Woman's Facebook Post on Hate Speech Incident on City Bus Goes Viral

A Chicago woman said she was the target of hate-filled speech on a city bus, and her Facebook post about the incident has since gone viral.

Sharareh Drury said she was on a CTA bus leaving work in the South Loop when the 27-year-old noticed a man in a suit and tie.

“He seemed like a guy I would work with or a regular business man from Chicago,” Drury said.

However, the man began yelling and gesturing toward Drury.

“I tried to ignore it but I noticed he started pointing at me and doing a point like, hey you, you need to get off,” said.

Drury - who is Iranian-American - was wearing a scarf around her head to keep warm. She said the man yelled racist insults at her for five minutes, though she asked him to leave her alone.

“He spit at the ground at me and said that's what I think of you,” Drury said. “He said you don't belong in this country. You’re not American.”

Drury says she stood up for herself, and the bus driver finally kicked the man off.

“When I got home, it started to really affect me,” Drury said. “Not so much what he did but no one, no one really did anything to help me.”

Drury expressed her feelings about her experience on Facebook, a post that has since gone viral with well-wishers giving her the support her fellow bus riders didn't.

WARNING: The Facebook post contains graphic language

 
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Today. On a crowded bus. On Michigan Avenue. On my way home from a great job in a city in a diverse country that I was...

Posted by Sharareh Delara Drury on Monday, 7 December 2015

Many in Drury’s family are Muslim and though she herself does not practice Islam, she says too many people face such blatant racism.

“I'm American. I was born here,” Drury said. “But even if I wasn’t it shouldn’t matter because you don’t treat people like that.”

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