The fears that were growing before Donald Trump shocked the world by winning the race to the White House, have begun manifesting and a prime example of the murky situation is the attack on Nicki Pancholy from California, whose ethnicity is Rajasthani but a mere bandana on her head was mistaken as a 'hijab' and provoked an attack.
NBC Bay area reported that Pancholy was saddened and scared when she came down from her "peace walk" on Monday afternoon to find a note on the hood of her car which read, "Hijab wearing b**** this is our nation now get the f*** out."
"When I saw it, I was in shock. That someone would feel so much hate to do this. I realize that this is the climate after this election. But I didn't realize someone would be so ignorant and in so much pain to cause so much harm," she said, adding that she was wearing a bandana over her head, not because she is religious, but because she is protecting her scalp from the sun because has lupus, an inflammatory autoimmune disease that can damage tissues and organs.
However, she has forgiven the miscreant for writing her that hate filled note.
"I forgive you. Please stop your self-hatred. In harming me, you are harming yourself," she said out loud to the author of the note.
Meanwhile, in less than two weeks since the transition into Trump's presidency began, over 700 "hateful harassment" attacks have been reported across the United States.
According to a report by the Southern Poverty Law Center, 701 such attacks have been reported in which immigrants, blacks, LGBT-people, Muslims and women were targeted.
"They've been everywhere -- in schools, in places of business like Walmart, on the street," SPLC President Richard Cohen said.
The civil rights advocacy group compiled its report by collecting direct submissions from its #ReportHate intake page, as well as through monitoring news articles and social media sites.
Anti-immigrant sentiment was at the top of the list with 206 reported attacks, while anti-woman and anti-Trump attacks remained at the bottom with 36 and 27 reported attacks respectively.
A total of 151 incidents targeted black people, 80 targeted LGBT-people, 51 targeted Muslims and 60 involved swastikas.
However, in a 60 Minutes interview on Sunday, Trump said he wasn't aware of all these hateful acts, but when he was told that they indeed exist, Trump turned to the camera and simply said, "Stop it."
