Poet Says He Was Arrested For 'Driving While Brown'
Erik Johnson
Headlines were made when Bollywood star Shahrukh Khan was stopped at Newark International Airport because, he was told, his name is similar to one on the U.S. government's terrorist watch list. Khan was detained for only a few hours, but the incident drew notice because Khan is one of India's biggest celebrities. But recently, Indian-American poet Ravi Shankar was stopped in Manhattan and ordered out of the car for a sobriety test.
Although Shankar passed the test, he was jailed anyway.
The writer talks about his experience and why he says he was racially profiled.
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