‘Go Back’: US Woman Jailed For Hate Crime Against Indian American Women

On August 24, 2022, a disturbing incident of racial hatred and violence occurred in the parking lot of the Sixty Vines Restaurant in Plano, Texas. Esmeralda Upton, a 59-year-old Mexican American woman, physically and verbally attacked four Indian American women, making headlines nationwide. The video, which quickly went viral, shows Upton making derogatory remarks, attacking the women physically, and threatening them with a firearm. Upton's hateful tirade included telling the victims to "go back to India" and asserting that they were not welcome in the United States.

The Incident 

The incident occurred in the parking lot of Sixty Vines Restaurant in Plano, Texas. A viral video of the incident was posted on Facebook by Rani Banerjee, who wrote, "An angry, drunk woman came at us with hateful racial slurs and even physically attacked us." She added that the police arrived on time and that she has never felt so "humiliated, threatened, and scared" in her life. 

Four Indian women were verbally abused, physically attacked, and threatened at gunpoint by this disgusting racist woman who has been identified as Esmi Armendarez Upton.

Do your thing, Twitter.
Make her infamous.pic.twitter.com/muYvoiHUYJ

— BrooklynDad_Defiant!☮️ (@mmpadellan) August 25, 2022

The video starts with Upton approaching a group of women who were out for the evening. She quickly starts yelling racially charged insults, questioning their right to be in the country and claiming that the Indian-American women weren't American citizens because of the way they spoke. She also identified herself as Mexican-American and used racial slurs against them. When one of the victims identified Upton as white, she corrected them, stating she was Mexican American and that she was born in the United States.

Upton told the women, “you Indians are everywhere”, and told the group to “go back to India”, also adding, “we don’t want you here”. She asked, “If life was so great in India, why are you here?” while hurling abuses at them. She then started physically assaulting the woman recording the video and one of the women began calling the police.  The confrontation took a darker turn when Upton threatened the women at gunpoint. 

Legal Proceedings and Sentencing

Upton was arrested by the Plano Police and charged with assault, bodily injury, and terroristic threats. She was previously held on a total bond of $10,000. 

The video, however, triggered outrage on social media and many have condemned the incident, questioning the racist treatment meted out to Indians in the United States. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) previously released a statement calling on the police department to investigate the incident. The executive director of CAIR, Faizan Syed, said, “The level of vitriol and alleged physical assault against four Indian-American women in Plano is truly appalling. This type of hate has no place in North Texas.” The organisation also called on law enforcement to investigate the incident as a hate crime.

According to NBC News, Upton, 59, was convicted of three misdemeanour assault charges and one misdemeanour terrorist threat. Each of the accusations includes a state hate crime enhancement, which alleges that Upton chose the victims based on her bias and prejudice towards their race and national origin.

Upton, who pleaded guilty to all four offences, was sentenced to two years of community supervision probation and 40 days in the Collin County Jail for each conviction, to be served consecutively, as well as a $500 fine.