(Image source from: www.bcexcelsior.com)
An Indian-American professor in Brooklyn College, City University of New York, is facing fury over his Facebook post against Hispanics which he posted around three months ago. The post has enraged Hispanic students.
According to a report in India West, Rohit Parikh, Professor of Computer and Information Science at the college, had posted a question asking if the Hispanics are desirable migrants in the United States. Though he wrote on July 9, the post came to the notice of the students this month triggering outrage.
Latino student organizations at Brooklyn College, who have 22 percent Hispanic students with them, gathered on October 23 to protest the insensible remark made by Parikh. The students also demanded sensitivity training for all faculty in the college, reported Pix11 News.
The news station quoted a student activist Carlos Jesus Calzadilla-Palacio as saying, "This professor posted publicly that he believes that the Latinx community is not a population that America needs…" adding further "That we're undesirable that we’re dropouts and we say no to that."
In his Facebook post, he wrote, "Hispanics are GOOD people, gentle and nice and not at all criminal. But are they really the population which America needs for the rest of this century when more and more education is required?"
He compared the relatively higher number of Mexican people (11 million) in the U.S. with a comparatively lower number of Indian-Americans (3 million) and said that Indians are far ahead of Hispanics in terms of education.
"Indian-Americans have the highest rate of going to college. It is 70 percent, two and a half times as high as the general population. By contrast, Hispanics have the highest rate of dropping out of school," Parikh wrote in his post.
The Indian-American professor also wrote that immigration has been good for America but "I hope someone will explain to me why Mexico is getting lion's share." He also suggested that illegal immigrants should be deported to their country.
When the station asked Parikh if he is saying that the Hispanic immigrants are not as smart as the Indian immigrants in the United States, he replied, "That's hard to say."
He said that maybe the words used in the post are strong but terms the post as his right of expression.
"I think that while they have a right to march they should also accept my right to express my opinion," he said, as per the report.
Earlier this year, Dr. Ravindra Nanda, a retired Indian-American professor of Orthodontics at the University of Connecticut, encountered numerous claims of misconduct and racial discrimination.
-Sowmya Sangam
