Anyone who posts dance content online has to have thick skin.
But for South Asian dancers in North Texas, bots and trolls aren’t just dissing the choreography; they’re repeating racist stereotypes and spouting off accusations about visa fraud.
Sushruth Manchikatla started dancing when he was five. He taught himself Kuthu, a folk dance featured in many South Indian films. He describes his style as “hip-hop with a South Indian flair.”
The Center for the Study of Organized Hate reported on the surge of Anti-Indian posts on X last year.
The nonpartisan think tank noted that even though the language was largely directed at Indians, the posters made “no distinction” between Indians and other South Asians; Hindus, Muslims or Sikhs; Indian American citizens or immigrants.
Pawan Dhingra is author of the forthcoming book Success Won’t Save Us: How Asian Americans Can Fight White Supremacy and professor at Amherst College. He studies immigration and grew up in North Texas in the ‘70s and ‘80s.