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Bassel Hamieh had just finished a chemistry exam on the Oregon Health & Science University campus on Aug. 21 and was sitting with a friend when a woman hit his car. She didn't stop and pulled into a nearby parking garage.
Hamieh followed her and knocked on her window to ask for her driver's license and insurance card. Instead, she answered by denying she hit his Chevy Trax, questioning why he wanted her information, and hurling racist insults at him.
He posted a video of the interaction of Facebook.
"It's time for all my friends to know that yes, I live a good life," he says, "but every day I have to deal with this racism. And I'm innocent. I haven't done anything wrong."
In the video, the woman tells Hamieh he has a "huge accent" and says she doesn't believe he's from Portland.
"You don't look like a Portland guy," she says in the video. "You were not born here. You have a huge accent. I have an American accent. I've been all over the world my own self. Don't you go there with me."
Hamieh, who is Lebanese-American, says he was born in Portland. His family moved to Lebanon for eleven years when he was a young child, but moved back to the U.S. in 2006. The 23-year-old man has lived in the city for more than half his life.
In the video, he repeatedly asks for the woman's insurance card, which she refused to provide until a police officer intervened.
"All I'm asking you to do is show me your insurance card and ID so that I can take a picture of it," Hamieh says. "You hit somebody's car. You have to do this."
When the woman asked for Hamieh's name, she scoffed.
"I knew it," she says. "I know where you're from."
She told Hamieh he was from the Middle East. He asked what was wrong with that.
"What do you think?" she says. "Some of you are terrorists."
"You're crazy," Hamieh says. "You brought my race into this? What does my race have to do with this whole situation? You hit my car. Period. Don't bring race into this."
Hamieh posted the video on his Facebook page with a message for his friends to see the racism he faces in his everyday life. He says he was beat up in elementary school, called names by his teachers, and even had co-workers who spewed hate speech about Arab people in front of him.
He says he does not want people to attack the woman in the video, but instead recognize and confront racism in their own lives.
"[Posting the video] was not about hurting her or exposing her," he says. "It was about reminding people that innocent people like me have to deal with racist stuff like this all the time."
His friend, Remanda Xiang, says she watched in disbelief as the woman denied hitting the car and yelled at Hamieh. She says she got upset, but Hamieh stayed calm despite the insults.
"He has a very kind heart," she says. "I am very proud of the way he handled it."