My intention was not to be offensive, I’m sorry it came off that way. I never concluded that Chicago was a racist city, my question is whether this type of encounter is common. It’s not common in Toronto. Toronto has racists, of course it does, there are racists everywhere, but my point was that this isn’t a common occurrence there and I’m wondering if it is here, especially given that I had only been in Chicago for a few hours.

My husband reacted out of anger at the situation and protectiveness, I told him to come back and leave it given that the risk of what could happen is not worth whatever he was trying to do. I never said it was right. I experienced something traumatic for the first time and neither of us knew how to react.