Post-9/11 Hatred Waning, but Not Gone

September 13, 2003

Source: Newsday

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-limusl133452956sep13,0,2779019.story?coll=ny-li-vertical-headlines

On September 13, 2003 Newsday reported that "angry, screaming strangers no longer cut Harpreet Bagga off on the Long Island Expressway. They do not vandalize his home or spit in his face, as they had done to many other Sikh, Arab and Muslim Americans amid the terror and confusion immediately after the Sept. 11 attacks. Two years later, the backlash felt by these minority groups appears to have subsided, just as the grief of Sept. 11 has started to ebb for many. But the threat of terrorism is still very real, and so is, many say, the misdirected hatred, now more hidden and subtle but which nonetheless bubbles to the surface at unexpected times...'If you have a lot of hatred within you, it is very difficult to shed,' said Dr. Roy Aranda, a psychology professor at Hofstra University. 'You're seeing subtler forms of discrimination now ... and the more subtle acts in the long term keep the hatred going.'