Volunteers are accompanying Muslim commuters afraid of hate crimes under a Trump presidency

Stephanie Keith/Reuters

For two days in a row after Trump's win on November 8, a Muslim college student, wearing her hijab, experienced verbal and physical threats while she rode the New York City subway to class.

She felt so unsafe during her commute that she approached Kayla Santosuosso, the deputy director of the Arab American Association of New York (AAANY), for help. The student asked Santosuosso if she knew anyone who would be willing to escort her on the subway.

Around midnight on Thursday, Santosuosso created a simple Google Doc form, asking for volunteers to assist the woman and others who feel uncomfortable riding the subway or bus alone. The AAANY would then match them.

In less than four days, over 6,350 people have volunteered for the project, called "Yes, I'll accompany my neighbor," after Santosuosso posted it on Facebook. "That number goes up every three to five seconds when I refresh the form," she tells Business Insider.

Pictured below, the form asks volunteers to enter their contact info, their train and bus stops, and at what times they commute. On Friday, a volunteer started driving the Muslim student to class.
Stephanie Keith/Reuters

"This is an incredible amount of people who are ready to put themselves on the line and take risks to accompany people," Santosuosso says. "It's a clear reflection that people feel personally responsible for the election results, and want to show up and support those who are most vulnerable right now."

Santosuosso is now working on a similar system for people who want to request accompaniment. A Google Doc won't work for that, because it isn't secure enough for undocumented immigrants who would need to enter their information, she says. 

Stephanie Keith/Reuters

Across the US, Muslim-Americans — as well as other people of color, LGBT folks, and women — have reported an increase in hate crimes since Trump started campaigning for president. "We've seen a steady increase in aggression and harassment since the start of Trump's campaign," Santosuosso says. "When Trump started touting racist and Islamophobic rhetoric as a part of his campaign, we saw uptick."

After Trump's win, the Southern Poverty Law Center  asked people to send instances of hate crimes. The Center released a report on Friday that quantified the results.

There have been over 200 reports of "hateful intimidation and harassment" since Election Day. Harassment against Black individuals and immigrants were the most common, which you can see in the graph below. The "Trump" category includes incidents where no clear group was targeted (e.g. the pro-Trump vandalism of a "unity" sign in Connecticut).

Stephanie Keith/Reuters

When BI spoke with Santosuosso on Sunday night, she said her team spent the past 48 hours strategizing the best way to use the list of volunteers — even beyond subway accompaniment.

The outpouring of volunteer support "provides more opportunities to do more longterm organizing," she says. "We need to shift this to a hyperlocal level and build up networks," who would work to lower harassment in their own neighborhoods.

Stephanie Keith/Reuters

One idea, Santosuosso says, is to teach volunteers how to de-escalate harassment if they see it happening. The AAANY could also set up a program where trained volunteers visit local schools and talk about how to combat racism in the classroom (where a number of hate crimes have occurred in the past week).

"Everybody has a lot of energy right now to disrupt these acts of aggression," Santosuosso says. "What kind of movement could we build with 6,000 people in New York City?"

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