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Apparently, some folks think minorities being told to "go back home" isn't racist. That our being here is a result of their magnanimity and not a result of our rights. Lemme see if I can help you out.
Being second generation (American-born/raised children of immigrant parents) might be compared to living with one parent. You have two parents - their DNA, culture, history, baggage, idiosyncrasies are passed on to you in differing degrees - but you live mostly with one.
You might divide your time equally with both parents. Or you might live and die without seeing one of the parents. Or you might live mostly with one parent, but visit the other parent in the summer/holidays. They're still both your parents.
The decision was already made for you to live with one parent or the other. That doesn't make the parent you don't live with less relevant to your own sense of self and identity. You can't choose one or the other bc they both equally contributed to your DNA.
Though many 2nd gen Americans of European immigrants have faced xenophobia (I grew up in SW suburban Chicago & most of the white kids I knew were the kids of Polish, [former] Yugoslav, Albanian, & Greek immigrants) - "go back home" is most often leveled at POC.
Many white Americans believe (unconsciously or not) that the normative American is white and POC simply existing on this land - much less critiquing it's policies - means that POC have a secret loyalty to somewhere else that supersedes loyalty to the US. washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/…
It's true that lots of 2nd gen Americans have dual citizenships/nationality - often through no efforts of our own. Many countries *including this one* confer automatic citizenship to children of their citizens. It's normal, not a nefarious 5th column plot to destroy the country.
I've been talking about 2nd gen Americans, but do you know who also gets told to "go back home?" African Americans and Native Americans.
"Go back home" is racist because it explicitly says this country is not home to POC who are perpetual "guests" allowed to live here based on the good will of the homeowners. Unlike 2nd gen kids of European immigrants, our "otherness" is visible. It's the only thing racists see.
You can be told to "go back home" for reasons ranging from critiquing govt policies to driving too slowly. Racists don't understand and refuse to believe that they are not and never were America's homeowners - that they have no right to tell anyone to go anywhere.
Racists deny that America is the legitimate & often only home of Black & Native Americans and 2nd gen POC Americans. They deny we have equal rights here, including the right to critique it. They deny that America - the good, the bad, the ugly - is in our DNA as it is in theirs.
Racists deny the reality of Walt Whitman's words, "I am large; I contain multitudes," and the motto of the US "E Pluribus Unum" out of many, one. They are gravely & wilfully misunderstanding the promise of America.
