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So I am not saying everyone is racist or every white person. My neighbors for example of all colors have been spectacular. I lived here for just over a year cause I liked the green landscape, access to hiking across the Hudson valley, and I liked kayaking the Hudson River and LI Sound. Before that I lived in Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, and Hoboken.
However, I do notice there is a bit of resentment from whites in Westchester. Some of it passive and some it straight up dangerous.
Passive examples include mistaking me for being a Door Dash or UberEats driver if I pick up my food for myself or being told at restaurants "we are full" or "three hour wait" but one of my white or black friends showed up, the table is all of a sudden available or the wait time is now ten minutes even though I tell them the number of people in our party.
While driving at an intersection it said "no turn on red" so a guy behind me was honking at me to turn right on red. When it turned green, he pulled up next to me and said in full rage "n-gger i am gonna have you popped back to your ****hole country"(even though I am born here in the USA).
Then there was social situations at bars where white women have said "I don't like Indians" or "sorry you guys are all Muslim terrorists" or no response from saying hello but automatic hellos back at white or black men. Scary one where I said hello to a girl at the beach, and ten minutes later, some roided up guy comes up and said "no one talks to my girl you want to die punk" So I am not poor or obese and I dress decently, so I was shocked at this treatment.
Anyway, I think I am done with Westchester and will begin looking for places back in NYC. I actually liked Westchester and the beautiful Hudson Valley. I guess I am good as visitor but not seen as a real American.
Sorry to hear about your experience. There are relatively few Indians in Westchester as compared to other parts of the Northeast (Queens, Edison, etc). I do notice the abrasive New Yawker type sometimes, especially while driving.
So I am not saying everyone is racist or every white person. My neighbors for example of all colors have been spectacular. I lived here for just over a year cause I liked the green landscape, access to hiking across the Hudson valley, and I liked kayaking the Hudson River and LI Sound. Before that I lived in Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, and Hoboken.
However, I do notice there is a bit of resentment from whites in Westchester. Some of it passive and some it straight up dangerous.
Passive examples include mistaking me for being a Door Dash or UberEats driver if I pick up my food for myself or being told at restaurants "we are full" or "three hour wait" but one of my white or black friends showed up, the table is all of a sudden available or the wait time is now ten minutes even though I tell them the number of people in our party.
While driving at an intersection it said "no turn on red" so a guy behind me was honking at me to turn right on red. When it turned green, he pulled up next to me and said in full rage "n-gger i am gonna have you popped back to your ****hole country"(even though I am born here in the USA).
Then there was social situations at bars where white women have said "I don't like Indians" or "sorry you guys are all Muslim terrorists" or no response from saying hello but automatic hellos back at white or black men. Scary one where I said hello to a girl at the beach, and ten minutes later, some roided up guy comes up and said "no one talks to my girl you want to die punk" So I am not poor or obese and I dress decently, so I was shocked at this treatment.
Anyway, I think I am done with Westchester and will begin looking for places back in NYC. I actually liked Westchester and the beautiful Hudson Valley. I guess I am good as visitor but not seen as a real American.
While I feel for you in your experience, I disagree that there are many white racist against any group in Westchester. I think you are talking about small minority of persons with hatred. I do hope that all racisms will eventually be gone, but it is not widespread. I wish you the best.
I'd agree with the good doctor. My wife is 1st generation from India, and aside from people mistaking her for Latina, nothing like this has been observed.
It is a little annoying when someone approaches another wearing a traditional indian Sari and just starts speaking in Spanish, but you can't teach class or intelligence regardless of the country or area you are in. I can't imagine just going up to an Asian person and speaking in Mandarin. Different rules for different fools in the new America
Never witnessed anything like this in Westchester and have been here over 40 years and have always known Indians. Never heard them express this either.
Never witnessed anything like this in Westchester and have been here over 40 years and have always known Indians. Never heard them express this either.
I do think the turban worn by Sikh Indians is often confused to be an islamic item of clothing, mainly due to the lack of understanding of where the turban comes from. But Sikh make up a very small percentage of Indians in the US.
Passive examples include ... being told at restaurants "we are full" or "three hour wait" but one of my white or black friends showed up, the table is all of a sudden available or the wait time is now ten minutes
I don't believe that. My kids school in westchester (and also my workplace) are ~10% Indian and anecdotally, it sure seems like Indians here are fully accepted. I'll freely concede that since I'm white, maybe it's possible there's subtle discrimination that I don't notice. I'm willing to believe maybe you frequently encounter subtle racism, or even an occasional a**hole saying something offensive.
But your story about a restaurant telling an Indian person "we are full" but then immediately finding a table for a white or black person? No. I'm sorry, but I just don't believe that happens. Definitely not in westchester, and I'm skeptical it happens much anywhere else in the US, either. I'm sorry, but I just don't believe that.
Passive examples include mistaking me for being a Door Dash or UberEats driver if I pick up my food for myself or being told at restaurants "we are full" or "three hour wait" but one of my white or black friends showed up, the table is all of a sudden available or the wait time is now ten minutes even though I tell them the number of people in our party.
It's pretty common for restaurants not seat a party until everyone arrives.
My husband and I tried Peppino's Ristorante in Katonah. We saw many open tables, but we told none were available. The tables were all reserved. Okay - so we went to Il Forno instead. It's wasn't a big deal. BTW, we were Italians in an Italian restaurant.
Compared to those that live in the city, people living in Westchester don't travel much outside the United States other than tourists places Dominican Republic, Jamaica, or the Caribbean. So they are exposed to limited cultures.
Never witnessed anything like this in Westchester and have been here over 40 years and have always known Indians. Never heard them express this either.
There are things that you will never witness or hear from anybody, yet it's true. Now, I don't think the following is a reflection of whites from Westchester in general or any people for that matter, but very few people were there and witnessed this when this happened and even fewer have I told (I have no idea if the others told others too.) Yet, that doesn't mean it didn't happen.
This was a long time ago during a night in Larchmont (Westchester County) on the corner of the Boston Post Road and Larchmont Avenue. I was standing there with two women (both white) waiting for my then coworker to arrive and park so we could go together to a restaurant or bar that was or is in the area (best buffalo wings, lol.) He was black as in you can't get blacker than this. He finally arrives and we make gestures with our hands where he could park on Larchmont Ave. As he is parallel parking a police vehicle appears and stops right next to his car. Naturally, we have our eyesights fixed to see what is happening. Then the cops turn on the very bright light they had on the side of the car and turn it directly to him who is still in the driver seat of his car and couldn't get out because the cops were blocking him. That was pretty much it, they turn their light to its place, turn it off and leave. When he gets out and approaches us, one of the women says "this is whiteville" and he responds but in a demoralized and distressed way "this happens to me all the time." To me that was a shocker since that implies it has happened to him before. I don't know if until then it happened to any of the women, but before and after then this has never happened to me.
Then when we walk to the restaurant/bar with the delicious buffalo wings, as we entered the place everyone looked at us (they had not seen what happened before as it happened on Larchmont Ave and this place was on the Boston Post Road.) The other woman with us blurted out "why is everyone looking at us?" As far as I remember, everyone there from the clients to the waiters were white. Make that out to be whatever you want, but that reaction wasn't normal either. The stares subsided as we walked to our table and from there nothing extraordinary happened (other than the arrival of the very good buffalo wings!)
I would had definitely returned to the place just for the buffalo wings, but the experience of seeing what happened on Larchmont Ave with the cops and then the stares as we entered the place were enough deterrents to never go back.
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