Jersey reported in 1991. These incidents were a severe blow to the Indian immigrant community and jarred it into taking serious political action. While the violence seemed to be aimed at the Hindu community, where the wearing of the Bindi is most common, it is believed that the Dotbusters' actions were based on racial grounds, aimed indiscriminately at Hindu immigrants. A Columbia University–based group called Indian Youth Against Racism (later simply Youth Against Racism) documented instances of violence against Indians in New Jersey and helped implement a series of educational programs on South Asian cultures for students and faculty at a Jersey City high school. The group also helped get a bill passed in the New Jersey Legislature that raised the mandatory penalties for "bias crimes." The gang's activities were spotlighted again in June 2010, when a column by Time magazine contributor Joel Stein titled "My Own Private India" made light of the use of a related epithet, "dot heads", in nearby Edison in the 1980s. (See Joel Stein#Controversial columns) The New Jersey-raised philosopher Falguni A. Sheth mentioned her mother's harassment by "Dotbusters", and subsequent indifference of the New Jersey State Police, in an interview with The New York Times. See also Anti-Hindu sentiment Anti-Indian sentiment Micheal Altman References Hinduism Today article, Jan. 1989 Asian Law Journal article, 2000 External links Jersey City Dot-Buster, The Pluralism Project Supreme Court to Mull New Jersey Hate Crime Law (reprint of a The Washington Post article on the Dotbusters gang's activities and a similar series of subsequent attacks in the Edison–Iselin area of New Jersey) Jersey Murder Trial Is Bias Issue for Indians Wall Street Journal More Furor Over Time's 'Edison, N.J.' 1987 crimes in the United States 1987 in New Jersey Anti-Indian sentiment in the United States Anti-Hindu sentiment Asian-American history Gangs in New Jersey History of Jersey City, New Jersey Indian-American history Racially motivated violence against Asian-Americans Street gangs Anti-Hindu violence in the United States