Real bigotry: woman arrested for a racist rant and assault in Plano, Texas

Esmeralda Upton
Image: Plano Police Department

Esmeralda Upton (pictured above) was recently arrested in the Dallas suburb of Plano for approaching several Asian women in a restaurant parking lot, yelling insults and threats at them and physically assaulting one of the women who decided to video-record the event on her smart phone. The assault apparently did not result in any injuries worthy of a mention but the fact that the assault took place at all, in combination with direct death threats, makes Ms Upton's crime rather serious and hopefully the justice system will treat it accordingly.

Based on what I know, most episodes of bigotry in the US don't go beyond episodes like this one. Thus the assumption that the recent wave of murders in the Muslim community in Albuquerque, while not completely unfounded, should not have been society's default assumption, in this author's opinion. That level of violence motivated by religious, ethnic or racial bigotry is rather rare.

References

Woman arrested after racist rant, assault in restaurant lot
Associated Press, 26 August 2022

Albuqueque gripped by a wave of anti-Muslim murders... or not?
@borepstein , 28 August 2022