Last week, I wrote my first poem in about five years expressing my feelings about the results of the 2016 presidential election. The evening prior, as I was standing outside my assigned precinct to volunteer for Democratic candidate for Michigan's 15th district, Abdullah Hammoud for the last time (read about my experience volunteering for him over the summer here), someone drove by chanting "TRUMP! TRUMP! TRUMP! TRUMP!" My heart sank momentarily, but I tried to have faith in Hillary.

That next morning, after finding out that Donald Trump did, in fact, take the White House, I took to social media, reading of all the instances of racism and hate crimes that were already happening. Some even in my hometown of Dearborn, a place that I thought was the safest place for Muslims. I was reading stories of a white woman calling a black woman, "black bitch," and a Muslim woman standing up for her, a friend in hijab going to a gas station and being called a terrorist by a man in a truck, a group of Muslim girls being forced to pull over by an angry couple and having a gun pulled out on them, and my aunt almost getting into a car accident because a man looked over to her and saw her with her scarf on.

I wept for many things that morning. The likely loss of progression made by President Obama in the last eight years, the promises Trump made on his platform, and most of all, I wept for this absurd spike in hate crimes. I wept for my mom, for my friends in their headscarves, for my male friends who are outstandingly tan and hairy (sorry, guys), and for every other minority. My mind continuously drifts to my middle school and high school history lessons and I feel pain in my heart and a sickness in my stomach. I think of the Jews being rounded up and put into concentration camps, and I think of the Japanese who here forced into internment camps in this very country. I know there are protests and I know there is promises of resisting but I'm still scared.

I wish I could say the fear that was instilled in me on November 9th has completely subsided, but I cannot. I am not worried about a Muslim registry (because that is completely unconstitutional, and I sincerely doubt that not even a Republican legislative branch would pass something or overturn the first amendment of the Bill of Rights). But I am worried about people who voted for Donald Trump solely because of their own white supremacy. Right when I thought things had the potential of getting better, I came across these posts on Twitter.

This is a letter sent to a woman in hijab, essentially saying that Islamic practices (i.e. wearing a scarf) will "no longer be tolerated" and she must stop wearing it or "go back to your Godforsaken land."

This is a post that came from a well-known blog, Humans of New York, in which photographer Brandon Stanton takes pictures of people he meets throughout his life and gets their stories or opinions on current issues. This particular woman "doesn't want to sound racist" but then says that she fears "Muslims taking over the country."

What I want to know is, at what point did we stop being human beings? At what point did my life and the lives of my fellow Muslim brothers and sisters (and those of Hispanic descent and black men and women and members of the LGBTQ community) be considered significantly less than that of everyone else? At what point is the first clause of the first amendment of the Constitution of the United States become exclusive to anyone who isn't Christian or Atheist (because, let's face it, atheism is much more widely accepted than Islam)? At what point do people forget that this is country of immigrants and indigenous people make up such a small percentage of the national population? And this woman has the nerve to say "they're taking over our country and they want control?" That is fear of losing white supremacy at its finest and I am sickened and disgusted at the human race. This "Neighborhood Town Watch" has the audacity to address a woman as "Terrorist-Bitch" and directly threaten her as if they are not terrorizing her, themselves? The word terrorism is defined as "the use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims." That sounds a lot like what Muslims are facing, not what Muslims are doing to other people.

I am a human being. I am an American citizen. My entire family are American citizens. We have every single right to practice our religion and live in this country as every other U.S. citizen. We. Are. Not. Terrorists. And I refuse to be a victim to this phenomena called counter-terrorism. I refuse to stand by and watch people of other races fall victim to this either. I refuse to be afraid in the only country I've ever called home.

This is grotesque behavior. This is disheartening. And, above all, this must end.