Those are the words of a Palestinian woman who was punched while walking with her infant child in Malden, MA, just north of Boston on Wednesday. Julianne Hing worries it will only get worse:
Many Arabs, Middle Easterners, Muslims, South Asians, and those confused for any of the above have been bracing themselves for the discriminatory response since the bombing happened.
Indeed, immediately after the race police questioned a Saudi student who was at the race. He’d been hospitalized with injuries he sustained during the attack, but very quickly, media set upon the student, announcing him as “the Saudi suspect.” Boston police later confirmed that the student was only a witness, not a suspect, but only after they searched his apartment for five hours and carted out bags of his belongings. On Tuesday, an airplane leaving Boston’s Logan Airport was grounded this week after passengers reported that two men were speaking Arabic on the plane, Boston’s Fox 25 reported.
We have been here before. Fueled by a hysterical demagoguery which has saturated the political climate, Islamophobic hate crimes have been a defining feature of life for South Asian, Arab, Middle Eastern and Muslim communities since Sept. 11.
(Photo of the assaulted Palestinian woman with family via Chris Caesar)
The Dish 