On October 2, 2006, I became a victim
of a hate crime. I never knew what a hate crime was. If you're not
a victim of a hate crime, you tend to distance yourself from it and
say, it can never happen to me and, you know, just happens to someone
else, not me; and unfortunately for the victim of a hate crime, unless
you get shot to death or stabbed, people tend to trivialize your
feelings.
On October 2, 2006, one of my employees sent me a very, very hurtful
letter at my office where she tended to say that...remember 9-11,
you and your kids we'll tie to the fence and you will die. So my
first reaction was to call the Police Department of the city which
I reside in, and they pretty much told me that if I wasn't shot
or dead, there's not much they can do for me.
I had to follow the system, because either I take matters in my
own hand and I do my own detective work which ultimately could
lead "me" to go to jail, or I reach out to what I then
perceived was the enemy, which was the Federal Bureau of Investigation,
so I had no choice but to turn to them, and the reason I say that
they are the enemy...it's not because they have harmed me or any
of my family personally, it's just because there, where I come
from, in our ethnic background, we see their equivalent in our
countries and where you go in you don't come out; and I said to
them please help me, please help me and my kids because we are
your citizens too, and I defied my family's morals; and you know,
my husband didn't want me to go public for fear of my losing my
life, literally, so I defied all that, and I had to do what I had
to do for my kids and I went to the Federal Bureau of Investigation,
and I used the system, and I can hold my head up high to my kids
today; and as you can see, I'm not handcuffed.
On October 2, 2006, I was a hate crime victim. I survived my hate
crime. The pain will still be with me for a long, long time; but
my healing process is that of reaching out to others and letting
them know they're not alone.
For more information on getting involved in either bettering your,
starting the level of combating hatred on the school level, on
the youth level, or getting involved in combating hatred in Community
Outreach Programs, please call your local FBI office.
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