By Mandy Day
AsAmNews Staff Writer
A Muslim woman at San Diego State University is accosted, verbally abused, and has her car stolen by Trump supporters. An Asian American friend picks their child up early from school because the relentless bullying by children who support Donald Trump’s views on people of color became too much. Countless people posted about being harassed in the street by Trump supporters shouting at them to “go back to China”. An Asian American woman is assaulted by a Trump fan and is handcuffed by police for trying to fight off her attacker. A gay man is severely beaten by bigoted men, his blood covered face goes viral on social media, all because a hateful demagogue has spent nearly eighteen months encouraging such discrimination and violence. This is Trump’s America.
I was so young the first time I encountered racism, I don’t remember if I could read yet, and I was much too young to understand it. I had learned from my mother that people don’t push you around if you don’t let them. From Montessori School until now, I’ve become an uncompromising debater, someone who never backs down. Part of me thinks much about the racism others experienced as children. I escaped because of my dominating personality which I inherited from my Japanese immigrant grandmother and my White American military veteran grandfather. But this personality that protected me from falling victim to much of the abuse others experienced, didn’t shield me from seeing it. From the newly immigrated Asian kids in elementary school, to the children of Latino farmworkers, to the two or three black kids in my entire school, I witnessed what cruelty they endured. Sometimes, I stayed silent out of fear of alienating White friends I had. For that, I will always regret that I put my own interests above the well-being of others.
We now have a country deeply divided. Calls for unity fall on deaf ears when you fall into one of the groups that has been subjected to such hate by a presidential candidate for the last year-and-a-half. The only unity I personally will call for is that of marginalized groups and their allies to band together to fight the venom that has been unleashed on our country. The victory of Donald Trump validated the suppressed hate of millions of people, and it is open season on anyone who is not White, male, or Christian.
With that, I have decided to begin documenting cases of hate crimes being committed against Asian American and Muslim American people. Journalists like Shaun King at the New York Daily News have been posting on social media about current events. King has become the go-to journalist for reporting civil rights violations. He has published hundreds of stories about people of color and police brutality, as well as racism in the United States. People seek him out on such a level that his Twitter page has become inundated with story after story of abuse, harassment, and assault. In the early morning hours of November 10th, King posted that he had woken up to hundreds of emails from people about the harassment and hate speech they had been subjected to. Organizations like CAIR (Council on American Islamic Relations) and SPLC (Southern Poverty Law Center) are also compiling lists of hate crimes. There are multiple accounts on Instagram and Twitter as well documenting the violence. Some of these accounts of harassment and violence have not been verified by AsAmNews. If you or someone you know is a victim, please contact the above people and organizations, even if you do not feel safe going to police. We appreciate the help of our readers in alerting us to incidents by posting on our Facebook page. notifying us on Twitter or emailing us at [email protected]
Here are a few cases I have come across or been sent in the last twenty-four hours:
- A Muslim woman was accosted at San Diego State University by men talking about President-elect Trump and Muslims in the United States. They went through her backpack and purse. The men took her keys and the woman contacted police. By the time police had arrived, her car was gone. This crime is being investigated by San Diego State Police Department as a hate crime and car theft. Anyone with information has been asked to call the police department at (619) 594-1991.
- Chris Yun was harassed in a 7-Eleven in Simi Valley, California by a group of White men. When an employee intervened, the men began to call him Bin Laden and threatened to come back and burn him on a cross.
- Maha Abdul Gawad claims a woman tried to rip off her hijab while she was shopping at WalMart. Claiming that headscarves were no longer allowed in the United States, she then proceeded to tell the woman to hang herself with it. WalMart is investigating the incident.
- Tani Ikeda was sprayed with a garden hose while walking through her neighborhood in Venice Beach, California. She and another person of color were forced to cross the street.
- In York, Pennsylvania at York Technical High School, students yelled “White power” and yelled slurs at ethnic minorities including Asian students. One student posted on social media that a Black student’s car tire had been slashed.
- Mariam Nomair, a student at El Camino High School in Woodland Hills, California claims she was attacked twice at school the day after the election.
- A University of New Mexico student says a fellow student wearing a Trump shirt tried to rip off her hijab in a campus library while accusing her of being a terrorist.
- Another college student, this time at San Jose State claims a White man pulled on her hijab in a campus parking garage causing her to choke. She did not suffer serious injury and campus police are investigating it as a hate crime.
Again, please alert us through our Facebook page, Twitter account or by emailing us at [email protected] to any incidents so that we may document it.
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Blog: Hate in Trump’s America: Please also make sure the events happened before you write stories as there will be lots of real as well as fake or exaggerated reports in the days to come.
RE: Hate in Trump’s America:President Trump will definitely make a great chance for the US. Enough is enough, Washington won't be lead by corporation anymore