Support Pours In For N.Y. Immigrant After Post-Election Harassment
Editor’s note: This story contains language that some may find objectionable.
As an immigrant, Tenzin Dorjee did everything he was supposed to do and more. Born in Bhutan, Dorjee is a naturalized U.S. citizen who has lived in upstate New York for nine years.
He runs a successful restaurant, as well as an arts festival, in the tiny town of Plattsburgh, near the U.S.-Canadian border.
Over the years, he has been singled out a few times — but nothing like what he experienced the day after the election.
“It was a couple of guys standing next to a couple of trucks. And that’s when they say, ‘Hey chink, get the F out of my country. Go back to where you came from.’ And I just smiled at them,” he says, sighing. “Then it happened again.”
In fact, in the past few weeks, he has been harassed repeatedly for being an immigrant, from racist slurs hurled his way to vandalism of his car.
Dorjee is a Buddhist. But the recent events shook him up so much that he considered buying a gun for protection, of himself and his family.
Then, his community rallied — powerfully and publicly — behind him.
A longer version of this story is available at North Country Public Radio.
