Scripps National Spelling Bee Draws Racially Charged Comments After Indian Americans Win Again

For the first time in more than 50 years, two young wordsmiths were declared co-champions of the Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday night. However, some on social media seemed more preoccupied with their heritage than their way with words.

Sriram Hathwar, 14, of Painted Post, N.Y., and Ansun Sujoe, 13, of Fort Worth, Tex., shared the win after almost exhausting the 25 designated words in the final round.

Both boys are Indian American. In fact, the past eight winners and 13 of the past 17 have been of Indian descent, a run that began in 1999, the Associated Press reported.

The fact was seemingly too much for some on social media — who tweeted, for example, “Where are our American kids?”

There’s more where those came from.

Sriram is from Painted Post, a village in Steuben County, N.Y. He’s an eighth-grader at Corning’s Alternative School for Math and Science. He was the only one with a perfect score from written tests and one of the few contestants who did not write out words on his hand or arm before spelling them. {snip}

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Ansun is from Euless, a suburb outside Fort Worth, where he is a student at Bethesda Christian School. He plays piano, guitar and bassoon. He likes chess, programming robots and volunteering in nursing homes. {snip}

Last year’s winner, Arvind Mahankali, was the sixth Indian American in a row to win the bee. And of this year’s 281 spellers, almost a quarter had names pointing to South Asian origins, Reuters reported. {snip}

“I don’t think there’s any secret or anything innate in Indian kids winning spelling bees. I don’t think there’s a spelling gene,” said Nupur Lala, who started the South Asian streak in 1999, according to Reuters. {snip}

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