'This is America' hurled at reporter, her powerful response

Television journalist Nydia Han

By Louis ChanASAM NEWS

"THIS IS AMERICA."

Those words have different meaning when used in different contexts.

By itself, its an affirmation in our pride of being called American.

Used in another context, it can also be considered racist.

That’s what Nydia Han, a longtime reporter at ABC6 in Philadelphia encountered.

She was crossing the street on a green light when she says a car making a left turn just missed hitting her by a matter of inches.

“Did you not see me?, Han asked.

“I had the right of way,” Han recalled the woman saying.

The two argued the nuances of traffic laws. As the woman sped away, she yelled out “This is America.”

Han’s heartfelt response to those three words on Facebook live has been viewed almost 1.3 million times in three days. You can watch her response below.

WATCH Nydia Han's powerful response to 'This is America.

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“Yes, this is America. Born and raised and I know America,” Han eloquently said on Facebook. “You have the audacity to yell at me ‘this is America.’ Are you kidding me? You see this face and you think this face belongs to an outsider or a foreigner? And let me tell you something, I have two kids. They have this same face, especially my daughter who’s a carbon copy of me. If you see her on the street, and if you say anything to her to suggest that she is an interloper or an outsider, or a trespasser or someone who does not belong in this country, I challenge you to think again. Did you think this face would not stand up to you, stand up against ignorance. Well, you were wrong.

“I am Asian American. I am strong. I am proud and I am speaking out against you today. Do not ever ever see a face like this and make a mistake that it does not belong.”

The post has 37,000 likes and 21,000 thousand shares.

If I could, I would add one billion more likes.

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Sign of the times: Making America White, again

KOB SCREEN CAPTURE

This sign was posted in a New Mexico business.

OMINOUS SIGNS are starting to appear.

On the last day of 2016, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, urged a New Mexico business to remove an anti-Muslim and anti-President Obama sign.

A convenience store in Mayhill, N.M., has a notice posted on its door reportedly stating, "Obama & other Muslims Not welcome here." The hate sign has also been sold to customers. Last year, an image stating "Kill Obama" was reportedly posted in one of the store’s windows.

“While everyone has the First Amendment right to free speech – even offensive speech – we urge the store’s owner to remove the sign in the interest of common decency and of our nation’s unity at a time of increasing divisions,” said CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper.

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CAIR’s national headquarters in Washington, D.C., has noted an unprecedented spike in hate incidents targeting Muslims and other minority groups since the Nov. 8 election.

The sign is reminiscent of earlier times in U.S. history when businesses would bar people of color from their premises. 

When Donald Trump began using the phrase, "Make America great again," for his campaign, many of his supporters interpreted that to mean the time in the U.S. when whites were guaranteed social, business and educational privileges and status by virtue of the color of their skin.

By inference and by practice, that meant people of color were not worthy of those same "entitlements " that were accorded to white residents of the United States.

We thought that the U.S. had progressed beyond the blatant racism of those signs. believed they were remnants of the past. We can't say for sure whether the business owner voted for Donald Trump, but white supremacists have been emboldened by his victory. Is this the new normal? This is 2017, after all. 

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