New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering recently shared a video where students revealed the job offers they have landed in the tech industry. The video, meant to be a celebration of the hard work that students put in, instead became the focal point of racist backlash.
What the video showed
The video appeared to have been filmed during the graduation ceremony at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering. Holding a microphone in hand, one interviewer approached several students to ask what they had planned for after after college.
Many students revealed that they had managed to land lucrative jobs at some of the world’s leading companies like Google, Amazon and Apple. However, viewers were triggered to note that most of the students appeared to be foreigners.
Video triggers India hate
The video showed one woman saying she had landed a job as a software engineer at Google. Another student said they would start working with Amazon in Seattle. Although the nationalities of these students were never even hinted at, viewers summarized from their appearance and accents that the students were of South Asian descent.
{{/usCountry}}The video showed one woman saying she had landed a job as a software engineer at Google. Another student said they would start working with Amazon in Seattle. Although the nationalities of these students were never even hinted at, viewers summarized from their appearance and accents that the students were of South Asian descent.
{{/usCountry}}And then the hate comments began.
“Indians and Chinese joining big tech giants in US,” wrote one person on Instagram. “All these immigrants making America great,” another said.
The video soon reached X, where the comments were more racist.
“Love how our universities are explicitly not meant to educate our own citizens, really ‘well-functioning country’ stuff going on here,” an X user posted.
“Why is America educating its enemies? I’ve heard that they also get scholarships and aid. What are we doing here?” another questioned.
“So sick of the Patel army in this country,” one person commented, while a second added, “Is that NYU’s Mumbai campus?”