Being targeted for the colour of your skin and/or your disability is wrong and it happens all the time. It’s easy to ignore because people look the other way.

I have experienced different types of hate crime. Because of the colour of my skin and disability.

‘I’m not heard, it hurts’

I used to work, but was treated differently.

I was never chosen for the interesting tasks at work. They used to say “she’s not right in the head”. So I don’t work now. I feel like I’m left out, not valued as a person. I’m not heard, it hurts.

I don’t spend as much time on social media.

I don’t do Facebook anymore. When I post things I get trolls. Friends used to get upset with me. I don’t know how to stop it so I don’t post now.

‘I stopped trusting people’

A few years ago, I became friends with four people. This group used to visit my house, I used to give them food, drinks, even money. When I wanted to see them they were always too busy. If I asked for something like milk, they said they couldn’t afford it.

One time, they wouldn’t leave my house and were taking money. I got them to leave eventually. That’s when I stopped trusting people. I felt like my heart was being stabbed. It hurt so much. I used to be outgoing and socialise. Now this has happened, I struggle to talk to people.

Even though it happened so long ago it still affects me. I don’t want to go out because I don’t trust people.

My experience of hate crime

It’s really difficult to talk about it. It brings up a lot of memories. I have an image in my head of what happened and I can’t get rid of it. It’s easier to think about it as a story because it creates distance between me and what happened.

I didn’t want to report it to the police.

I didn’t think the police would believe me. I thought they would think there are worse things going on out there. They wouldn’t take me seriously. I don’t trust the police to do the right thing.

If this happened again, I would keep it to myself. I don’t like bringing negative things to people’s lives. I might tell Jane, my support worker. It would take time to process what had happened.

I don’t want to go back to that situation. I learned a valuable lesson – not to be as trusting as it can bite you.

I want to use my experience to raise awareness of disability hate crime. It’s wrong and shouldn’t happen. People need to be kinder.

We’re campaigning to stamp out disability hate crime and improve support for people like Amanda.

Will you join us?

Making a donation to United Response will help us to:

  • Raise awareness of disability hate crime
  • Support people with disabilities to report when they have been a victim of a hate crime
  • Continue to campaign for the government to protect victims and increase measures to tackle hate crime
Donate here