"Go back to Africa!" These words have been spit in my face. I even observed these words written on signs shown on television and directed at President Barack Obama. Send her back! Send her back! Send her back! These words were shouted en masse at a Trump rally. I was frightened in the deepest core of my being. I was frightened for these four women. I was frightened for people of color. I was frightened for this country.
Using these words is a longstanding tactic designed to stop people from speaking up and speaking out and fighting oppression. I imagine that Native Americans may have shouted out to the early White settlers to go back to Europe, but they initially welcomed them. These White settlers could not tell Native Americans to "go back or you can leave" because Native Americans were here first. But they could take their land and impose genocide. And they did take the land and wiped out millions of Native Americans. It takes a special kind of arrogance to be descendants of immigrants and yet insist that others go back to where they came from. There have been 44 presidents prior to now, but none have said such things so openly and so brazenly as Donald J. Trump. This is virulent White supremacy at the highest level of government.
Some Whites have said to African Americans, "Go back to Africa!" Some of our African ancestors have been here since 1619, some 400 years. Africans were violently ripped from the African continent by Europeans and brought to America against their will. Now some shout, "Go back to Africa!" This is White supremacy at its lowest level.
The early colonial settlers did not like the way they were being treated by the Royal British government. When the settlers complained, I imagine that the British may have said, "If you don’t like it here, you can leave." The settlers did not leave. Instead, they had a tea party, declared their independence, and forged the American Revolution.
After the American Revolution, only a few land-owning Whites could vote. (Catholics and Jews were excluded in spite of being White). White men who could not vote must have complained. They did not leave; they fought to expand the voting franchise. I am certain in my own mind that someone said, "If you don’t like the way things are, you can leave." Eventually, all White men, little by little, were included in the voting franchise. These men did not leave; they struggled and fought and changed things.
American women did not have the right to vote. Some marched and protested. No one told them, "If you don’t like the way things are, you can leave" because these were their wives and daughters and relatives. But they did tell them to shut up and to be quiet and to sit down. It took 132 years for women to secure the right to vote in these United States of America. These women did not leave; they spoke up and spoke out and changed things.
"If you don’t like it here, you can go back to Africa." These words were hurled at me personally more than once. I could not vote. I could not defend myself or my family. I could not get the better jobs. I was segregated in school and in life. We were subjected to lynchings and other forms of domestic terrorism. I was oppressed in every regard, and some shouted, "Go back to Africa!" We did not stop speaking up and speaking out and protesting. We did not go back to Africa. We changed things.
Now, 400 years after the first enslaved people of African descent arrived on these shores, we have four women with African heritage in the United States Congress being told by the President of the United States, if you don’t like it here, you can leave. We have crowds shouting at a Trump rally in North Carolina to "send her back, send her back, send her back". In other words, you are female so you must shut up. You have some African blood, so you must sit down. Your ancestors came from another so country, so you must go back. You have the wrong religion, so you must go. You have no rights to speak up. You have no right to join together. You have no right that White men are bound to respect, just as the Supreme Court ruled in the Dred Scott decision in 1857.
I hereby call the names of these women: Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, born in the Bronx, New York; Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, born in Somalia, migrated to the United States as a child and became a citizen years ago; Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, born in Chicago; and Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, born in Detroit, Michigan. These women are Americans. These women will not leave. These women will fight and change things.
One would think that because two of Donald J. Trump’s three wives are immigrants, he would appreciate immigrants. Melanija Knavs was born in Novo Mesto, Slovenia. Ivana Maria Zelnickovla was born in Zlin, Czechia. I wonder if American women born in the United States are not quite good enough for Trump to marry?
The President of the United States is wrapping gender, race, religion, and place of birth into one broadside attack on anyone who disagrees with him. These four women are also outspoken, a great sin for women in the eyes of some. Now all four are being hit again and again by one gigantic sledgehammer wielded by the most powerful person in the world – President Donald J. Trump. We must stand with these women. We must stand for these women. We must stand for our children. We must stand for ourselves. We must stand for our lives. We must stand and stand and stand.
EPILOGUE – There are too many people of color to go back. That leaves only one ultimate alternative to make America White. We should all be frightened.
No comments:
Post a Comment