White Supremacy in America: Lessons From My Attacker

This past week marked the 8th anniversary of my attacker’s execution. Ironically perhaps, this past week we witnessed the Commander in Chief’s vitriolic racist attacks of fellow elected officials garnering security concerns for the lives he has put at risk. I often tell others that I work to make peace with my pain every day, but unimaginable days like we continue to see from the President of the United States makes it exceedingly difficult, to say the least. Photo Credit: MARK MIRKO | mmirko@courant.com Before pulling the trigger, my attacker asked, “Where are you from?” My brown skin not welcomed in his “white” America. Though narrowly escaping with my life, I still carry more than three dozen bullet fragments in my face and skull and am blind in one eye, these just the physical reminders of America’s racism and intolerance towards me and “my kind” immediately following 9/11. Devastatingly, it seems I’m not welcomed in Trump’s America either. And while he puts elected officials’ lives in danger, he also puts mine, and so many others like me, in jeopardy too. In addition to my sight, my attacker took from me my sense of safety and security. Nearly nineteen years since my… Read More

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