00:00And finally, graduation is a major milestone meant to be lauded and celebrated, but instead, in this particular instance, it opened the floodgates to hate.
00:11When NYU engineering students proudly shared their new jobs at tech giants like Google and Amazon, you'd think people would have cheered these bright young minds on.
00:20But instead, what these graduates got were ugly, hate-filled pushback.
00:26Here's a look at how a moment of joy became a lightning rod for hate.
00:30What was meant to be a heartwarming celebration of student success has instead sparked a troubling wave of online racism.
00:40A video shared by New York University's Tandon School of Engineering, showcasing proud graduates revealing their job offers at major tech firms, was met with a barrage of hateful comments on social media.
00:53Continue to be a professor here.
00:55The video, filmed during graduation, showed an interviewer asking students about their post-college plans.
01:02Where are you going?
01:03Many graduates happily announced positions at global giants like Google, Amazon and IBM.
01:10At IBM.
01:11These roles were nothing less than symbols of their hard work and academic dedication.
01:16One student revealed that she would soon start working for Google, while another spoke about his new position at Amazon's Seattle office.
01:26I just joined Amazon in Seattle, and I'm going to be working there from next month onwards.
01:31Then there were others who secured opportunities in firms like IBM and AWS.
01:36At IBM.
01:36AWS.
01:37Another student expressed deep excitement about his role in a robotics company in Minnesota.
01:43A robotics company in Minnesota.
01:44But instead of applause, the clip triggered xenophobic remarks online.
01:49Viewers, drawing assumptions from the students' accents and appearances, fixated on their perceived South Asian or Chinese heritage.
01:57The comments section on Instagram and posts on X were flooded with slurs, mocking their names, ethnicities, suggesting that foreigners were taking coveted American tech jobs.
02:09In this sea of hateful comments, there were some who credited the students.
02:14Some users quickly jumped to defend the students.
02:18One user stated that the students worked hard for this.
02:21Another pointed out the excitement in their eyes, while there were others who wished the students good luck.
02:27The backlash reflects a growing climate of anti-immigrant sentiment in the United States of America.
02:33This is particularly aimed at South Asians, amid debates over the H-1B visa program.
02:40As per reports, Indians alone account for nearly 70% of the 85,000 H-1B visas issued annually.
02:49While the program is intended to fill critical skill shortages, critics often portray it as a threat to American workers.
02:57Sentiments that clearly spilled into the comments on the NYU video.
03:02What makes this incident particularly disheartening is that the nationalities of the students were never revealed.
03:10The focus was meant to be on their achievements, landing jobs at some of the world's most competitive firms.
03:17Yet their accomplishments were overshadowed by prejudice, reducing years of academic effort into fodder for racial attacks.
03:25The success of the NYU graduates should have been celebrated as a testament to perseverance, skill and global competitiveness.
03:35Instead, it became a reminder of the persistent challenges immigrants and minorities face, even in moments of triumph.
03:42As the tech industry continues to thrive on diversity and international talent, the backlash against these students highlights a pressing question.
03:52Will society allow merit to shine through or will prejudice continue to cloud genuine achievement?
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