9/11 made me understand the anti-blackness of brown people. Because if you were black and made sure to dress a certain way and avoid associating with certain people, you were an afterthought to police and to violent racists. They'd still get you, but there was a new top priority. https://twitter.com/paulkrugman/status/1304386259494764546

I was dating a brown person at the time and it was wholly evident. Hijab-wearing women were being jeered in the street. He wanted to gather together a group of men to serve as escorts for them. I had to explain to him that while THEY would get jeers, HE'D get fists and knives.

All the bridges and tunnels slowed to a crawl as the police set up checkpoints. I started getting detained while with him. Because of him. Instead of him being a buffer for my blackness with police, he started drawing their attention by being brown.

I'm black. Christian. I stopped wearing head coverings for a while after a bad experience with a very stupid man who followed me for a block while giving me a hard stare. In New Brunswick, New Jersey. Right on Rutgers campus. Much easier to just go with the press and curl.

As a black person you knew the history of the region. Knew which towns were going to be a problem for you--Hi, Scotch Plains!--and which weren't--S'up, Plainfield? But there was no Green Book for this. You had to cross your fingers and try to look as "regular black" as possible.

And that's when it hit me that THAT'S what it was like for brown people pre-9/11 and what it is like post-Ferguson. To keep your head down and avoid looking like or associating with the "main target" so you can keep breathing that day. Stay in your neighborhood. Don't make waves.

"Daily behavior wasn't affected." GTFOH! The whole tri-state had Post Traumatic Stress Disorder! Everything changed. For everyone.