This Amazing Boy Will Give Hope to Anyone Who Thinks Islamophobia is Wrong

In a world so crowded by negativity — intolerance, violence, racism, and corruption — it is rare that stories emerge defying these standards. But a young man named Dominic Giamo has done just that, offering hope in a scene otherwise marred by awkward prejudice.

ABC’s show “What Would You Do” conducted an experiment in which an actress and a Muslim actor sat on a sidewalk asking people who passed by to help them fix a flat tire. The experiment was designed to explore peoples’ biases, and particularly, to examine the extent to which Islamophobia still persists in America. Indeed, while many people stopped to help the young American women change her tire, the Muslim man confronted something very different: over 50 people walked by without even stopping to offer help. One man admitted, “If it was a young lady, I might offer help,” but he felt the young man was capable of doing it himself.

The implication, of course, is that because the man wearing a traditional Muslim kufi is clearly Muslim, people were unwilling to help him. But, then something amazing happens.A teenage man named Dominic Giamo comes to the Muslim man's aid , noticing the man's situation from across the street.

While helping to fix the tire, the Muslim man tells the teenager, "I thought no one was going to help me because I'm Muslim." Here's how the teen responded: "“We don’t understand [Islam]. We’re gonna call you crazy, we’re gonna call you a terrorist ‘cause it’s easier for us at the end of the day to blame it on you. But that’s not true, bro, not true at all.”

Giamo continued to opposition to discrimination, whether it be religion or race, and that says people should not seek scapegoats for their issues. When offered money for his help, Giamo refused and insisted that “I accept love.”

He adorns a tattoo on his arm that symbolizes the act of turning negativity into positivity, and he certainly did so when offering help while others were afraid.