I was on the B train today and heard a man yelling his ideas, so I decided to film him. I didn’t hide the fact that I was recording him, so he stopped yelling, but when I got up close he still had some things to say. I was wearing my new shirt that says “why be racist, sexist, homophobic, or transphobic, when you can just be quiet?” and he sure hated it. After screaming “I’m gonna hang Obama! Hang him for treason!”, “all those baby killers, saying it’s choice!”, and “haven’t you read the first amendment? I have free speech! You all need to read the constitution!”, he criticized me for name calling. I’m laughing and talking with another person on the train but I was terrified and shaking. I realized, when I got off the train that I should not have been so casual, because he could get angry and act out with violence, so I regret being so open about criticizing him, but at the same time, I wanted to do something to stand up against his hate. I’ve been hearing that we need to learn to “let guys down easy” when we break up with them, so that they don’t retaliate, but that takes away all of our power and autonomy if we can’t fight back. Not really sure if I did this right, I was so freaking scared and nervous, but I gotta use my white privilege to speak up, that’s why I wore this shirt in the first place.