![]() ![]() ![]() 11 attacks however, his killing also "turned a generation of young people like me into activists," said Kaur. Sodhi's murder was the first in a slew of hate crimes against Sikh and Muslim Americans in the wake of the Sept. Roque was sentenced to death for Sodhi's murder, but his sentence was later reduced to life in prison. In another attack that the FBI is investigating as a hate crime, a gunman in Kansas shouted racial slurs and opened fire on Indian men at a bar, wounding two and killing Srinivas Kuchibhotla, 32. That crime was echoed last month when a Sikh man wearing a turban was shot outside his Seattle-area home by a gunman who allegedly shouted, "Go back to your own country." The victim in that case was struck in the arm and is recovering. Roque shot him five times in the back before moving on to other locations where he shot at more people. ![]() Four days later, she suffered an additional personal loss when Sodhi was gunned down in a hate crime in Mesa, Arizona, by a man named Frank Roque.Īccording to Kaur, the night of September 11, Roque told a waiter at Applebee's, “I’m going to go out and shoot some towel heads,” and “we should kill their children, too, because they’ll grow up to be like their parents.” Four days later, Roque drove to Sodhi's gas station in Mesa, Arizona, where Sodhi was planting crates of flowers in front of the store. What she did know: on September 11, 2001, the United States suffered terrible losses at the hands of terrorists. She believes that "the way we make change is just as important as the change we make.Kaur did not know much about Sodhi's murderer. Valarie lives and works with her filmmaking partner and husband Sharat in Los Angeles, where she enjoys dancing, chocolate, and walking along the sea with their dog Shadi. Her films include Divided We Fall (2008), Alienation (2011), Stigma (2011), The Worst of the Worst: Portrait of a Supermax (2012), and Oak Creek: In Memorium (2013). While at Yale, she clerked on the Senate Judiciary Committee, traveled to Guantanamo to report on the military commissions, and filed a landmark immigration lawsuit with her clinic team. at Yale Law School, where she was a Knight Law and Media Scholar and then Visiting Fellow at the Information Society Project. Valarie received her Bachelor’s Degrees in Religious Studies and International Relations at Stanford University, a Master’s Degree in Theological Studies at Harvard Divinity School, and J.D. Now returning to Stanford, she will focus on building the movement for net neutrality, mobilizing the public to keep the Internet free, open, and democratic. Valarie recently received the alumni award from Stanford University’s Asian American Center. ![]() A prolific public speaker on university and college campuses, she is the youngest to deliver the Baccalaureate commencement address at Stanford University. Valarie has been named “ a standout figure in the world of interfaith organizing and activism” and one of eight Asian American “Women of Influence.” The Center for American Progress has named her among 13 national faith leaders to watch. State Department to bring these tools to activists around the world, most recently traveling and teaching throughout Myanmar. Now a Senior Fellow at Auburn Seminary, Valarie serves as a national Sikh voice and teaches on movement-building for students, organizers, and faith groups. She founded Groundswell Movement of 100,000+ members, the nation’s largest multifaith online organizing community known for “dynamically strengthening faith-based organizing in the 21st century.” She also founded the Yale Visual Law Project at Yale Law School, where she has trained future lawyers to use film and media to create policy change. Speaking on law, religion and politics, Valarie is a regular television commentator on MSNBC and opinion contributor to CNN, NPR, PBS, the Washington Post, and the Huffington Post. She has made award-winning films and led multimedia campaigns on civil rights issues: hate crimes, racial profiling, gun violence, marriage equality, immigration detention, and solitary confinement. She is a lawyer, documentary filmmaker, and interfaith organizer who helps communities tell their stories and organize for social change. Valarie Kaur is a Non-Residential Fellow at the Stanford Center for Internet and Society. ![]()
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