Indian Americans form 33 percent of Edison, second only to white Americans in size.
A stealth political mailer sent to voters in the heavily Indian American New Jersey township of Edison is calling for the deportation of two Asian American candidates running for the school board.
The mailer, titled “Make Edison Great Again,” asks voters to “stop” Indian American Falguni Patel and Chinese American Jerry Shi from “taking over our School Board.”
The word “DEPORT” is stamped on the photos of the two Asian American candidates.
It says: “The Chinese and Indians are taking over our town! Chinese school! Indian school! Cricket fields! Enough is Enough!!”
The back of the mailer says, “Let’s take back our Edison.”
“Make Edison Great Again” is a play on President Trump’s campaign slogan “Make America Great Again.”
According to the website of the local radio station New Jersey 101.5, voters began receiving the mailers on Wednesday.
The mailer doesn’t say who is bankrolling the mailer, a violation of the campaign law.
Patel, an immigration lawyer, told the website that she was “obviously disgusted by it, to say the least.”
She said: “I didn’t expect anything like that. We live in a such diverse town, it’s very shocking somebody would put that in writing.”
The mailer drew condemnation from other candidates as well as lawmakers, politicians and activists from different parts of the country.
“I was appalled to hear of these racist flyers which attack two Asian-Americans for nothing more than their heritage and for stepping forward to serve their community,” Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Illinois, said in a press release. “Ours is a nation of immigrants and our national fabric is woven from the rich and varied cultures of everyone who took the leap of faith to pursue the American Dream. The community of Edison is better than this and so is our country, but unfortunately, the politics of hate are part of our past and our present. Only through all our communities joining together to expand the circle of inclusion can we ensure that this same hatred won’t be part of our future.”
Deepa Iyer, a senior fellow at the Center for Social Inclusion, blamed the Trump campaign for the hate incident. In a tweet, she wrote: “This is how #MAGA shows up for Asian Americans in New Jersey: bigotry towards immigrant communities who are the backbone of Edison. #Resist”
Iyer also runs the Solidarity Is This project, which provides tools, resources and ideas to bring about power, equity, inclusion and justice in the American society.
The Edison township in Middlesex County is home to one of the largest Indian American communities in the United States. According to the US Census Bureau’s 2015 data, Indian American constitute 33 percent of the total population in Edison.
It is also the most populous township in New Jersey with a recorded population of more than 100,000 in 2015.
Indian Americans are the largest minority group in Edison. There are nearly 34,000 Indian Americans living in the township. In comparison, Caucasians are roughly 41 percent of the population.
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