Portland Hero Meets With Teenage Girl He Stood Up For

Fletcher was one of three people stabbed after confronting a man on a MAX train for verbally attacking Mangum, 16, and her 17-year-old-friend, who is Muslim and was wearing a hijab . Police arrested Jeremy Christian , who has ties to white supremacist groups, soon afterward.

Fletcher, a student at Portland State University, told USA Today on Tuesday that he’s still “healing” from the May 26 attack. “I got stabbed in the neck on my way to work, randomly, by a stranger I don’t know, for trying to just be a nice person,” he said.

On Wednesday, Fletcher released a video  on Facebook thanking supporters for an outpouring of kindness and money, but adding that there’s a problem that needs addressing. 

“We need to remember that this is about those little girls,” he said. “I want you to imagine that for a second being a little girl on that MAX. This man is screaming at you. His face is a pile of knives. His body is a gun. Everything about him is cocked, loaded and ready to kill you.”

He noted that there’s a “white savior complex” present in society that has placed all the focus on the three men who stood up to Christian, rather than addressing the daily, lived experience of racism and Islamophobia that young people like Destinee and her friend face.

In a statement during Christian’s court hearing on Tuesday, Fletcher said: “I want the Muslim community to know that they have a home here in Portland and are loved.”

The 21-year-old is also a poet and has written pieces about Islamophobia in the past. Oregon Live reported that Fletcher won a 2013 poetry competition  for two pieces of work: one that dealt with the blame rape victims face and another focused on the prejudice leveled at Muslims in America after the attacks on September 11, 2001 .