“Go Back To Africa!” Why This Insult Is the Most Insidious Example of White Privilege in America

This is the racist insult that gets under my skin the most. Normally, I wouldn’t admit to anything that my enemies and racist trolls could use against me, but it had to be said. I recently wrote an article about American folklore and how it affects the immigration debate in many ways that could define the subject in a new light.

I’ve been told to “Go Back to Africa”, in many online “discussions” and “debates” with mostly White men who were angry that I was able to get the best of them by destroying their arguments about their own racial intolerance. However, it was always my intolerance that seemed to be the topic of their debate. When their argument started to inevitably lose, I was told to go back to a continent that I’ve never visited and called as many racial slurs as they could misspell in a comment section.

But why? Why is this comment so insidious to me?

For many reasons actually. I am a 9th generation American. My daughter is a 10th generation American and her children will continue that long trend. When a 3rd generation American tells me to go back somewhere, it makes my skin crawl. How can you tell me to go somewhere but you get to remain? What makes you worthy of staying when I have to leave in your eyes? I once had this discussion with an 18 year old immigrant from South Africa. He decided to tell me I should go back to Africa, and yet he was welcome to stay there. How is that possible…