Esmerelda Upton confronted a group of South Asian women, hitting them and yelling racist slurs outside of the Plano restaurant Sixty Vines earlier this week. The group South Asian Americans for Voter Empowerment hosted a rally at Haggard Park in Plano on Saturday to show solidarity with the women who were hit and verbally assaulted in the video.
Mamta Jain came to the rally from Dallas with her husband. Her parents live in Plano and speak with Indian accents like the women in the video. She said she worries her parents could also be attacked.
鈥淭hey go for walks with their community, with people in their neighborhood and stuff,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 want them to be spoken to like that or accosted.鈥�
Plano Police Chief Eric Drain said at the rally that he鈥檚 spoken with the FBI and the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice about the confrontation.
Police arrested Upton on Thursday. She鈥檚 charged with misdemeanor assault and making terroristic threats. Law enforcement officials are investigating the incident as a hate crime and may add more charges later.
鈥淲e鈥檙e going to file all the charges that we can, including federal charges,鈥� Drain said.
Sanjiv Sinha, who came from Allen to attend the rally, said hate crimes are becoming more common, even in affluent suburbs like Plano. That鈥檚 why Sinha attended the rally 鈥� he said the presence of hate can鈥檛 be ignored when people raise their voices together.
Sinha immigrated to Texas from England after moving there from Northern India. He thinks the political climate plays a role in hate towards immigrants.
鈥淲hen things are uncertain, you know, when the inequality increases as much as it has, when the economy is not doing well, it is very easy to blame the other,鈥� Sinha said. 鈥淎nd that's what we see happening.鈥�
During the confrontation, Upton told the women to 鈥済o back to their country.鈥� In her where she shared the video of the incident, Rani Banerjee said she had 鈥渘ever felt more humiliated or threatened.鈥�
In the video, Esmerelda Upton said that she is Mexican American. Cassandra Garcia-Hernandez, who is also Mexican American, attended the rally from Dallas with a sign that said, 鈥渢his Mexican rejects hate.鈥�
鈥淲e're not ever going to fully get rid of it,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ut we do have to do our duty in speaking up and standing up.鈥�
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