After taking a chemistry exam, honour student Bassel Hamieh was waiting to be picked up by his friend in a car park when a woman collided with their vehicle, leaving scratches on the left side of the car. She tried to keep driving, but Hamieh managed to get out and stop her, hoping to share insurance information, unfortunately, her response wasn't particularly helpful.
Hamieh, 23, filmed the incident and shared it on social media.
Not only did the woman ignore his request for her details, but she repeatedly claimed that he wasn't from America, despite the fact that he was born there, in Portland, Oregon. And when he asked her not to bring race into the conversation, she went on to make fun of his name and accent, and tell him "some of you are terrorists".
"At first, I didn't think this was going to be an issue at all," he told The Oregonian. "I explain that she hit my car, show her the damage, get her information and we both move on with our lives." However, he began filming after he worried she would claim the incident didn't happen in the future.
While Hamieh's video went on for three or so minutes, the full encounter apparently lasted for close to ten minutes. You can see the part he filmed in the video below:
The incident reminded him, he described, of racism he had faced in the past, including being beaten up at school and when a high school teacher told him he would 'grow up to be a terrorist' in front of his classmates. Speaking to The Oregonian, he said:
"She made the wrong decision to speak to me the way she did, but the issue is a systemic one.
"I ultimately decided to post the video to show that people like me have to deal with this kind of hate all the time for no reason other than we exist."
The woman eventually handed her details, once an Oregon Health and Science University public safety officer intervened. Hamieh hopes that she doesn't face any backlash for what happened, but hopes that she can learn from her mistakes. "It's all about what she said and the fact that people seem to feel more and more comfortable saying these things every day," he said.
