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| Tamil-origin Rini Sampath triggers debate on racism on US campus. |
Last week Rini Sampath, the president of the student body at the University of Southern California (USC), went public with a racial abuse she had suffered. The post went viral, drew ample media attention and prompted university authorities to act.
Rini Sampath, an international majors student, was born in Theni, Tamil Nadu, and emigrated to the US when she was in the sixth standard.
In her Facebook post she stated that when she was walking in the campus recently someone shouted at her: “You Indian piece of s—!” The person, who has not been identified, then threw a drink at her.
After the abuser's friends realized that the union president was the victim, they apologized, which she says stung even more.
The incident made Rini Sampath recall the bitter racial discrimination she had endured all her life in the US. As a child she was singled out, not allowed by her classmates to play with them, who also asked if her mother was from Mars. Before she could become USC union president, she had to overcome huge self-esteem issues.
She told The Washington Post, “I was struggling to learn English and I was struggling with what I looked like, in a sea of kids who didn’t look like me.”
Becoming the USC students president was not easy for Rini Sampath. She was running on a ticket with another woman, who was also a minority,and was told that she had no chance of winning.
Rini Sampath did and proved her critics wrong.