Have you ever wondered what a Donald Trump rally looks like on the inside, but didn’t want to go because, well, every account so far is completely terrifying? Now, we have some perspective for you from a South Asian-American person who wanted to send a message.

Shahjehan Khan, guitarist for the all-Desi incendiary punk band The Kominas, offered Colorlines a statement soon after a January 4 Trump rally he and others protested in his hometown of Lowell, Mass. His frank statement highlights the ways in which people of color protesting Trump’s events are made to fear for their safety, even as they simply exercise their First Amendment rights. The fact that Khan is a South Asian-American man in a band that espouses critical views of Islamophobia makes his testimony distinct from numerous others that have become public since Trump hit the national political stage.

With his permission, we’ve included segments of Khan’s statement (edited for readability) below:

It’s funny. Even though I have known for years now about how racist and segregated Boston/Massachusetts actually is, I suppose that I still have this notion that I am safe here, that I can hide away safely from the ignorance in the world if I choose to. I have spent the better part of a decade in Lowell, MA, the birthplace of the industrial revolution, a hub of Southeast Asian immigration, and also where The Kominas wrote and recorded our first songs and played our first shows. I recently completed my Masters at UMASS Lowell in Community Social Psychology, which emphasizes social justice and action as one of its pillars, so I felt that I had to raise my voice along with my classmates and what I thought was the majority opinion around here. After tonight, I have to say that the terrorists won. I am afraid to even leave my house.