SAN DIEGO — Injustice is everywhere. In the United States, everyone gets a turn to spin the wheel. Sadly, not everyone gets a fair hearing.

Americans have been conditioned to hear about injustices committed against individuals who are Black, LGBTQ or Jewish. When one of those groups complains that they're being mistreated, America listens. In each case, she has seen this movie before.

But when the injustice is aimed at Asian Americans, Latino Americans or Muslim Americans, America often turns a blind eye and a deaf ear. Nothing personal. It's just that her imagination doesn't extend that far. It is as if the old girl can't process new scenarios. Or maybe she is just tired, and she doesn't want to open up another grievance file.

Too bad. Whether people are ready to acknowledge it or not, Indian Americans are under attack in this country.

I know this is true because of what my friends in that cohort tell me about how they're experiencing this moment and how they feel about it. And I know it because I have eyes and ears, and I refuse to ignore this toxic brew of hate, fear and prejudice.

I didn't look away when, in December 2024, some on the right started floating the idea that the new administration's crackdown on immigration should include cutting back on the number of high-tech visas, the H-1B. Many of those visas go to immigrants from India. This bothers entitled Americans who feel those jobs ought to belong to them. What started as a debate about whether these visas are being "abused" by companies in order to pay lower salaries quickly became an ugly and nativist screed against Indian workers. Talk radio airwaves and social media sites filled with ugly comments about India and Indian Americans.

I didn't look away in December 2025, when Nick Fuentes, a 28-year-old podcaster and provocateur with more than 1 million followers on X whose base of "groypers" seems to be made up of angry young white men in Generation Z, repeatedly attacked Usha Vance. Because the wife of Vice President JD Vance is the daughter of Indian immigrants, Fuentes slammed the Vance as a "race mixer" and "a fat guy who's married to a jeet." The term is an ethnic slur aimed at those from South Asia. Speaking about Vance, Fuentes also said: "Who is this guy, really? Do we really expect that the guy who has an Indian wife and named their kid 'Vivek' is going to support white identity?"

I didn't look away when, during that same month, Fuentes also attacked Vivek Ramaswamy, a Republican candidate for governor of Ohio who is also Indian American. After Ramaswamy told a MAGA audience that the concept of being an American should be tied to shared ideals and values and not race or bloodline, and that racism cannot be tolerated within the conservative movement, Fuentes basically said that Ramaswamy wasn't a real American and that he should not be running for governor of Ohio. He said the Republican got his "anchor baby birthright citizenship from your H1-B parents" and told him to "go back to your country."

And I'm not looking away now that a racist clown named Bo French, a Republican currently running for Texas railroad commissioner, has decided that the "problem" with the University of Texas at Austin is that too many of its students are Indian American. French recently posted a photo on X of a group of a dozen or so students cheering the Texas Longhorns football team. On the post, he wrote, "I heard UT graduation this year looked like this. I didn't believe it. The problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined." He also accused the university's admissions office of undertaking a policy where they "prioritize foreigners over Texans."

The disrespect makes my blood boil. It's not right, and it's not fair. Here you have an immigrant group that — when it came to this country — played by the rules and did everything right. And yet, to the narrow-minded, they're still all wrong for America.

As usual, the bigots are totally off the mark. Indian immigrants often arrive with little, work hard, make sacrifices and contribute to the country that took them in. They don't protest, whine or demand reparations. They're often quiet, polite and professional.

Indian Americans also put the lie to what Americans tell themselves about who is welcome and who is not. Immigration restrictionists said: Come legally. Speak English. Come with advanced degrees and skills.

These folks checked all the boxes. A lot of good it did them.

To find out more about Ruben Navarrette and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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