"What is that?” the girl who walked past my table asks as she points to my lunch. I respond, with confusion, and ask her what she had meant. She continues to point at the food in the container and then covers her nose. The scent of my lunch filled the noses of those within a radius of six feet around...

I was on my way home from my first ever rally protesting anti-Asian hate crimes in the US after six people of Asian descent were shot and killed in the Atlanta spa shooting in March. I had just posted a picture I took from the rally of me holding up my sign that read "I am not a virus". Only four minutes...