As some students and I walked into class and sat down in our seats, we noticed that our new teacher was on the phone, and was talking quietly in the corner. And when he did see us, walked outside and shut the door; we could hear the person he was talking to on the phone, but could not understand the foreign language. A couple of minutes later, he came inside and introduced himself.

"My name is Mr. Roberts, and welcome to Columbus Middle School, which I might add, is one of the best schools in all of South Carolina! So consider yourselves lucky!" he stated, while the rest of us 6th graders stared at him unenthusiastically. "Now, I'm going to take attendance, and when I call your name, please raise your hand," he said. "Billy", then to the right of me, a boy raised his hand, acknowledged Mr. Roberts, and lowered his hand; I noticed he had been wearing a bracelet with a burning cross on it, and this immediately made me uncomfortable.

"Nadia" he then called, and a girl wearing a navy blue hijab raised her hand, and when seeing her, Mr. Roberts paused. "Where are you from Nadia?" he asked, to which she responded "I was born here, but my parents are from Iraq", and as if he anticipated it, he replied, "then I think you're in the wrong classroom. You should be in Mrs. Toronto's room next door". He then had her pack up her things, and walked her to Mrs. Toronto's classroom, which was right next door; Billy smirked as he saw her leave. After coming back he continued, and stated the name "Amal", and another girl wearing a hijab raised her hand. After explaining that her family was from Saudi Arabia, he continued on naming other names, until Billy interrupted him.

"Why does Amal get to stay but Nadia had to leave? They both look the same to me" he said. "No we're not the same, so excuse you" Amal replied, and as the two children began to get further and further into an argument, Mr. Roberts just stared at them both, and watched. It finally got to the point where Billy pushed Amal, and she in retaliation slapped him, and finally seeing this, Mr. Roberts took both kids outside. And only after a couple of minutes, brought Billy back in, and sat in his original seat. "They both started it" Mr. Roberts said, and shrugged his shoulders.

Mr. Roberts then continued reading off the names, "Emilio" he called out, and the boy in front of me raised his hand. Emilio responded by saying to Mr. Roberts "Nicaragua" when asked where he was from, and in reaction, Mr. Roberts proceeded to speak slower as he asked Emilio questions regarding his citizenship status. And despite Emilio saying "Columbus", and Mr. Roberts leaving him alone, Billy again started an argument, not only demanding the boy to speak English but also asserting that he was not a real American. Again, Mr. Roberts continued to watch how Emilio was insulted by Billy, and after a while, spoke to someone on the school phone, and escorted Emilio outside of the classroom. Billy smirked while we all saw people who had "ICE" on the back of their uniforms take Emilio into questioning.

Mr. Roberts again resumed calling names of people in the classroom and finally called out mine. "Timothy" I heard, and immediately raised my hand, and then thrust it down quickly. I had raised my hand in a rush because I didn't want to get noticed in the class, especially by Billy and Clarice, her father was a policeman. Luckily, Mr. Roberts then started teaching math, "today class, we are going to be focusing on Geometry. Now, can I have a volunteer please write the formula for the Pythagorean Theorem on the board?". Billy and I both raised our hands, and very swiftly, Mr. Roberts gave Billy the marker.

After Billy wrote his version of the formula on the board, Mr. Roberts, noticing the error asked for another volunteer to correct it, "Timothy" he said after seeing my hand raised. And without flinching, I took the marker and corrected Billy's mistake, which for some reason caused applause in the classroom. "That's my African American," Mr. Roberts said, and when I looked at him in shock, he replied, "I didn't say anything". Billy in reaction to all of this looked embarrassed because of his mistake.

However, it only got worse as I sat back down since Billy looked at me in a strange way. After class ended, and I was packing up my things, he grabbed me by the arm, saying "Hey, because of what you did back there, my friends and I might pay you a little visit tonight. Or we might just leave a little something on your lawn". After hearing this and remembering the burning cross on his bracelet, I ran out of class and sprinted home. As soon as I told my mother and father this, they brought out old and dusty pre-packed suitcases, and pressured us to pack quickly, yelling "we must leave before night falls!". It was 6:30 pm, Monday, September 1st, 2017 when I left South Carolina and moved up north to New York; "at least they prosecute hate crimes up there" my mother said.

For Further Reading

2017: The Year in Hate and Extremism

Hate Crimes Against Latinos Increase In California

Hate on the Rise After Trump's ElectionMuslim Group Says Donald Trump To Blame For Rise In Hate Crimes For Second Year Running