When there are elections in the Vancouver area, you see people of all backgrounds and colors running for office. The same is decidedly not true in the US. How many election posters have you seen where the candidate is wearing a turban, or has a name that's difficult to pronounce for "native" Americans?
I've seen plenty of Chinese, Vietnamese, and Indians on posters in the Bay Area. (US representative for my district is Mike Honda) I have not seen many Arabs or Sikhs, but that may be more a function of population percentage and profession, than racism towards these groups, which exploded mostly after 9/11.
People who run for office are usually lawyers, and there is a definite ethnic divide in professions. Moreover, immigrants usually don't come to be lawyers, since being good at law requires a mastery of the language and the nuances of the local culture, and native born citizens have a natural advantage.
I can understand why the confusion may arise due to both groups wearing fabric-based head garments, but most (though not all) Sikhs are of Indian origin.
Their cultural connection is much stronger to South Asia than to the Arab world. Also, many Sikhs do not not wear turbans, so to you or anyone else, they would just appear to be "Indians".
I know the difference between Sikhs (religion) and Arabs (ethnicity), I only lumped them together because most Americans do not and the original poster mentioned "turbans", hence a number of violent attacks against Sikhs after 9/11 by rednecks who didn't understand the difference.
OK, I believe that you understand the difference, it just didn't seem that way in your original post.
I didn't remember that photo from the 08 election (or even see it in the first place). It makes the skull duggery of House of Cards seem every so slightly less fictional!
