If the woman had a family member who had died in a terrorist attack by Muslim individuals, that doesn’t suddenly give her the right to discriminate against Muslim men. If the white man had previously been mugged by a black man, that does not give him the right to be racist. To argue otherwise is to condone hate.

Here’s the thing, though— if she were on an airplane with a Muslim man, and were scared, would her (irrational) fear still be condoned? What if it were a white male in the elevator with a black male? Would his fear by acceptable? Irrational fear, while perhaps understandable/relatable, is irrational, and shouldn’t be…