Soc. 3251W Race, Class, and Gender

The “go back to your country� is a phrase I was told many times. Speaking from a new immigrant’s perspective, I believe that immigrants are accused of not fully integrating into the American “culture� (although there is no such thing as one “American culture“). Sometimes, when my friends and I speak our native tongue in a public place, one person or another says something like “this is America, speak English.� Most of these comments my friends and I receive are coming from strangers who are curious of what language we are speaking and who act like they are joking with us when they say that. By speaking their own language, forming ethnic enclaves, and keeping in touch with their roots, immigrant communities are seen as not wanting to let go of their past and join the melting pot.

In one of my previous classes, the professor asked the class what the image of an “American� looks like. I remember sharing the class with the concept of a country video I’ve seen that morning. Although I can’t remember it clearly, I think the song was patriotic and talking about America’s past. The song was picturizzzed in a corn field, where the singer, a white male, talks about “our fathers;� then we are shown images of an old generation white males who fought in wars such as the Revolutionary war and WWII. The song also includes “our future� in which blond haired boy and girl are shown running in the corn field with the American flag. This video, which supposedly was about America, did not include a non-white person. The makers of the video clearly showed who they thought were the real Americans and that did not include non-whites. So my point in sharing the concept of this video is that on the one hand, new immigrants are told to “speak English,� and “go back to your country,� and on the other, typical image of an American person, especially in the media, is white, particularly a male. There is an irony in being told to fully integrate while at the same time, yours is not part of the identity representing America, especially in the media. Hence, often times, you’d have people like this guy on the Tyra Show telling non-whites to go back to their country, leaning on the concept that Americans are white, and non-whites aren’t as Americans as white people, even if they have been here for centuries.

I have been told alot by white Americans " to go back to the home" and I always responded by saying that I'l go back when they go back when they go back to their own country because native american are the only people who have the right to tell me to go back to were I come from since this is their Native land. But I don't think most Americans get that they might have been born here but they are still parents of immigrants, just like me.

I have been told alot by white Americans " to go back to the home" and I always responded by saying that I'l go back when they go back when they go back to their own country because native american are the only people who have the right to tell me to go back to were I come from since this is their Native land. But I don't think most Americans get that they might have been born here but they are still parents of immigrants, just like me.

I agree that "go back to your own country" is probably the most obnoxious thing a person could say, but it really makes me laugh. Correct me if I am wrong, but it seems that most hyper-racists are relatively uneducated/ working class whites (at least they are the only ones who volunteer to go on talkshows - and are protrayed in the media). The ignorance makes me laugh. Before you judge me on a twisted sense of humor, there is a reason I think it's funny. My father moved to the States from West Africa in the 80's and got a masters degree (he made pretty good money). We lived in a nearly all white community, so you can imagine what kind of stupid things people would say and do. For example, every time he went into this hardware store, one of the employees would follow him around until he left. Then, he also watched some of those Jerry episodes with the KKK people ranting about how people needed to go back where they came from. He laughed at both saying that a) the man at the hardware store probably had a bigger need to steal than he did b) those rednecks on the TV were ending their sentences with prepositions and didn't even read enough to know why they hate the people they hate - they just regurgitate what their parents told them.

Let them waste all of their energy hating minorities. I like to entertain myself with the thought that they are not under my skin - I am under theirs. It's a motivative tool to be more successful than them on "American Standards" just to piss them off a little. If they want to devote all of their time to negativity - they will be unhappy - not me. I laugh at the racist idiot in the bed sheet because I am more concerend with the racist man in a suit making decsions about my life, but he doesn't go on Tyra.