The Bay Area is incredibly diverse and the national divide exposed by the presidential election is hitting home.
There have been at least two reported hate crime incidents on local college campuses. One student said Monday she does not plan to stop wearing her head scarf but she also says she’s taking precautions to make sure she’s more aware of her surroundings.
UC Berkeley Junior Asma Ahmed says since Donald Trump was elected president she walks around campus with only one ear bud in.
“Cause I don’t feel safe anymore. I don’t feel I can walk around being who I am and be accepted as I am,” said UC Berkeley junior Asma Ahmed.
The executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) San Francisco Bay Area Office says Ahmed’s fears are founded.
“In Berkeley, a student was targeted by a couple of men who walked by threatening to pull off her head scarf, taunting her that Donald Trump had been elected, said Zahra Billoo, executive director of Bay Area CAIR.
At San Jose State University, another student told ABC7 News that last week someone pulled her head scarf off in a campus garage.
“When he did it choked me,” said San Jose State student Esra Altun.
“I think what we’re experiencing is almost a whole avalanche of these Islamaphobic incidents on a national level,” said UC Berkeley professor Hatem Bazian.
