What Uneaka Daniels experienced the last couple of times she was in the United States was enough to keep her away for a long time.
Bermuda-born and raised Daniels was in Atlanta in 2019 and decided to get her hair done. On her way to the salon, she stopped a man to ask for directions. Suddenly, everyone ducked. It was a drive-by.
“I could actually see the gun and see it being fired,” she told USA TODAY. “The people on the street acted…as if it didn’t happen, and I’m here trying to crouch behind a tree. I said, ‘You guys are not afraid of this,’ and he said, ‘It happens so often.’”
Her last visit to the U.S. was in 2023 for a medical procedure. While recuperating, Daniels went to the park across the street from her hotel “to get some sun” but felt uncomfortable by others, who she deemed sketchy or solicited her for money. “It was too much,” she said.
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For the past four years, she’s avoided travel to the U.S. “I love the United States, I love going there. I love the people, I loved everything about it, but I’m veering away now,” she said. “Not saying I won’t come back.”
Besides her experiences, Daniels has been turned off by the U.S. due to the rise of mass shootings – especially as a school teacher herself…
