suzanne barakat

[san fran]

intro’d to Suzanne via her tedxwomen 2016 – Islamophobia killed my brother. Let’s end the hate.

On February 10, 2015, Suzanne Barakat’s brother Deah, her sister-in-law Yusor and Yusor’s sister Razan were murdered by their neighbor in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The perpetrator’s story, that he killed them over a traffic dispute, went unquestioned by the media and police until Barakat spoke out at a press conference, calling the murders what they really were: hate crimes. As she reflects on how she and her family reclaimed control of their narrative, Barakat calls on us to speak up when we witness hateful bigotry and express our allyship with those who face discrimination.

i’m hopeful.. you will join me in standing up against hate..

how free he was in his happiness

executed in a place that was meant to be safe

i guess we’d all become so numb to the hatred.. to imagine it turning into fatal violence

parking dispute had become the go to sound bite

i am what i am because of you.. i cannot let my families death be silent.. they were murdered by their neighbor because of hate

roles reversed – a terrorist attack.. when white men do it.. lone wolves, mentally ill, or driven by a parking dispute

he did for us what we could not do for ourselves.. press statement with anderson cooper.. allowing us to reclaim the narrative and call attention to the mainstreaming of anti muslim hatred… these days seems islamophobia is an acceptable form of bigotry..

it is no coincidence that hate crimes rise in cycles with election cycles..

the least we can do is call it what it is.. a hate crime.. because violence/hatred don’t happen in a vacuum..

yet again – i have to speak up for myself..

she says.. i should know better.. i’m mexican american.. i experience this all the time..

we witness something wrong and don’t speak up.. maybe not aware..

stepping right into conflict..

mlk: in the end.. we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends..

part of an us.. instead of another

when we raise our collective voices.. that is when we stop the hate..