I have empathy for him and wish his life was better. I'd like to believe that with greater headspace, that person would have different beliefs.

I should add that it was pretty clear to me that the person who said these hateful things was probably not in great health, mentally or physically. This country has likely failed him in many ways large and small.

I'm sharing in part because of having come across @veenadubal.bsky.social's post from earlier this week and feeling like so many of these tiny things go untold. Sometimes I'm told being Asian American is to be "white-adjacent." Sure didn't feel like that this morning.

bsky.app/profile/veen...

This was really a microaggression for me, did not really affect me at all, very normal/expected in big city living (and I live on one of the major pedestrian throughfares in the city). But having my son hear it was pretty sad for me. I wonder if it's the first time he heard anything like that.

Within earshot within my house was my 10-year-old (Asian American) son, who immediately turned around and asked me "What was that?"

To which I replied: "That was . . . a racist, xenophobic person." (And later followed up by explaining xenophobia to him.)

Behind me happened to be two other Asian women, perhaps speaking a non-English language (though I wasn't really listening so am not sure).

The person walked past all of us, following up with "God, speak English!"

Fiancee now I thought?