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We come bearing not such great news...

Two days ago, Jordan and I were walking back from a COVID testing center in New York City when we saw a white man yelling extremely racist things at a Black bus driver who was parked at the bus stop. I pulled out my phone to film this encounter since it is important journalistically to document the state of our racist country from coast to coast.

The man lasered on me filming him and before I could process it, he lunged at me, forcefully grabbing my phone. As he began to run away, he threw my phone halfway across the street. As I ran after it, he picked it back up and I fell face forward into the boiling hot NYC street. 

Wind knocked out of me, I was disoriented and in a panic. Jordan and a woman helped me up, and Jordan took off running after the racist man. 3-4 other gentlemen ran with him to try to apprehend the criminal. 

He'd had a head start and somehow slipped away- we think into the subway terminal. The woman who was helping me, a Black woman, guided me toward where Jordan now was, about a block away. She told me not to worry about people like that and repeatedly made sure I was okay. She started to walk away when I was back with Jordan, but returned to give me a hug before leaving. 

Jordan called the cops, who responded quickly. We, as white people, were treated extremely well. They had me input my Apple account login info and were able to triangulate my phone (now smashed entirely and in two pieces), and therefore the racist, criminal white man. We positively identified him and were taken to the police precinct to give our statements. 

One striking moment was when we were waiting for the detective and a Black police officer who'd been part of the team walked over to us and thanked me for our "brave act" in filming and confronting this racist guy. It's not about me, and it wasn't that brave, but it meant a lot to me as he recognized the racism coming from this man that he's dealt with his entire life. 

I'm very shaken up, but grateful nothing worse happened. My phone is absolutely destroyed (for the 2nd time this year, due to journalism). All I could think about was if the video I'd been shooting of the racist man was saved to my iCloud before I was attacked-- it wasn't.

After having 7 separate viewers recommend we immediately take the phone to Rossman in NYC, Jordan and I did exactly that yesterday. We were quoted $450-600 for them to try to recover the video and decided to go for it as we feel the video is an important part of our journalistic mission. We'll see if they can retrieve the video in 1-6 weeks, we were told.

This is the part where we ask for your help. We've already been dealing with a financial hit due to COVID-19 and a significant loss of memberships and financial support. Coming off of a reporting road trip, we certainly weren't expecting the cost of a new iPhone for me (again, for the second time this year) and the cost of data recovery for a video we desperately want to save. On top of this, we unfortunately are awaiting a hefty bill for going over our LIVEU data—our plan is for 25 GB per month at $250; for the DNC Convention/Chicago/Flint reporting trip, we used up 56 GB (yes, we are looking into upgrading our data plan although it is very expensive for us on top of other costs).

If you're able to help us with these costs at any amount, it would be deeply appreciated. You can use this link to contribute: https://www.powr.io/stripe-button/i/24931358#page.

Also, WATCH OUR NEW PROMO VIDEO; an amazing recap of our COVID Depression reporting trip from a few weeks ago—edited by an amazingly talented Status Coup viewer Doug Kryskalla.

Thanks for all the warm emails and comments checking if I was OK. Your concern means the world to me. 

-Jenn
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