ABSTRACT
As a child growing up in an American suburb on the east coast outside Washington DC, Partap Singh Ajrawat did not perceive much difference between my family life and the lives of other families. He returned to Manhattan to start his second year of college, appreciative that he no longer felt uncomfortable wearing his identities, but could now proudly display them and clearly articulate what it meant to be American Indian, Punjabi, and Sikh. The Sikh Coalition's report quoted one student as saying 'he used to have a turban'. These are just some of the intangible, human affects of the post-9/11 environment on Sikhs in America. In 2006, for example, a turbaned Sikh in California was stabbed in the neck with a steak knife because, in the words of the local prosecutor, the perpetrator 'wanted to seek revenge for Sept. 11 and attack a member of the Taliban'.
