The curse of brown

In all the years I've lived in the US, I've never had to deal with racism in any form. I've attributed that to a variety of reasons. The (metropolitan) cities I've lived in, the way I speak, the way I look(?), the way I dress. All of that came to naught the other day. I guess I always knew at some level that with the current political climate and the "everything goes in the name of security" attitude it wouldn't be long before I would have to personally deal with this issue. However, that didn't in any way prepare me for the little incident that occurred.

I speak hindi and gujarati in public all the time (on the phone). Have never gotten grief for it and have never thought twice about it. Except this one time. I was at a Blockbuster walking around trying to find something good to watch on a Friday night. As is my wont, I was on the phone chatting with a friend asking him for suggestions on what I should rent. I'd passed the "Action" movies aisle a couple of times and I realized that this redneck assh*le was mumbling something under his breath and making these weird noises (literally - "puk, puk, puk") every time I passed him and I thought I heard the word "foreigner". My mind didn't register what was going on for a minute. When it did, I literally froze in my tracks. Went back to the guy and confronted him. Asked him if he was talking to me. Expected him to kind of back off and deny the whole thing. No way! The moron tells me "you people" can't talk in public like that! I can't describe in words the sheer and utter *rage* that filled every part of my being. I literally started trembling. And of course I didn't let him get away with it. Cussed him out, called him a f*cking racist and stood a foot away from him, stared him in the eyes and continued talking in Gujarati. Not a very mature way of handling it? Maybe.
I was just scared at that moment. Terrified in fact. Terrified of the fact that I might lose control and physically assault him.

This wasn't even a major incident. This wasn't profiling. This wasn't someone suspecting I'm a terrorist bent on blowing up some building. This was just some narrow minded asshole being a jerk. But it puts front and center the issue of being Brown in this country post 9/11. How humiliating and enraging must it be to be seperated from a crowd or to be treated differently just because of the way you look, as happened to Dr. Bob Rajcoomar a US citizen and Lt. Colonel in the US army.