right, i forgot about
By berkleealum
Mon, 07/22/2019 - 2:23pm
right, i forgot about “actually the liberals did the bad thing”
thanks for telling everyone it was just one crazy person...
By AC
Mon, 07/22/2019 - 2:48pm
because there is no better way to belittle someones actual experience of hate than by downplaying it. I am sure you were there and can confirm that it was just someone "crazy".
As someone who has witnessed this more than once in Boston of All Places, all I can say is that we will never help ourselves or address our on going problems with race in the Boston area if we continue find it so hard to believe that hate happens here.
That /s...
By lbb
Mon, 07/22/2019 - 3:20pm
...is a bit of a nerdy thing, which basically means "the thing I just wrote was sarcasm".
i guess i'm a nerd
By berkleealum
Mon, 07/22/2019 - 3:30pm
thanks. didn't know people were unclear on the /s tag.
i guess that explains all those upvotes.
/s..
By AC
Mon, 07/22/2019 - 5:28pm
/s..
Nope I didn't know that.
I can't even pronounce meme correctly.
Maybe I responded to harshly to sarcasm but I am so done with this behavior and no actions.
Ok but
By Matthew Miller
Mon, 07/22/2019 - 11:54pm
400 internet nerd points to the person who can explain why "/s" without looking it up {honor system in use here).
HTML
By mg
Tue, 07/23/2019 - 12:57am
/s is short for the ending of an HTML expression that I can't write because my phone's pseudo-keyboard doesn't have pointed brackets. It's short for showing that you're ending a section that's in sarcasm font, using the syntax you'd use for italics or bold.
Pointed brackets
By Ron Newman
Tue, 07/23/2019 - 7:34am
You may find them if you long-press the ( and ) keys. I don't know if this is a feature of all Android versions, or just the one I have (Oreo 8.0).
I mean...
By lbb
Tue, 07/23/2019 - 8:41am
...does anyone NOT know that?
That's </sarcasm>, right?
By Fudge Pisk
Tue, 07/23/2019 - 6:21pm
That's </sarcasm>, right?
Or...
By Michael Kerpan
Thu, 07/25/2019 - 10:20am
alternatively ;-)
Albert Breer?
By Parkwayne
Mon, 07/22/2019 - 2:53pm
Is that you Albert?
https://thebiglead.com/2017/05/02/albert-breer-wan...
'Out her window'?
By dmcboston
Tue, 07/23/2019 - 2:52pm
I read the article, isn't really clear, unless I missed it. There is no indication she was driving. If she was, get the license plate number. Easy peasy.
But, your referencing her as 'crazy' might carry some merit.
Consider: DTX, Cambridge St, New Chardon St., the Financial District to the West End, that whole area is rife with homeless folks, shelters and some seriously mentally ill. You want an observation of the neglected folks in society? Go to the Boston Common. In the early parts of the month, it's relatively good wine and vodka with orange juice. Towards the end of the month, it's mouthwash or vodka (no Grey Goose, it's the cheap Russian stuff like Cossack, sorry Roman) and no orange juice. In the morning. Any one of you doubt me? Hang out with EMS. They probably do 20-25 runs a day there, 99% of the running will be street people.
By the way, /s won't work unless you start out with an opening 's'. Like how nested parenthesis have to add up.
(Oh, insert clever and witty Trump joke below.)
good job man! definitely not
By berkleealum
Tue, 07/23/2019 - 4:23pm
good job man! definitely not the response i was expecting!
Why thank you.
By dmcboston
Wed, 07/24/2019 - 5:46am
I feel...elevated.PS: There should be a couple of shift keys on your keyboard.
remind me of the % of people
By anon
Mon, 07/22/2019 - 2:05pm
remind me of the % of people who vote republican in Boston.
Really?
By lbb
Mon, 07/22/2019 - 3:21pm
Does this mean something?
I mean, I recognize that it's words, but...
It's easy to forget it
By anon
Mon, 07/22/2019 - 5:36pm
It's easy to forget it because of the current administration, but you can vote Republican without being racist.
If it was
By DotRat4Eva
Mon, 07/22/2019 - 2:50pm
A dot rat that said this, they deserve a beat down courtesy of Mr. Hickory S. Tick
For that matter.
By DotRat4Eva
Mon, 07/22/2019 - 3:15pm
If it wasn’t a dot rat that said this, they deserve a beat down from a dot rat.
A&B/Dangerous weapon.
By dmcboston
Tue, 07/23/2019 - 3:08pm
Now, a Dotrat wishes to commit assault and battery against someone that's possibly a mentally homeless person. Keep it classy, libs. Oh, don't kick her if she's down. A&B/shod foot is a felony. So is a milkshake with Sakrete in it...or a bicycle lock.
Can you people really hear yourselves? You really want to beat someone with a club for saying something? You want to kill her? Say she's not a street person? Say she's just an asshole. Fine. Smash her head like a baby harp seal. Are you shitting me? What ever happened to flipping the bird and saying 'Fuck you'?
Oh, I get it. You're just protecting everyone from the Nazis.
No, you're not. You're just a bunch of deranged lefties that are really going over the edge.
"Ourselves"?
By Scratchie
Tue, 07/23/2019 - 4:27pm
Ourselves? You mean that one "DotRat" troll?
To be honest...
By dmcboston
Wed, 07/24/2019 - 5:47am
Seventeen. Lots of upvotes there.
Good point, as always
By Scratchie
Wed, 07/24/2019 - 10:02am
No doubt that every one of those upvotes represents a liberal Democrat who sincerely wants to beat down the offender in question.
https://sports.yahoo.com/dan
By schneidz
Mon, 07/22/2019 - 2:58pm
https://sports.yahoo.com/dan-le-batard-calls-out-r...
progressive Boston
By Luke Warm
Mon, 07/22/2019 - 3:00pm
where I really like it, and where racist things do happen, is no match for the embroiled hatred on the surrounding Mass burbs. If you read the comments on Masslive, which I agree may possibly be a mistake, you'd think we lived in Mississippi in the 1940's. really scary shit. education has been no match for whatever inbreeding has been going on out there
The MassLive comment section
By anon
Tue, 07/23/2019 - 8:15am
The MassLive comment section is a complete cesspool.
It's kinda shocking how
By anon
Tue, 07/23/2019 - 9:06am
It's kinda shocking how racist the outer burbs are given the diversity in Boston/Cambridge/Somerville etc.
I'd reckon a good % of racist incidents in the city are perpetrated by people who don't live here. Certainly true for Red Sox games.
I made the mistake of doing
By anon
Tue, 07/23/2019 - 2:14pm
I made the mistake of doing that the other day & I noticed 2 things on Mass Live: 1 - a lot of racist people hiding behind their keyboards and 2) a lot of the ppl commenting...not so bright.
Unlike in all probability most white posters
By anon
Mon, 07/22/2019 - 3:45pm
On uhub; I'm white, grew up 'lower class' in majority non-white (excluding white Latinos) neighborhoods. Majority non-white were black. I was jumped for being white at least 10 times (I've lost count). How do I know it was racially motivated? They called me 'white bitch', 'white faggot', 'white mother f*cker'. You name any anti-white (or LGBT) slur, I was called it. I also had plenty of non-white friends. It is what it is. I'm not racist because it's simply not in my nature.
As a college freshman I had to visit a professor at her home in a very nice Newton neighborhood. After taking care of business, we had a little chat about the topic of my paper.. I detailed my good and bad experiences growing up in 'bad' neighborhoods. Her first comment to me was: 'Well, I hope you aren't racist'. I was a shy, skinny teenage boy and intimidated by the surroundings I now found myself in. I mumbled something and left. Today, I realize what an asshole, smug thing she said to me. I wonder if this same professor would repeat what she said to m;, to Mr. Singh; I seriously doubt it.
So you *are* racist?
By Scratchie
Mon, 07/22/2019 - 5:23pm
I'm just trying to figure out what the point of this word salad is.
He clearly said he wasn't racist...
By Friartuck
Mon, 07/22/2019 - 6:32pm
But we can all take comfort in knowing she wasn't teaching him rhetoric.
The point is
By CT
Mon, 07/22/2019 - 11:00pm
that people in Newton live in a bubble. They are very likely to assume that a white guy living in Dot, etc., might be a racist. Newtonians and Brookliners live in towns very conveniently 99% white and not-in-Boston. OP missed the memo about how a white person should not claim not to be a racist. But the point about Newtonians is on the nose.
Huh
By Scratchie
Tue, 07/23/2019 - 9:09am
I would have thought that generalizing about white people who live in Newton is just as stupid as generalizing about white people who live in Boston.
Some of my best friends
By CT
Tue, 07/23/2019 - 8:29pm
live in Newton and Brookline. They are dear people, but they do not get out much, demographically.
2017 Data: Newton 73.8% White
By Wally Brown
Tue, 07/23/2019 - 1:56pm
The demographics have been shifting for years.
Brookline 71.4% White
So no, not on the nose at all now.
From 2010 to today
By anon
Tue, 07/23/2019 - 3:11pm
The white population declined SLIGHTLY in Brookline and Newton.The 'Asian' (Chinese, Indian mostly) increased at a healthy rate. The black population of Brookline and Newton is still VERY small.Well below the national average.Well below state average.Below 5%.Hispanic population is also very under-represented.
Just typical Trumper denial bullshit
By section77
Mon, 07/22/2019 - 7:56pm
They've gone from "we're not racist and we're not nazis" in 2016 to screaming "go back to your own country" at black Americans in 2019. Every step of the way has been accompanied by claims that what happened didn't really happen. "How do you know that the person screaming at blacks was actually racist?" Just go fuck yourself. If we were that stupid we would be Republicans.
My goodness
By erik g
Mon, 07/22/2019 - 8:01pm
I'm glad we have your say-so, because the rest of this disheveled mess of a comment sure makes it sound like you are.
Anyway, I'm glad you made it through your post-secondary studies despite your hardships. It's clearly given you the courage that all mediocre white men possess, to turn a conversation about actual, tangible acts of hatred into a symposium on your delicate fee-fees.
I think you missed a couple of tropes
By SwirlyGrrl
Mon, 07/22/2019 - 9:26pm
Shouldn't there be a marine and an atheist in this story, too?
Version I heard...
By dmcboston
Tue, 07/23/2019 - 3:13pm
A Marine, an atheist and an Orthodox Jew walk into a bar.
Bartender looks up and says, "What is this, a joke?"
Malden?
By Rob
Mon, 07/22/2019 - 6:19pm
Malden?
Okay, that's not out in terra incognita or here there be dragons like being out past 128 or 495 (gasp!), but they did have to cross two rivers to get to DTX. For some peoples' bubbles, that's pretty alien.
Nota bene: that was being facetious. And sarcastic.
Four rivers
By SwirlyGrrl
Mon, 07/22/2019 - 9:24pm
Charles River
Miller's River
Mystic River
Malden River
Plenty of witnesses, cameras in Downtown Crossing, Thurs 8:25 am
By O-FISH-L
Mon, 07/22/2019 - 9:12pm
I'm looking forward to the police investigation. A "ground ball" as they say in the academy, since Thursday at 8:25 am in busy Downtown Crossing will produce numerous witnesses and all kinds of camera footage. There's an excellent chance that the Boston and MBTA police officers who patrol the area daily will know the suspect. I realize the man says he didn't have time to stop at the moment but our police stations are open 24/7, so hopefully he has filed a report since.
Also many thanks for Kanwar Singh's service in the military and participation in Democrat party politics and public radio commentary. He will be an excellent witness on the stand. Can't wait. Hopefully when the case is solved, we will get better media follow-up than we've gotten on the Tynan School "racial incident" and the UMass Vietnam Memorial antisemitic felony vandalism case. We were told that the person who drew the swastika and tore down the US flags, already wanted on a separate felony, was arrested and booked but immediately sent to a mental hospital prior to arraignment (unheard of) and name covered up since. It's important to identify the perpetrators as it may discourage others.
Academy?
By SwirlyGrrl
Mon, 07/22/2019 - 9:25pm
You must mean "institution".
Police investigation
By Scratchie
Tue, 07/23/2019 - 9:11am
Yes, I'm sure that someone making a racist comment in DTX will undoubtedly spur a comprehensive investigation. The detectives will be working in shifts until they crack this case.
Dogwhistling as usual?
By lbb
Tue, 07/23/2019 - 10:07am
No one is fooled by your bullshit, Fishy.
Helping hand
By Kaz
Tue, 07/23/2019 - 12:44pm
ic
Here, you dropped this.
Get any kind of decent pic. Have Mr Singh ID it.
By dmcboston
Tue, 07/23/2019 - 2:37pm
"There's an excellent chance that the Boston and MBTA police officers who patrol the area daily will know the suspect."
Also shop it around the Cambridge St. firehouse and EMS. They interact with the homeless constantly and the police are usually called only if there's a problem.
Is that it?
By Kapil
Tue, 07/23/2019 - 8:20am
“Go back to your country” caused this guy to be upset, reflect on it for days, and then write a WBUR column chronicling his experience? The whole thing is very George Costanza. It comes across as him being mad at himself that he didn’t have a decent comeback. LOL, I’m actually surprised this is the worst example of “racism” he could come up with. Most people I know from the Subcontinent could produce far better examples.
This is odd for a Singh. They are usually happy-go-lucky, strong-minded people that don’t get all bent out of shape over people’s stupidity.
No. This is it.
By Odin
Tue, 07/23/2019 - 8:44am
What are you doing? Providing a better example of racism for the audience? You judged the entirety of south Asia by your experience with one surname.
LOL
By anon
Tue, 07/23/2019 - 9:08am
Starts out full racist. Doubles down in the last paragraph.
Worst example
By Scratchie
Tue, 07/23/2019 - 9:15am
He didn't "come up with it", you very smart person, it's what happened to him. He could have written a column about the time that townies threw bags of dogshit at him or burned a cross in his yard if those things had actually occurred.
Since you probably don't have much interaction with other human beings, this is something that people do. Something unpleasant happens to them and they think about it later. Sometimes they talk about it with their friends or write about it.
And the reason why the Seinfeld writers decided to write an episode about Constanza coming up with a response after the fact is because this is a very common occurrence.
How dare you Scratchie!
By Kapil
Tue, 07/23/2019 - 9:38am
Few people pay attention to your posts so I feel it’s below me to respond to you..... Anyway, almost any Singh could put up a better, more thoughtful and entertaining internet post than you. Also, I have no doubt that any Singh, including the protagonist of the story above, could easily put your face into the ground and twist your neck until tears run down your face, you cowardly wimp, you.
Ooh, I'm scared
By Scratchie
Tue, 07/23/2019 - 9:58am
[img]https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/2...
How about yourself?
By lbb
Tue, 07/23/2019 - 10:09am
I don't know how I'd feel about it, because no one's ever said it to me. Have they said it to you? How many times, under what circumstances, how did you feel?
Adequate inquiry for you, lbb
By Kapil
Tue, 07/23/2019 - 10:53am
I don’t know about that exact comment but random people have approached me and said racial stuff like it. All have either been drunk, on drugs, or clearly mentally ill.
Normal people (whites and others) tend to resort to racial insults if they are already mad at you for something. Cutting someone off in traffic will often generate such a response. One time recently, some older white (maybe Hispanic or Greek?) guy cussed me out and called me a dirty Muslim or something because I unloaded trash in some dumpster owned by his business. I just laughed and was like, “haha, whatever.” He was obviously ignorant because he couldn’t think of a good insult. I probably would have been really pissed if he made a more thoughtful insult, like calling my mother Desi or something.
lbb, I am of average size but have sufficient muscle tone and masculine features where most people would not gratuitously mess with me.
In any event, my feelings have never been hurt by such incidents any more than they would be if a random person approached you and told you to f*** off. People are a**holes, including me sometimes.
Nice work
By Scratchie
Tue, 07/23/2019 - 10:57am
Aren't you just precious?
"Good people on both sides" -
By Rob P
Tue, 07/23/2019 - 9:40am
"Good people on both sides" - the 45th President of the United States
Fake news? Or just an intentional lie?
By dmcboston
Tue, 07/23/2019 - 2:28pm
"'Good people on both sides" - the 45th President of the United States' - Rob P."
Context, asshole...https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2...
Trump: "George Washington was a slave owner. Was George Washington a slave owner? So will George Washington now lose his status? Are we going to take down -- excuse me, are we going to take down statues to George Washington? How about Thomas Jefferson? What do you think of Thomas Jefferson? You like him?"
Reporter: "I do love Thomas Jefferson."
Trump: "Okay, good. Are we going to take down the statue? Because he was a major slave owner. Now, are we going to take down his statue?
"So you know what, it’s fine. You’re changing history. You’re changing culture. And you had people -- and I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists -- because they should be condemned totally. But you had many people in that group other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists. Okay? And the press has treated them absolutely unfairly.
[b]"Now, in the other group also, [i]you had some fine people.[/i] But you also had troublemakers, and you see them come with the black outfits and with the helmets, and with the baseball bats. You had a lot of bad people in the other group."[/b]
First, you got the quote wrong, then you applied it to the wrong group. So, you flunk.
Oh, fun, this again
By Michael
Tue, 07/23/2019 - 3:06pm
Pointing to the man's total inability to complete a thought without rambling and circling the airport for an entire paragraph and parsing that to try to convince (who, exactly?) that everyone doesn't know exactly what he meant.
I know, it's difficult, but at least try.
By dmcboston
Tue, 07/23/2019 - 3:29pm
If by 'parsing' you refer to citing the actual quote and not some proggie leftist bullshit lie, then you can't be helped. A whole paragraph. He's conversing with a
Democratmember of the press. He said what he meant. Can't follow? Then give up. But don't lie about it.If you go by what he said
By Michael
Tue, 07/23/2019 - 3:35pm
He said it was fine to take down all the statues of Jefferson. Hey, he said what he meant.
Like peddling the lie about milkshakes with sakrete in them?
By boo_urns
Tue, 07/23/2019 - 3:40pm
No evidence of that. Bullshit "tip" floated to the Proud Boy loving police department in OR who ran with it and then the lie blew up because it was "reported." You bought it, too, which is convenient for you because it helps project a scary "leftist" boogeyman.
Pathetic.
Portland police?
By dmcboston
Wed, 07/24/2019 - 5:49am
Or a random leftie on UH.
Who should I believe?
Why would you believe...
By boo_urns
Wed, 07/24/2019 - 8:15am
An entity that never made a claim? It's not me vs. PDX PD, it's me vs. Roger Stone loving Proud Boys and they literally made the claim up for the police to "investigate." So if you believe those shitheads over me, then god help you.
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