The Rising Tide of Anti-South Asian Hate in the United States

 This report examines the scale, nature, and tactics of online hate targeting South Asian Americans, including those of Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, and other South Asian backgrounds, across X, 4chan, 8chan, and Gab.

Introduction

In recent years, South Asians in the United States have increasingly become targets of online hate, with their identities, languages, accents, appearance, cultural customs, and religious practices subjected to mockery and abuse. They are denigrated with xenophobic slurs, racist memes, and dehumanizing rhetoric that depicts them as vermin, parasites, and invaders who are taking over American jobs, communities, and institutions.

These narratives frequently draw on conspiracy theories of demographic and cultural replacement and, in their extreme forms, include calls to deport, denaturalize, or otherwise remove South Asians from the country. Far-right and anti-immigration influencers have amplified these narratives and circulated videos featuring or encouraging the public harassment and humiliation of South Asians.

This online hostility exists alongside incidents of anti-South Asian harassment and violence offline. South Asians have faced harassment, racial abuse on the streets, and physical violence. In February 2025, an Indian-origin nurse in Florida was severely beaten by a patient who made anti-Indian remarks.1 In July 2026, an Indian Muslim mall employee in Utah was repeatedly stabbed in an attack that federal prosecutors charged as a hate crime.2 On September 13, 2026, a Sikh truck driver was stabbed 17 times3 in an unprovoked attack at a truck stop in Wyoming, raising fears of other such attacks on South Asians.

The attack followed in the wake of simmering anti-Sikh sentiment ever since two Sikh truck drivers were involved in fatal crashes4 in 2025 and an ensuing crackdown by the Trump administration on immigrant truck drivers. Earlier in September, the official Department of Homeland Security Instagram account had shared an image of a poster,5 captioned “Transformers: Age of Deportations.” The controversial poster, which received ample attention, featured an image of ‘Mr Singh,’ who was told to “get off our roads.” The poster was taken down on September 10, 2026.

Click here to read more: The Rising Tide of Anti-South Asian Hate in the United States