58-year-old Gurpartap Singh, a Sikh cab driver, was killed Sunday after dropping off a fare in Richmond, California. [See previous report here.] The motive remains unclear:

"Police believe Gurpartap Singh was killed in the course of a robbery or attempted robbery."

But Valarie Kaur, a Sikh filmmaker based in Los Angeles, said that even if the motive for Singh's killing was robbery, the crime fits into a greater context of violence against Sikhs and other people of South Asian and Middle Eastern descent in post-Sept. 11 America.

"It becomes impossible and irresponsible not to consider hate as part of the motive," Kaur said.