Trump VP pick JD Vance, Indian-origin wife subjected to ‘Hinduphobic’ hate train; US org condemns online abuse

The now ardent Trump cheerleader can expect to find himself at the centre of a torrent of headlines until the November elections (and more so if Trump wins the presidential race). However, soon after being crowned the Republican vice presidential nominee, the far right and other critics became fixated on his Indian-origin wife, Usha Chilukuri Vance, and launched a negative racial rhetoric against her. Unfortunately, regular netizens weren’t the only ones who blasted their triggering abuse online. Certain individuals with massive influential platforms to present their views also joined the abusive hate train.

MAGA launches racist tirade against JD Vance’s wife

White nationalist “groyper” Nick Fuentes was one of these people. American far-right political commentator suffered a racist meltdown on his live broadcast: “What kind of man marries somebody that isn’t a Christian? What kind of man marries somebody named Usha? Clearly, he doesn’t value his racial identity, his heritage. Clearly, he doesn’t value his religion. He doesn’t marry a woman that professes Jesus Christ? What does that say about him.”

Another white supremacist live-streamer, Jaden McNeil, took to X/Twitter to enter into a racially charged mudsliding contest with others partaking in the racist conversation. Posting a family picture of Vance, his wife and their newborn, he wrote on the platform: “I’m sure this guy is going to be great on immigration.”

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“There is an obvious Indian coup taking place in the US right before our eyes,” far-right conspiracy theorist Stew Peters said on the microblogging platform. He also wrote: “Trump VP nominee @JDVance1 and his Indian wife have three children named: Ewan, Vivek and Mirabel. He’s not one of us.”

The bigoted attacks on Vance and his multiracial family saw X users descend to a deplorable extent as many then started poking fun at Usha Chilukuri at the expense of her religious background.

“The most scandalous fact about Vance is not that he supports abortion in some cases. The most scandalous fact is that his wife is Hindu. If someone is disqualified from church leadership with an explicit failure, civil leadership should also be off the table,” wrote user @AnonPresby.

A US grassroots advocacy organisation condemns “Hinduphobic” hate train against Usha Vance

The Coalition of Hindus of North America (CoHNA), “a grassroots advocacy and civil rights organisation representing the Hindu community of North America,” shortly jumped into action on X, calling out the “Hinduphobic” slurs that sought to dehumanise Vance’s wife.

“For those who deny #Hinduphobia…

The selection of Sen. Vance on the Republican ticket and the #Hindu background of his wife #UshaChilukuri, has triggered a torrent of hate & abuse. Vile tropes, graphic imagery, and slurs from haters on the right & the left,” CoHNA addressed the issue on X along with screenshots demonstrating instances of netizens participating in the reprehensible online rants.

The North America-based civil rights group linked the use of several slurs charged with stereotypes against Hindus and “widespread use of imagery to associated Hinduism with dirt, filth and violence” to a 2022 Network Contagion Research Institute report. They also pointed out the “heavy overlap between those pushing anti-semitism and those targetting Hindus” in the follow-up tweet.

The long-running thread soon introduced the caste angle to the conversation. “Since #caste is quite deliberately taught as Hindu (starting with textbooks & dictionaries), the easiest and most common way to attack or smear Hindu individuals & ideas is to reduce them to their purported caste and tar them as different/oppressive – no matter the context.”

CoHNA’s address focussed more on the conversations around Usha Chilukuri’s religious heritage. They concluded their thread centred around proving the “existence of Hinduphobia” with the following tweets: “And while ALL #minorities face hate, we see there is a sliding scale. And yes – #Hinduism faces the worst end of it…

Even worse – #Hindus see academics, organizations and media use their institutional privilege to deny the existence of Hinduphobia, versus helping them.”

“This is why CoHNA exists-to call out and fight hate and #Hinduphobia. We will not shy away from asking for our space, for the right to be proud practicing Hindus – be it politics or schools, workplaces, and community spaces. @JDVance1

Dharmo Rakshati Rakshitah”

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JD Vance, though now a Trump cheerleader, was once his critic

On the flip side, the Ohio Senator was once a fervent critic of Trump despite his eventual change of heart. According to CNN, JD Vance liked a tweet that claimed Trump committed “serial sexual assault” or addressed him as “one of USA’s most hated, villainous, douchey celebs.” In other private messages in February 2016, he mulled over the idea that Trump was “America’s Hitler.” Later that year, he wrote in The Atlantic that the former president was “cultural heroin.” Thereafter, in 2017, he called the then-president a “moral disaster.”

Progressive activist and writer Qasim Rashid formed Vance’s supposed then-hatred for Trump as a possible result of the MAGA movement’s “racism and white supremacy.” “Since Donald Trump launched his political career on the racist birtherism attacks on President Obama, racism and white supremacy have defined the MAGA movement. That racism has had violent consequences.… Perhaps this is why JD Vance himself condemned Donald Trump when he said in a now-deleted tweet, ‘Trump makes people I care about afraid. Immigrants, Muslims, etc. Because of this I find him reprehensible. God wants better of us,’” Rashid wrote on Substack.

Brief timeline of JD Vance and his wife’s relationship

As for Vance’s relationship with his wife, he wrote in his 2016 memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” that they grew close to each other through a class assignment. He soon “fell hard” for his writing partner. “In a place that always seemed a little foreign, Usha’s presence made me feel at home,” he wrote.

Vance met Usha Chilukuri at Yale University, where they both studied law. The 38-year-old wife of the Republican VP pick is a Yale law graduate and trial lawyer. According to the AP News, she received her master of philosophy at Cambridge through the Gates Cambridge scholarship.

Chilukuri Vance was raised by Indian immigrants in San Diego. After graduating in 2013, she wed JD Vance the next year. They now live in Cincinnati. As of 2022, voter records show that she was a registered Republican in Ohio.