Clearly, when they say those words to any of us, they mean it as an insult. When they say that, what they're really saying is "we built this great country without any contribution from you so if you are so ungrateful, why don't you just leave?" The problem is nothing could be farther from the truth. Not only was this country built primarily through the labor and resources of colonized people e.g. Africans, Indigenous/Natives, Asians, etc., but "they" pretty much made little to no contribution at all.
There is far too much written and/or said about the true history of how this country came to be. How the wealth in this country has evolved from imperialist theft of people's labor and resources. So, if you don't know that by now, we are not going to spend time doing your work for you. The point is anyone who tells you to go somewhere has absolutely no moral and/or legal authority to do so. Whether its 500 years or 50,000 years, the only true caretakers of this land are the Indigenous people's of the Western Hemisphere and by that we mean so-called Natives as well as so-called Latinos, Mexicans, etc. The African masses not only in the U.S., but throughout the Western Hemisphere, are only here due to the transatlantic slave trade despite the empty headed conspiracy theories of some misguided Africans who subscribe to made up theories about why we are in this part of the world. Here's a tip Africans. If your family descends from slave states and/or you have a European name, there is a 99.9% reality that you descend from that slave trade, period. Let's stop the fantasies that are being spread around to say otherwise because some of us are too lazy to learn anything about Africa.
The point is the mostly Europeans who are telling colonized people to "go back" have been doing so for centuries. Its nothing new and those people have no more legitimate right to tell us that today than they did 100 years ago. Those people are the descendants of settler terrorists who committed mass acts of devastation against colonized people. Those people are no different than a common murderer and/or thief. And, it makes no difference that they themselves may not have committed the crimes against humanity/our ancestors if they justify it. By doing so, they are no less guilty than those who carried the acts out. Especially since the system set up as a result of our carnage permits them to benefit from our suffering.
Nothing in the last paragraph can be disputed in any logical and historical way. So, the real question is why after so many years of this dysfunction do we still permit them telling us this to impact us so? The answer is in the psychology of our oppression. A major aspect of colonialist ideology is to convince the colonized that colonialism represents what's best for them. This is the logic behind telling someone something like "go back to Africa." The inference is that this country, the one they created without any involvement from us, is so much better. So much more blessed by God. So much higher in quality content, that we should just be happy to be here with the great white saviors who rescued us from a life of misery in Africa, etc. This concept is 100% based in fiction so how is it able to work on us? Because colonial ideology has convinced us that the racist manifest destiny ideology that Europeans are the masters of all civilization is an ideology that is pretty much believed by everyone on Earth today. The way we can confidently make such a bold statement is because we know that 98% of the houses of worship, regardless of the religion, that our people are devoted to, promote this racist colonial history. We know that 98% of the schools our children are indoctrinated in promote this anti-human racist history. We know that every holiday this backward country celebrates from thankstaking to the fourth of the lie is nothing except a validation for imperialism. On the flip side, there is no comprehensive education happening on a mass scale anywhere on Earth today about Africa's contributions to humanity. The contributions of the Indigenous people of the Western Hemisphere, etc. With no information about those civilizations and cultures, a person's only option is to believe the misinformation that has been propagandized 24/7 by imperialism e.g. Africa, etc. is primitive. The people are barbaric. They are incapable of governing themselves. That's why the racists say "you'd be living in huts in Africa without slavery."
Of course, the only reason such a stupid statement like the last one could gain any traction is because a large percentage of us know no better and actually believe the statement, at least on some level. We actually believe that we are better off in capitalist U.S. than in Africa. And, after having hundreds of thousands of organizing conversations about this with people for decades, I have met thousands who do believe that nonsense while not meeting a single person who believes that who knows even the slightest thing about African history, the transatlantic slave trade, etc.
For those of us who know our African history, we don't need make believe stories about us being in the Western Hemisphere for thousands of years. And, we don't flinch when racist people tell us to "go back." We know that of all the people currently in the U.S., the Europeans have the least amount of credibility to tell anyone to do anything. In fact, we are so confident about our history, meaning our people's resolute commitment to resisting oppression at every turn. At the unmatched level of dignity our people display at every affront to our humanity, that we actually look forward to having people confront us with such nonsense. We look forward because the ancient axiom that "the truth will set you free" is accurate. When you have truth and that truth shapes your convictions there is really no force on Earth that can ever intimidate you away from that truth. If someone tells us to "go back" we have multiple answers for them that preserves our humanity while reminding them of theirs (either in a humanistic way or in a way that reaffirms their mortality - its up to them).
For us, the question isn't why promoters of white supremacy are so insensitive and anti-human to spur our humanity. We expect nothing less from them. We also have no expectations that the majority of Europeans are ever going to confront those among them who harbor these anti-human philosophies. Our revolutionary African personality informs us to love ourselves which qualifies us to love all of humanity. By the same token, we respect your humanity just about as much as you respect ours because we recognize that taking this position is a reflection of our dignity. Nothing about our existence depends upon the validation of any anti-human forces in this world. Our ideological commitment to humanism and African culture permits us to see the value of humanistic Europeans while understanding that anti-human Europeans (and other people as well) will never represent more than enemies that we have to continue to fight against to win back justice for humanity.
So, if being told to "go back" offends you that probably means you need to think about why you are in a place where the inhumanity of our enemies can so readily impact your psychosis. You will never be validated and/or accepted by them and to us, we wonder why you would even want "in" with people such as this. We prefer to define our own terms for how to advance against injustice and we invite you to join us. Our best weapon is our dignity because it fuels our resistance. Each time you respond to the inhumanity of these people you give away your power. Morality and the force of nature is on your side of history. We intend to impact human culture, not in a way that pleads with our enemies to open their minds, but by creating a strong enough movement for justice that they have no choice except to respect our mission or be moved out of the way. We don't ever "go back." We're too busy moving forward, ever, and backwards never.
There is far too much written and/or said about the true history of how this country came to be. How the wealth in this country has evolved from imperialist theft of people's labor and resources. So, if you don't know that by now, we are not going to spend time doing your work for you. The point is anyone who tells you to go somewhere has absolutely no moral and/or legal authority to do so. Whether its 500 years or 50,000 years, the only true caretakers of this land are the Indigenous people's of the Western Hemisphere and by that we mean so-called Natives as well as so-called Latinos, Mexicans, etc. The African masses not only in the U.S., but throughout the Western Hemisphere, are only here due to the transatlantic slave trade despite the empty headed conspiracy theories of some misguided Africans who subscribe to made up theories about why we are in this part of the world. Here's a tip Africans. If your family descends from slave states and/or you have a European name, there is a 99.9% reality that you descend from that slave trade, period. Let's stop the fantasies that are being spread around to say otherwise because some of us are too lazy to learn anything about Africa.
The point is the mostly Europeans who are telling colonized people to "go back" have been doing so for centuries. Its nothing new and those people have no more legitimate right to tell us that today than they did 100 years ago. Those people are the descendants of settler terrorists who committed mass acts of devastation against colonized people. Those people are no different than a common murderer and/or thief. And, it makes no difference that they themselves may not have committed the crimes against humanity/our ancestors if they justify it. By doing so, they are no less guilty than those who carried the acts out. Especially since the system set up as a result of our carnage permits them to benefit from our suffering.
Nothing in the last paragraph can be disputed in any logical and historical way. So, the real question is why after so many years of this dysfunction do we still permit them telling us this to impact us so? The answer is in the psychology of our oppression. A major aspect of colonialist ideology is to convince the colonized that colonialism represents what's best for them. This is the logic behind telling someone something like "go back to Africa." The inference is that this country, the one they created without any involvement from us, is so much better. So much more blessed by God. So much higher in quality content, that we should just be happy to be here with the great white saviors who rescued us from a life of misery in Africa, etc. This concept is 100% based in fiction so how is it able to work on us? Because colonial ideology has convinced us that the racist manifest destiny ideology that Europeans are the masters of all civilization is an ideology that is pretty much believed by everyone on Earth today. The way we can confidently make such a bold statement is because we know that 98% of the houses of worship, regardless of the religion, that our people are devoted to, promote this racist colonial history. We know that 98% of the schools our children are indoctrinated in promote this anti-human racist history. We know that every holiday this backward country celebrates from thankstaking to the fourth of the lie is nothing except a validation for imperialism. On the flip side, there is no comprehensive education happening on a mass scale anywhere on Earth today about Africa's contributions to humanity. The contributions of the Indigenous people of the Western Hemisphere, etc. With no information about those civilizations and cultures, a person's only option is to believe the misinformation that has been propagandized 24/7 by imperialism e.g. Africa, etc. is primitive. The people are barbaric. They are incapable of governing themselves. That's why the racists say "you'd be living in huts in Africa without slavery."
Of course, the only reason such a stupid statement like the last one could gain any traction is because a large percentage of us know no better and actually believe the statement, at least on some level. We actually believe that we are better off in capitalist U.S. than in Africa. And, after having hundreds of thousands of organizing conversations about this with people for decades, I have met thousands who do believe that nonsense while not meeting a single person who believes that who knows even the slightest thing about African history, the transatlantic slave trade, etc.
For those of us who know our African history, we don't need make believe stories about us being in the Western Hemisphere for thousands of years. And, we don't flinch when racist people tell us to "go back." We know that of all the people currently in the U.S., the Europeans have the least amount of credibility to tell anyone to do anything. In fact, we are so confident about our history, meaning our people's resolute commitment to resisting oppression at every turn. At the unmatched level of dignity our people display at every affront to our humanity, that we actually look forward to having people confront us with such nonsense. We look forward because the ancient axiom that "the truth will set you free" is accurate. When you have truth and that truth shapes your convictions there is really no force on Earth that can ever intimidate you away from that truth. If someone tells us to "go back" we have multiple answers for them that preserves our humanity while reminding them of theirs (either in a humanistic way or in a way that reaffirms their mortality - its up to them).
For us, the question isn't why promoters of white supremacy are so insensitive and anti-human to spur our humanity. We expect nothing less from them. We also have no expectations that the majority of Europeans are ever going to confront those among them who harbor these anti-human philosophies. Our revolutionary African personality informs us to love ourselves which qualifies us to love all of humanity. By the same token, we respect your humanity just about as much as you respect ours because we recognize that taking this position is a reflection of our dignity. Nothing about our existence depends upon the validation of any anti-human forces in this world. Our ideological commitment to humanism and African culture permits us to see the value of humanistic Europeans while understanding that anti-human Europeans (and other people as well) will never represent more than enemies that we have to continue to fight against to win back justice for humanity.
So, if being told to "go back" offends you that probably means you need to think about why you are in a place where the inhumanity of our enemies can so readily impact your psychosis. You will never be validated and/or accepted by them and to us, we wonder why you would even want "in" with people such as this. We prefer to define our own terms for how to advance against injustice and we invite you to join us. Our best weapon is our dignity because it fuels our resistance. Each time you respond to the inhumanity of these people you give away your power. Morality and the force of nature is on your side of history. We intend to impact human culture, not in a way that pleads with our enemies to open their minds, but by creating a strong enough movement for justice that they have no choice except to respect our mission or be moved out of the way. We don't ever "go back." We're too busy moving forward, ever, and backwards never.
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