A Human Rights Commission report says almost 40 percent of Muslim, Jewish and Sikh residents of the city surveyed had experienced some kind of harassment.
by Rahima Nasa
It is just a snapshot, but it makes for a plenty ugly picture all the same: The New York City Commission on Human Rights surveyed more than 3,000 Muslim, Jewish and Sikh residents of the city late in 2017 and found striking rates of racially and or religiously motivated assault, harassment and workplace discrimination.
Some 38 percent of those surveyed said they had been verbally
harassed or taunted because of their race or faith. Nearly 10 percent
said they had been the victim of an actual physical assault. A similar
percentage of those surveyed said they had seen their property
vandalized or otherwise defaced.
Lurking in those broad numbers are some more specific outrages: 18
percent of Sikhs surveyed said they had been denied service by a local
business; roughly 6 percent of those surveyed who said they wore
religious garments reported having had someone try and tear those
garments off them.
The commission, which enforces the city’s anti-discrimination statute
governing employment, housing and public accommodation, said last
month’s “first of its kind” report was meant to “rigorously document”
experiences of bias harassment, discrimination and acts of hate. They
survey was conducted in the late fall of 2017, and asked respondents to
report incidents dating back to mid-2016, the height of a volatile
election season.
Some 17 percent of those surveyed reported some form of
discrimination at work — from being told they could not observe their
faith to being told they could not wear religious clothing. Roughly 3
percent reported being fired because of their race, ethnicity or
religion.
The findings are consistent with national and local trends. The FBI
and the New York City Police Department have seen increases in reports
of hate crimes in the last several years.
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Source: ProPublica
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