As the Boston atmosphere lit up post-election with pro-Trump rallies and anti-Trump protests all around the city, there have been a few stuck in the cross-fire of the rallies, myself included.
Incidents of hate crimes have come under media scrutiny since the election campaigns started and as unhappy as the millennials seem with Mr. Trump being our new president, his candidacy seems to incite a lot of controversial debates.
As a woman and an international student, I was scared of the repercussions of his win but one specific incident terrified me completely.
As I was walking back from the Boston University Mugar Library to my apartment on Beacon Street, two guys in a car eve-teased (as South Asian term for harassment) me. They were pretty drunk. The moment that they saw I was brown, they called me a "brown bitch."
They said, "Dude, fuck her. Who wants her brown pussy anyway?" and threw a beer bottle at me. I am relieved that I noticed them because I could jump backward and miss getting hit by the bottle. I ran to the next street, sat down on the pavement and tried to stop from crying.
I've never been more relieved that someone eve-teased me because that is the only way I noticed their presence and could duck before I was seriously injured.
I don't know if they were Trump supporters or not. Honestly, I don't care. All I know is that I am extremely shaken. It wouldn't be fair of me to assume their alliances since they didn't chant Trump's name as they tried assaulting me. But what I do want to point out is that our present environment has become so hostile that it's an open invitation for criminals to conduct hate crimes under the mask of election tension.
I am terrified of going out. I know I'm not the only one because I've heard several instances where my brown skinned friends have been threatened, told to "Go back to the farm they came from" or cussed at with statements like "This is our country now. We can do whatever we like and we will finally treat you the way you deserve to, like shit."
I was told that I'd be safe because Boston is one of the more modern cities in America. I've been here just three months and I feel more unwelcome and unsafe than ever. I got attacked in the middle of the street.
I don't know if I was singled out because I was a woman, if I was brown or if they were drunk. But I am afraid of the kind of world we live in, if I, as a free individual gets attacked in a so-called first world nation and it threatens my movement, with zero consequences to the perpetuator.
Our president can only affect our attitudes towards our fellow humans to a certain extent. As individuals, we make conscious decisions to act out in rage, aggression or out of pure love. I hope you choose love.