Four
Indian-American women were subject to racist slurs by a woman who
self-identified as Mexican-American at a Dallas, Texas parking lot on Wednesday
night. The woman hurling abuses has been identified as 58-year-old Esmeralda
Upton. Upton, who is from Plano, Texas has been arrested and charged with
misdemeanour assault and terror threat charges. She was jailed with bond set at
$10,000, Associated Press reported.

In a video uploaded
on social media, Upton is seen saying: “I hate you Indian. All these Indians
come to America because they want a better life.” “Go back to India. You…people
are ruining this country,” she says. The video has sent shockwaves down the
spine of the Indian-American community residing in the United States.

The person who
posted the video captioned it: “this incident occurred in Dallas, Texas after my
mom and three friends went to dinner.” The video shows one of the women
contesting the claims made by Esmeralda Upton. “Everywhere I … go, you Indians
are … everywhere,” Upton is seen screaming in the video. “If life was so great
in India, why are you here,” she shouts adding that she was born in the United
States.

Sharing the video,
Reema Rasool, a Twitter user wrote: “This is so scary. She actually had a gun
and wanted to shoot because these Indian-American women had accents while
speaking English. Disgusting. This awful woman needs to be prosecuted for a
hate crime.”

The Plano Police
Department is currently investigating the charge against Upton as a hate crime.

Rani Banerjee, one
of the Indian-American women who were subject to the racist slurs, said she and
her three friends and just finished dinner and were out on the parking lot when
Esmeralda Upton approached them. “Suddenly, we heard this woman yelling at us
and started coming towards us. We were shocked by the racial slurs that she used
and combative attitude,” Banerjee told Dallas TV station WFAA.

The confrontation
took place a little after 8 pm. North Texas-based groups with links to the Indian-American
community have condemned the incident. Urmeet Juneja, president of India Association
in North Texas, said he thinks North Texas has largely been a welcoming and
safe place for people who are of South Asian descent. He was speaking to Dallas
Morning Post.

“We are happy that
law enforcement has taken swift action and arrested this person. Still, we also
think they should conduct a fair investigation to get to the bottom of the
matter and take this hate crime investigation to its conclusion,” said Juneja.