Never make assumptions about the lives of people you don't know. My name is Hagarla Osman and I'm a young Black woman of Somali descent living in the City of Ottawa, Ontario. On September 13, 2013, I turned twenty two. I study accounting at Carleton University and hope to work in finance or banking someday. As a pious, Hijab-wearing East African Muslim female immigrant in the Capital region of Canada, I'm used to people judging me before getting to know me. I'm more than I seem. I'm a university student, a community volunteer, an aspiring businesswoman and also an out and proud bisexual woman. I just wish they'd remember that I'm a human being first and foremost, and that there's more to me than my gender, my religion and all facets of me which mark me as the cultural other.
The other day, while walking through the Rideau Shopping Center, I was accosted by a middle-aged white woman who told me to go back where I came from. I told the old bitch to get out of my face lest she get smacked. You should have seen the look on her face, seriously. People always assume that Hijab-wearing Muslim chicks like me are soft and sweet. As if! The defiance in my eyes startled the old bat and she walked away, stunned. The old days are over, lady. People like me don't bow to people like you anymore. Get used to it.
Beat it bitch, I told her. Briefly she turned and looked at me, bit her lip and then she walked away for good. I stood there, hands on my hips, feeling pretty good. Then I walked away with a profound sense of satisfaction. When you're a person of color, it always feels good to stand up to racist white people who think the world belongs to them. It's the twenty-first century yet they're still walking around with that sense of entitlement. Ha! God didn't make the African, the Arab or the various other races of men inferior to the White man. So get over yourselves already, Team Europa!
