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The man who survived a brutal triple-stabbing last week on a Portland MAX train today posted a video on Facebook asking Portlanders to re-direct their generosity toward the two teenagers of color who were initially targeted in an anti-Muslim rant.
Micah Fletcher, a 21-year-old poet, was released from the hospital on Monday, three days after the stabbing. This morning, he posted a Facebook video thanking people for their financial support but saying the focus on donations and attention should be on the teenagers he was trying to protect.
The teenagers, one of whom was wearing a hijab, drew a bilious anti-Muslim rant from Jeremy Joseph Christian, according to multiple witnesses and a court affidavit.
"Yes, two men died," Fletcher says. "Yes, I was injured. Yes, yes of course we need to support all three of us. But we need to remember this is about those little girls.
"There is a fundraiser in their name, I'm going to link it in the description below," he continued. "I need you, if you really want to support me, to like this to share it or whatever and spread this like wildfire. Because these people need to be reminded that this is about them, that they are the real victims here as well."
Related: Family and friends tell the stories of the men who gave their lives on the MAX.
Fletcher described Portland as having a "white savior complex" that kept attention on the three men who intervened, and not on the teenage girls.
One of the teenagers, 16-year-old Destinee Mangum, has publicly issued thanks to Fletcher and the two men killed for coming to her aid. "They lost their lives because of me and my friend, and the way we looked," she said. "I just want to say thank you to them and their family, and that I appreciate them. Without them, we probably would be dead right now."
Related: Portlanders arrive by the thousands for vigil in wake of MAX slayings.
Fletcher's new video was reported by multiple outlets earlier today.
It comes in the context of heated online infighting about the priorities of crowdfunding campaigns in the wake of the May 26 slayings.
Social and racial justice activists have argued that not enough money and attention was going to the two teenagers initially targeted by Jeremy Joseph Christian, the white supremacist suspected in the attacks.
Portlanders have donated more than $1.2 million to campaigns to aid the families of the two men killed, pay Fletcher's medical costs, and pay for counseling and alternate forms of transportation for the teenage girls. About $51,000 of those proceeds are specifically dedicated to the teenagers.
Fletcher says that's skewed.
"I think it's immensely, immensely morally wrong and irresponsible how much money we have gotten," he says, "as opposed to how much support, money, love, kindness that has been given to that little girl."
Here is the full text of Fletcher's video.