Over the weekend of March 12 and 13 a Muslim student at Wichita State stated that he and a Latino friend were attacked by an individual who said racial slurs and shouted, “Trump, Trump, Trump.” These incidents were caught on videotape by the gas station.
The Kwik Shop where Usame and his friend were attacked
The Muslim student is Khondoker Usama, who is also the student body vice president at Wichita State. The incident occurred in a Kwik Shop near campus. Usama and the Latino student were refilling a vehicle with gas. According to various news articles, the offender was heard calling a black person by some racial epithets.
The offender then began to direct his words to Usama and his friend. Some of the language that was said was, “Brown trash, go home. Trump will win.”
The offender said, “You want to live in this country, you better leave.”
Usama’s friend responded, “This is my country. Who are you to tell me that?”
After these exchange of words the interaction between the two men rose in high tensions very quickly. Usama tried to intervene; however, he was pushed away by the offender. In an article it is said that Usama believed to see the offender reach into his pocket and out of fear of a weapon being used, he began to call 911.
The Latino friend and the offender got into the altercation in which the Latino friend was brought to the ground and was kicked over and over again. Usame said, “…it was a gut-wrenching scene.”
When the offender realized that Usama was calling the police, he got on his motorcycle and left while chanting, “Trump, Trump, Trump. We will make America great again. You losers will be thrown out of the wall.”
The police report stated that the Latino friend suffered a bruised lip.
Usama has stated that he believes it is a hate crime that was committed against him and his friend. He said, “When you start a conversation with someone calling out ‘brown trash,’ there is no other motivation I see other than a hate crime.”
Usama also talked about the importance for minorities to speak up during these times in which many violent situations have come up for minorities, which are then backed up with the idea of Trump and his campaign. It cannot be rebuked that Donald Trump has made various comments degrading people in this country. He was recently criticized by opponents due to the reasoning that his words are inciting the violence that is happening. Trump believes he has every right to speak his mind and has blamed the supporter of the democratic candidate Bernie Sanders for the violence.
Usama speaking after the incident
Usama and his friend’s incident is not a one-mystery occurrence. There is a pattern of violence that is happening in the U.S. Usama also said that he is traumatized and feels humiliated by the event.
I would say yes, there is a pattern occurring, and it seems the candidate for presidency is making people believe that hate crimes, racial epithets and violence is okay.
Sources and photographs for this story can be found here.