I am one of those people that believe that these islamophia attacks in the UK are very minimal. I tell my mother these things will not happen to me, because the probability is very low. I tell my mother that she should have more faith in the people. Of course, as a woc I am already taught and programmed to be very cautions in certain situations, times of the day and areas I should avoid walking in. Nevertheless, I have never been afraid of doing what I want and go where ever I want. However, today I experienced the effect these attacks I see on the news, read on the social media had on me subconsciously. It was the end of the school day and I was picking up my 2 baby brothers along with a family friends daughter. We left the school a little bit later than everyone because I need to talk with one of the teachers., this meant that the streets around the school will be empty and less crowded. It didn't faze me, I had no worries at all. So I walking down the street with three primary school aged children and with parked on either side of the empty street. We were laughing and talking about their and my day. Ahead of us one of those small truck was parked and a white young man standing close to the wall opposite the truck. At this point I was still calm and participating in the conversion with the children. However, the closer we got the more I noticed he was holding something in his had. Closer and I noticed it was a large screwdriver the size of his forearm. The span of 5 seconds, i forgot what I was saying to the children and all I could image was him harming the children in one way or another with the screwdriver. I held one of the children's hand in one hand and the other two in my other hand. I pushed them towards the road in between the parking cars and told them to cross the street. After crossing the street I looked back at the man and saw him just standing around looking at his phone. Lucky for us, nothing noteworthy happened and we all got home safe. Now sitting here and writing these post, there a number of ideas, thoughts and questions that popping up in my head. The main question to me is why I reacted the way I did. Was it because I genuinely found the screwdriver terrifying, but this doesn't explain my above average irrational fear. What was it? One conclusion I came up with is the fact that I was 100% and unapologetically influenced by all these things I have read and seen. I judged an individual for the islamophia attacks of others that looked similar, i.e. white, young males. I, who worked hard, telling people "all Muslims are not terrorists" or "black males are harmless". I am somewhat disappointed in myself, but I cannot deny the fact that I still think I did the best thing, bacause there is a chance he might have done something horrible. I, who cried one time, because I lady discriminated me being a Muslim and wearing the hijab, judged someone else because of their appearance. I know it is an insignificant experience for other, but it had me think and evaluating myself the past few hours now as it was the first time in my adult life I have done something like this. Unfortunately, I had the chance of being in the shoes of others who misjudge and discriminate against others.
kaledo-art
prguitarman
gummygunk
ellievsbear
jacobvanloon
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turnnoffyourmind
