My birth certificate lists my race as White, but I’m not. — Technically there are no White people who look the color White. There are no Black people either who look the color Black. But there is a story of Black and White people. One of the greatest stories ever told. A story originating in Europe. Brought over to the land we…

Wracked with pain about being othered, I dressed up like Captain America. Here’s what happened. — My turban and beard have always made me a target of anxiety, stereotyping, or outright racism. Post-9/11, the hate has been taken to a whole new level. Sikhs have been killed, attacked, and verbally abused in a never-ending American saga. We might not ever know what was in the mind…

I got to spend a lot of time with my brother-in-law Hargobind in the last 4 years of his incarnation on this plain as he transitioned after battling Glioblastoma, a form of brain cancer. He was courageously graceful in facing the inevitability of death. He was a man of few…

One day in the early 1980’s Nirankar Kaur was keeping an eye on a group of kids at a playground in the city of Los Angeles. She spotted one five year old boy leave the pack. He plucked a single flower from a flower bed. He walked over to a…

My American nationalism is built on a dream I still cling to, even in these trying times.

Who would the 75 year old quintessential American superhero vote for in the 2016 Presidential election today? For starters, Captain America does not exist. But although he might be fictional his mythology is palpable. Its ethereal connection to us Americans has a physical manifestation. Trust me I know. I get…

What are we going to do with the ghosts of Muslims scaring the living daylights out of us? Emails have shut down schools, head scarf has gotten a professor suspended, teacher getting fired for showing video featuring nobel prize winning teenager Malala Yousafzai life story, homework with Arabic calligraphy has…

On October 31st, 1984 the Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her two Sikh bodyguards. This event was a culmination of years of political conflict in the north Indian state of Punjab. Eventually Mrs. Gandhi would order troops into the holiest of temple of Sikhs, Darbar Sahib…

On a hot July summer day in New York City I was working with a film crew hopping in and out of the subway in my costume as Captain America. We stepped out on one of the stops and after shooting for a few hours in Washington Square Park hopped…