A 22-year-old nurse, Harman Preet Singh, says he’s still reeling after a racist attack outside his gym in Corio, Geelong, Australia. He was just leaving, minding his own business, when three men started harassing him.
Indian Nurse Brutally Attacked in Australia
Singh told 9news it actually began inside the gym, but the men waited for him outside after his workout. One of them, a big guy in a tight white t-shirt and beige pants, got in his face, hurled racial slurs, and called him an “Indian dog.”
The man then headbutted Singh, leaving him bleeding from the nose.
The attackers took off in a grey sedan, and Singh ended up spending the night in the hospital. Doctors say he’ll need to see a specialist, and surgery is on the table. He expects to be discharged after a week.
‘Indian Dog’: Nurse Bleeding After Alleged Racial Assault in Victoria
Singh admits this isn’t the first time he’s faced racial abuse, but this one really shook him. “I try to keep myself strong, not care about such things, but it hurts,” he said. Now, he’s not sure if he’ll return to the gym or change his routine. “I’m not going to feel safe after this.”
His sister, Khushi Kaur, says the whole family is deeply shaken.
The Indian community makes up the second-largest group of migrants in Australia. As of June 2023, 845,800 people of Indian origin lived there.
Racist attacks against Indians in Australia
People in Sydney’s west, especially those from the Indian community, are starting to feel unsafe. Some say they don’t even want to go out alone anymore because racism is getting worse.
Rattan Virk, who’s running as a Liberal candidate for Greenway in next year’s federal election, spoke up on social media last week. Three shops in Glenwood were vandalised and robbed, and that seems to have rattled a lot of people.
Virk says she’s seeing a lot more bullying and racist comments flooding Facebook community pages lately. Some of these comments, she says, aren’t just casual; they’re direct, targeted attacks on Indians.
And this isn’t just happening in Sydney. Earlier this month, a father in Melbourne’s outer north came home to something truly unsettling.
He asked not to be named because he’s worried about his family’s safety, which says a lot already. He found a bunch of racist hate notes tossed onto his front yard in Epping.
The notes weren’t subtle either: things like “go back to India” and “die Nazi,” even though there weren’t any signs or symbols on his house that would single him out. It’s just straight-up hate, out in the open.
