It was a normal afternoon, the sun was out, I was in my favorite pair of jeans and I was having a great day around campus. My friend had texted me asking me if I wanted to go to Chipotle for lunch. I happily agreed to go. I thought to myself, "I'm having a good day, I'll treat myself." So I got into the car with him and off I was to go to Chipotle.
Upon arrival, we had noticed that the line was lengthier than usual. It was warm in the restaurant, and we spent about 45 minutes in line. My friend's cousin had decided to join us after getting out from a meeting with his teacher. As most people do, he walked up to us in line and stood with us while we waited to order our food. We were two people away before ordering when someone had made a comment about the line behind us. My friend's cousin had turned to see what the commotion was when the person behind us said, "Oh, so you heard that?" to his face. Confused and shocked, he asked what the problem was. The man replied, "you cut me and all of these people in line, so you're going to get behind me."
My friend's cousin then replied with, "I'm here with my friends, it's not that big of a deal." The guy behind us was not having it. He began to get upset. Our friend did not move from where he was and the guy had made a nasty remark in reply.
" F*****g Jew." the man spewed out of his mouth. We chose to ignore the rude comment. He had chosen to attack our friend's heritage because he proudly wore it through a shirt he had worn that day.
Not even seconds after, he says it again.
" F*****g Jew!" But only louder. This was when we began to get concerned. I felt my muscles tense up, and my breathing increased in space. I had entered panic mode. The guy was becoming aggressive even when we chose to ignore him. Our friend mutters how this man was being a jerk, and this was when things only escalated more.
The guy had grabbed our friend's arm, with an aggressive tone, he said "Oh, do we have a problem here?" And that's when my other friend had stepped in and told the guy to back off. The guy began to say derogatory words at us.
"So you're going to defend your boyfriend now? He's just a p***y." the guy shouted at us.
We quickly had ordered but had to wait behind because our meat was not readily available to be put in our food. The guy then passes us with his order and pays. He looks back at us and says, "Isn't it funny how things worked out?"
Our friend who had been insulted had said to him that he had no respect and he continued to say hurtful and hateful terms to us. Without any help from the police officer standing not even 20 feet away from the entire altercation.
I had been frozen the entire time out of fear. We were seconds from being physically hurt or even worse. I was shaken up, we all were. We had experienced something that no one should ever have to experience. We left the Chipotle in order to collect ourselves and move on from what had happened to our group as a whole.
