I'll never forget walking into my house after school on 9/11, not knowing much of what happened, and seeing my mother just crying, watch the TV coverage. My parents were devastated by the images. In retrospect, they knew how our lives as Arab Americans was about to change.

Both of my parents have described the anti-Arab sentiment they felt leaving the house everyday. They thought they were imagining it.

I was in middle school, and while I'm a light-skinned Arab, my last name was a dead-giveaway. I instantly became a bully target.

I remember kids asking me if I was a terrorist, if my family were terrorists, if I wore a turban, if I knew the terrorists, etc., basically things they'd hear from their parents at home.

It took me a while to be proud of my heritage. I had to suppress it to survive.

I say this all to say, this guy is an idiot: https://twitter.com/paulkrugman/status/1304385740063805440

A lot of people talk about American unity on 9/11. Today, for my family and many other American families with Arab names or brown skin, represents the day Americans united against us. I've only just recently felt open to talk about being Arab American. It still scares me.