sikhpride

Description

Vishavjit Singh is an Engineer, Writer, Educator and the first turbaned and bearded editorial cartoonist in USA. He was born in a Sikh family, but when, in the school and later on at Ohio state University, he was not liked by the Americans, particularly, when the Iraq war began, the Americans thought of him as an Iranian and he was generally hearing from them “Go Back Home”, he got his hair cut and turban removed. For a decade he focused on his professional passion, epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California, Berkeley, and dabbled in Taoism and Buddhism. However by the time he completed his masters, he had been highly influenced by Gurbani Kirtan. In 2001, he thought of returning back to his faith. But, the month of September brought a big terrorist attack on Twin Towers and in its wake, hatred against the Muslims as well as the Sikhs treating them alike. Vishwajeet did not surrender this time and started thinking of spreading information regarding his coreligionists. He was influenced by a famous cartoonist, Mark Fiore. He had created a cartoon called “Find the Terrorist,” and it was basically these rotating animated images where he was trying to make the point that you have Muslims or Hispanics or Sikhs, a lot of different shades of brown people in the U.S., [who] are not terrorists. So he also chose cartoon making as a mode of expressing his sentiments and attracting the people towards a turbaned person. He created a website Sikhtoons.com for showing his works. When the movie “Captain America” came, and people were impressed by its super hero, Vishavjit thought of creating a Sikh Captain America, a guy with a turban and beard, and a really catchy caption: “Let’s kick some intolerant ass!” People loved it and he became popular. Through his cartoons, he established that the Sikhs are as American as other people. His cartoons focus on the latest political, social, economic and religious developments within the Sikh community around the world. He creates cartoons on a weekly basis that appear on his website, www.Sikhtoons.com. His work has been featured in museum exhibits, film festivals, youth retreats/camps and conferences. Many Sikh news and portal websites/magazines publish his work on a regular basis. He is invited to many Sikh spiritual Camps for motivating the participants for whom he is Captain America role model. He currently resides in New York State with his wife.