As Kamala Harris made history, Vivek Ramaswamy became a household name, and Usha Vance debuted to lukewarm national audiences, many everyday South Asian Americans were experiencing something completely different.

As these political leaders saw their profiles rise, South Asian Americans faced increased racism on a daily basis, with anti-South Asian online posts doubling during the election season, according to a new report.

“It’s almost unheard of for a group that represents about 1 percent of the population to be so politically vocal at the highest levels,” said Pawan Dhingra, a professor of American studies at Amherst College. “When a group is designated as politically important or having political celebrity status, they are subjected to a magnifying glass.”

A report from Stop AAPI Hate released last month shows that anti-South Asian hatred has increased since January 2023. Overt racism is widespread in Asian American communities, but South Asians are feeling the brunt this time around , shows the report.

Threats of violence against Asian Americans increased 17% from baseline, and a large majority of those threats were directed against South Asian Americans, the data shows.

Forty-three percent of South Asians reported being victims of an act of hate in 2023.

Manjusha Kulkarni, co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate, says South Asians across the country have been accosted on the street for their alleged support of Harris, denied hotel rooms, targeted for insults and were even threatened with violence because of their origins.

“There are things like: ‘India is a slimy country,’ ‘go back to India,’ ‘terrorist,’ ‘dirty Indians,’ things like that,” she said. “It’s something that people are worried about.”

Sona, a Georgia resident who chose to use only her first name for fear of retaliation, said she was verbally attacked by a man with a Trump flag on her lawn during a routine walk in her neighborhood.

“He started yelling, ‘Get out of here.’ Get out of this country. I better not see you on the street again,'” she said. “I was so petrified.”

Uses of anti-South Asian slurs and expressions on extremist corners of the internet doubled from about 23,000 in January 2023 to more than 46,000 in August 2024, according to an analysis of social media platforms . Threats of online violence peaked the same month Harris accepted the party’s nomination at the Democratic National Convention and Usha Vance spoke at the Republican National Convention, the report notes.

And anti-South Asian hate online has been embraced at every level — from internet trolls who have virtually no followers to high-profile allies of President-elect Donald Trump.

Indian-American identity under attack on national stage

In September, far-right activist Laura Loomer posted on social media that if Harris won, “the White House will smell of curry and White House speeches will be facilitated through a call center.” The position provoked condemnation others on the right, including current Vice President-elect JD Vance and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. But experts say posts like these tend to have a trickle-down effect.

“When these kinds of comments are made, it normalizes this kind of speech,” Dhingra said.

This is one of many reasons why some experts believe Harris chose not to place much emphasis on her racial identity during her campaign. Although Harris has broken glass ceilings throughout her career — including as the first Black and South Asian vice president and a major party leader — she hasn’t said much about her 2024 journey.

“The Kamala Harris campaign has become very cautious about using her Indian identity,” said Sangay Mishra, an associate professor at Drew University in New Jersey and author of “Desis Divided: The Political Lives of South Asian Americans “. “On both the right and the left, I see Indian identity becoming more and more attacked and contested. “It’s a big threat that I see emerging from this election.”

When asked in an interview with NBC News in October why she hasn’t talked much about representation or the historic nature of her race, Harris said she preferred to focus on the issues.

“Well, I’m clearly a woman,” she said. “What most people really care about is whether you can do the work and whether you have a plan to actually focus on them.”

Dhingra says no matter how much a politician emphasizes his race, others will do it for him.

“It doesn’t really matter whether or not the politician makes their group membership an important part of their identity,” he said.

At a conference for black journalists in September, Trump falsely said Harris had “gone black” for political gain.

“Is she Indian or black?” » he asked.

Racism has also followed the rise of Native American figures on the right. When JD Vance was announced as Trump’s vice presidential pick, his wife, Usha Vance. has become the target of attacks by white supremacists.

“Are we really expecting the man who has an Indian wife and names his child Vivek to support white identity?” said far-right commentator Nick Fuentes.

Ramaswamy, a former Republican presidential candidate, has aligned himself solidly with Trump. On immigration, he has even pushed to the right of Trump on some issues, such as promising to revoke the birthright and “gutting” the skills-based H-1B visa program.

Yet his Native American identity has drawn criticism. When he hosted right-wing commentator Ann Coulter on his podcast in May, she say it clearly: “I agree with many, many things you said… but I still wouldn’t have voted for you because you’re Indian,” she told him.

Ramaswamy, alongside Elon Musk, has been exploited by Trump to lead a proposed future department for government efficiency, and Usha Vance will become the first Indian American second lady. But experts say just because there are brown faces in the administration doesn’t mean its strongly anti-immigrant messages won’t resonate with ordinary South Asians.

“It doesn’t just impact potential immigrants. This results in all immigrants being, to some extent, seen less as full Americans,” Dhingra said.

Communities are afraid

Anti-South Asian hatred is not new, Dhingra said, but it is something that has run through the community’s entire history in the United States. It has also consistently reared its ugly head as part of broader waves of alarmism about immigrants.

“Right now in the country there is a lot of political violence,” he said. “Hate crimes against South Asians have never really gone away. »

Sona, who was verbally attacked while walking in Georgia, says it’s the worst climate toward South Asians she’s seen since the post-9/11 era, when some ethnic Americans Indian people were presumed to be Muslims and violently attacked, even killed.

“I’ve talked to a lot of South Asian friends right now who live in certain neighborhoods … where they’re nervous about people knowing they’re Indian or celebrating Diwali,” she said. “I think there’s a fear of showing that part of your identity, because what could happen to you then.”

Payal Sawhney, 46, a Los Angeles resident and Native American immigrant, says members of her community often don’t talk about what’s happening to them, for fear that their stories won’t be taken seriously.

At his workplace, a colleague asked him: “When are you coming home?” She saw South Asian homes broken into, elders insulted or attacked in the street, and children increasingly bullied at school.

“South Asians, we don’t speak, we don’t make noise, we just suffer in silence,” she said.

Even though many in his community have sacrificed everything to live in the United States, some of them are beginning to question their place here, Sawhney said.

“They don’t want to go back in any way. They announced to the world that they were coming here to live their American dream,” she said. “Now they are in a difficult situation: How can I tell my people back home that the American dream does not exist.”