Indian American Man, Friends Face Racist Rant in Seattle

An Indian American entrepreneur and his friends claim they were subjected to racist slurs by a woman in Seattle’s Capitol Hill area on Feb. 5 when they were waiting in line for pizza.

Aditya Sastry, who grew up in the United States and is the founder and digital strategist at Inflect Solutions, was with his friend Joey Velez and Tom Krajnak when the white individual called them “Saudi n*****s,” among other things.

Sastry recorded a video of the verbal abuse and posted it online. It has been shared more than 3,600 times so far.

“Something about us caught her attention and she began a racist, xenophobic rant followed by threats and assault,” he said in the post. “It became quickly apparent that her issue was with Joey and my appearance as we are ethnically Puerto Rican and Indian, respectively. We’ve both faced racist incidents before, but this is the second time this year I’ve been accosted by white Americans claiming this country is theirs. Both these incidents occurred in the ‘sanctuary cities’ of Boston and Seattle,” he added.

The individual repeatedly asks Sastry, “Where are you from?” Sastry remains silent during the rant by the person but the recording ends when the phone is thrown to the ground.

The individual also tells Sastry and his friend that he’s not white enough and calls India a terrorist country. The group of friends are also heard asking the person about the use of racist language, to which the perpetrator responded by saying that Sastry was being called a “n****h” and not a “n**ger.”

On the Facebook post, Sastry wrote, “I’m also overwhelmed by the support and number of people who have reached out in some way. It has been heartbreaking to hear the number of stories of similar, and many times more serious incidents, occurring all over the world.”

Those responding to the post urged him to report the incident to the police.