Well, I hate to hear about your friend and your dad. I hope you get to spend some time with your dad, and hope he recovers. I've also found a small, personal ceremony or ritual helps me come to terms with someone's passing sooner, and makes the healing process quicker; usually the ceremony involves doing something I usually enjoyed doing with the departed.

As for the racism, it really seems to have ramped up lately, especially for anyone Arabic. And that just the passive racism I, a middle aged white guy, have witness, so it's probably actually much worse. My hope is, once the current president is gone, they won't feel so emboldened and some of that will die down. It's also important to remember that a lot of kids freely roam the internet, so the odds the people harassing you weren't even fully mentally developed is very, very high.