A woman died today after surviving a beating by an unknown assassin with a tire iron. A despicable and tragic story itself but a few more details make it even more troubling. The woman was Muslim and her attacker left a note saying, "go back to your country, you terrorist." After the fervor of 9/11 anti-Islamic feelings were cemented in the American bigot circle and clearly are still festering. Shaima Alawadi was a mother of five and was not a terrorist and she did not deserve to die. The top notch investigators for the case say "a hate crime is one of the possibilities, and we will be looking at that”. Wow, a possibility? Is America so scared of using that term? The note proves the motive for this beating and subsequent death, how much more glaringly obvious proof does one need? This comes at the same time the disturbing story of the death of 17 year old Trayvon Martin who was killed for no reason and except he was wearing a hoodie. He was black and racism has been permeating the coverage of this case. However, the case of Alawadi is pure bigotry, a confessed sense of hurting someone because of where they come from or their religion. While it is not a contest, this story should drum up as much controversy as the death of Martin and hopefully with these two stories in the spotlight, post-racial America can revisit the racial past we supposedly left behind 4 years ago.