Holly -- thank you for being willing to be raw and vulnerable in this piece.

What you refer to as "individual racism" would be more accurately described as "social racism" or "interpersonal racism." And you're right -- it's much different from systemic racism faced by BIPOC. But it's still a variation of racism.

The politically-correct virtue-signalers will now proceed to lecture you that what you endured wasn't "racism"...it was merely "prejudice." I refuse to give their inanity or mental gymnastics an inch, here. Violence and harassment that wouldn't have happened to you **BUT FOR** the fact that you're a member of a different race than the perpetrator *IS*, definitively, racism. It's just social (or cultural), rather than systemic.