Our lives will all the time be value quite a lot of thousand {dollars}.
On Jan. 23, 2023, Jaahnavi Kandula was crossing the road when she was brutally struck by a police cruiser going 74 miles per hour. Kandula’s physique was thrown 138 ft, including her to an inventory of victims of mindless violence by police officers in america.
Kandula, who was crossing the road at a marked crosswalk, was hit by Seattle police officer Kevin Dave who was responding to a “precedence 1” emergency when he hit an unassuming pedestrian.
It’s troublesome to consider that we aren’t listening to this story till 9 months later, however that’s the way it goes. It’s only now, in September, that we’re seeing the physique cam footage from the incident come to gentle. Not solely is the footage painful to listen to, it’s extremely revealing.
The bodycam footage from Officer Daniel Auderer reveals his response to her dying dated Jan. 24, a day after Kandula’s dying. He’s heard laughing, saying, “It’s only a common particular person” and the scholar’s life had “restricted worth.” Auderer goes on to say that they need to “simply write a examine … 11,000 {dollars}” to account for her dying. Auderer is the vp of the Seattle Police Officers Guild.
Jaahnavi Kandula was a 23-year-old graduate pupil at Northeastern College’s Seattle campus raised by a single mom in Andhra Pradesh, India. She was as a consequence of graduate in three months with a masters in data methods.
In a demographic evaluation, Kandula and I aren’t any totally different. I’m a 21-year-old Indian worldwide pupil pursuing a graduate diploma at a good American college in order to additional my profession and have entry to an training that I’ll not have had in India or in Dubai, the place I grew up surrounded by an Indian neighborhood.
There have been 948,519 worldwide college students finding out in america within the 2021-’22 tutorial yr – lots of whom are from India and China. For many of us, shifting overseas is rarely straightforward – financially or mentally. Whereas I can acknowledge the privilege to maneuver the world over to pursue my ardour, worldwide college students go away their households and communities of their late teenagers and early 20s to pursue the “American Dream,” no matter that stands for in 2023.
My grasp’s program is majorly Indian and Chinese language worldwide college students pursuing a grasp’s of sciences to get a STEM OPT—a work-permit that permits us to spend three years working post-grad so long as we’re in a position to be employed inside 90 days of commencement. For the humanities, nonetheless, that interval is just one yr. That is earlier than we’re tasked with the lengthy and gruelling technique of making use of for a visa, normally an H1-B, which is a lottery. Not solely is that this indicative of the bias in the direction of STEM that’s obvious within the American training system and employment market, additionally it is extremely tumultuous floor to face upon.
College students like myself spend years growing neighborhood in cities midway the world over from our hometowns, solely to have that future stolen from beneath us by being requested to depart. I’ve had numerous household and associates miss the H1-B lottery, being pressured to maneuver again house or pursue training in a distinct international nation. Certainly one of my greatest associates was lately pressured to return house after 5 years in Los Angeles the place they spent years cultivating neighborhood, producing artwork, and dealing in training.
Our lives will all the time be value quite a lot of thousand {dollars}. I doubt Officer Auderer is aware of that the quantity he acknowledged would barely cowl tuition at a college like Northeastern (or USC, for me)—not to mention the worth of a lady who sought to do extra for herself and her household.
I strive to not complain about it too loudly, I don’t wish to sound ungrateful. I might by no means be capable to write the tales I do or study the content material I talk about if I hadn’t had the chance to attend my groundbreaking personal analysis college. I cry over associates pressured to depart the nation, mourn the lack of neighborhood from house and cringe at the price of 17-hour flights. However I’m right here. And I can solely hope to do every little thing proper so I get to remain.
I want Jaahnavi Kandula had had that selection to remain. I want her legacy hadn’t been laughed at. I want we have been all extra offended. I hope we’re. I actually am.
Relaxation in energy, Jaahnavi Kandula.
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