Indian American CEO told to “go back to India” after writing an op-ed about Charlottesville

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Indian American Ravin Gandhi, CEO of GMM Nonstick Coatings, was racially and verbally abused after he wrote an op-ed stating that he will not defend President Donald Trump’s economic agenda after the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia where white supremacists clashed with counter-demonstrators.

“I recently told the New York Times I was ‘rooting’ for certain aspects of Trump’s economic agenda,” Gandhi wrote in his article for CNBC.

“After Charlottesville and its aftermath, I will not defend Trump even if the Dow hits 50,000, unemployment goes to 1 percent, and GDP grows by 7 percent. Some issues transcend economics, and I will not in good conscience support a president who seems to hate Americans who don’t look like him,” he added.

In reaction, he received many emails and tweets about the words he put in the article.

“You’re a f****** Indian pig” and “Get your f****** garbage and go back to India, and sell it there,” a woman said in a voicemail she left on YouTube.

“You can stick your stickies up your sticky Indian (expletive) and you can take that other half-(expletive) Bangladesh creep with you, Nikki Haley. She’s the one that started all this when she took down the Confederate flag. So don’t tell us that you gave him a chance. We don’t give a (expletive) who you gave a chance, OK? We’re going to start taking down Buddhist statues and see how you and Nikki Haley like that,” the Trump supporter continued.

Although, according to a Chicago Tribune report, Gandhi is not Bhuddist and grew up in this country.

Gandhi shared the voicemail with his clients at lunch last Thursday and posted it on his YouTube, Facebook and Twitter accounts that night.

It was obvious that people thought my professional position somewhat protected me. I wanted to show people that racism is blind to socioeconomics. It just is,” he told the Chicago Tribune.

“Even though my race is a complete non-issue in my day-to-day life, the sad reality is there’s a group of racists in the USA that views me as a second-class citizen. I wanted my peers in the business community, the civic community, my friend community to see that this can happen to me. Because there’s this delusion that racism is dead because Obama was elected,” he added.
With that he wants to make it clear that he doesn’t think these haters are Trump supporters yet they continued to racially abuse him.

“You are angry for having been born with 50 percent negro blood in your veins,” one wrote.
“Quit mouthing off,” another wrote.

The woman who left a voicemail on YouTube also spoke about her distaste for Martin Luther King Jr. and even told Gandhi to “go clean up your own (expletive) country, it’s a filthy mess.”

But that did not bother Gandhi, in fact that was the statement that led him to take the issue on the public platform.

“Republicans and Democrats alike, liberals and conservatives alike, can agree this is a fringe element,” Gandhi said.

“The fact that Trump equated hate groups with those protesting hate lit me up,” he said. “His moral leadership on this issue is reprehensible,” he added.

Gandhi even tweeted a portion of King’s 1963 Letter from Birmingham Jail the following morning and told the Chicago Tribune, “if you read what he says, you still see it happening now: People are settling for negative peace, which is the absence of tension, rather than positive peace, which is the presence of justice.”

“It’s not like me sharing a bigoted voicemail is making that big of a difference, but to the extent that I have a platform to speak about these things, I will,” he said. “My heroes are Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, people who stood up against insane odds. And let’s be honest — I live in doorman-protected building in the Gold Coast. For me to say that I’m suffering in any real sense is insane. But many people in this city who don’t have resources really are suffering,” the tweet said.

“I know I’m on the right side of history here. That’s how I sleep at night,” he stated.

Indian American Ravin Gandhi, CEO of GMM Nonstick Coatings, was racially and verbally abused after he wrote an op-ed stating that he will not defend President Donald Trump’s economic agenda after the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia where white supremacists clashed with counter-demonstrators.

“I recently told the New York Times I was ‘rooting’ for certain aspects of Trump’s economic agenda,” Gandhi wrote in his article for CNBC.

“After Charlottesville and its aftermath, I will not defend Trump even if the Dow hits 50,000, unemployment goes to 1 percent, and GDP grows by 7 percent. Some issues transcend economics, and I will not in good conscience support a president who seems to hate Americans who don’t look like him,” he added.

In reaction, he received many emails and tweets about the words he put in the article.

“You’re a f****** Indian pig” and “Get your f****** garbage and go back to India, and sell it there,” a woman said in a voicemail she left on YouTube.

“You can stick your stickies up your sticky Indian (expletive) and you can take that other half-(expletive) Bangladesh creep with you, Nikki Haley. She’s the one that started all this when she took down the Confederate flag. So don’t tell us that you gave him a chance. We don’t give a (expletive) who you gave a chance, OK? We’re going to start taking down Buddhist statues and see how you and Nikki Haley like that,” the Trump supporter continued.

Although, according to a Chicago Tribune report, Gandhi is not Bhuddist and grew up in this country.

Gandhi shared the voicemail with his clients at lunch last Thursday and posted it on his YouTube, Facebook and Twitter accounts that night.

It was obvious that people thought my professional position somewhat protected me. I wanted to show people that racism is blind to socioeconomics. It just is,” he told the Chicago Tribune.

“Even though my race is a complete non-issue in my day-to-day life, the sad reality is there’s a group of racists in the USA that views me as a second-class citizen. I wanted my peers in the business community, the civic community, my friend community to see that this can happen to me. Because there’s this delusion that racism is dead because Obama was elected,” he added.
With that he wants to make it clear that he doesn’t think these haters are Trump supporters yet they continued to racially abuse him.

“You are angry for having been born with 50 percent negro blood in your veins,” one wrote.
“Quit mouthing off,” another wrote.

The woman who left a voicemail on YouTube also spoke about her distaste for Martin Luther King Jr. and even told Gandhi to “go clean up your own (expletive) country, it’s a filthy mess.”

But that did not bother Gandhi, in fact that was the statement that led him to take the issue on the public platform.

“Republicans and Democrats alike, liberals and conservatives alike, can agree this is a fringe element,” Gandhi said.

“The fact that Trump equated hate groups with those protesting hate lit me up,” he said. “His moral leadership on this issue is reprehensible,” he added.

Gandhi even tweeted a portion of King’s 1963 Letter from Birmingham Jail the following morning and told the Chicago Tribune, “if you read what he says, you still see it happening now: People are settling for negative peace, which is the absence of tension, rather than positive peace, which is the presence of justice.”

“It’s not like me sharing a bigoted voicemail is making that big of a difference, but to the extent that I have a platform to speak about these things, I will,” he said. “My heroes are Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, people who stood up against insane odds. And let’s be honest — I live in doorman-protected building in the Gold Coast. For me to say that I’m suffering in any real sense is insane. But many people in this city who don’t have resources really are suffering,” the tweet said.

“I know I’m on the right side of history here. That’s how I sleep at night,” he stated.