Last month marked the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center buildings in New York City. Lesser known are the events that transpired on September 15, 2001, when a well-respected Sikh man was shot and killed in front of his business in Arizona. The killing was the first of many violent, islamophobic hate crimes in the United States in the wake of the 9/11 plane attacks. A commemorative website described it this way:
On September 15th, 2001, Balbir Singh Sodhi, a Sikh American father, was killed while planting flowers in front of his gas station in Arizona by a man who called himself a patriot. He became the first person killed in hate violence after 9/11. He was the first of thousands of people whose lives have been lost or shattered by the way our nation responded to 9/11. We responded to aggression with enormous aggression, at home and abroad, for twenty years – war, torture, surveillance, deportations, detentions, and hate violence that continues today.
This year the vigil in remembrance of Balbir Sodhi’s untimely death in front of the gas station where the violence occurred drew crowds and national media attention. The annual event was recorded and videos can be viewed here.
Valarie Kaur, a renowned filmmaker, attorney, and Sikh activist, has been a driving force to expose hate crimes and instill communities with tools and resources to build a “Love Revolution.” In commemoration of the 20 year vigil for Balbir Sodhi, who was a family friend of Kaur, the Love Revolution Project published a comprehensive online source of information, including an option to watch Divided We Fall, a 2006 documentary exploring the incidents of hate-driven violence against people of color after the September 11 attacks, for free.
Peace House honors the life of Balbir Sodhi, and all of the unnamed Black, Indigenous and People of Color who were harmed in the aftermath of September 11 attacks on the United States. We thank Valarie Kaur and her broad community of educators, artists, activists, and spiritual leaders who relentlessly work to remove the “other” from our shared world.
