“Go Back To Where You Came From,” is a phrase I heard all throughout my life. Since I was a child. As far back as I can remember.
It is something Asians across the diaspora know all too well, but it is also a phrase yelled indiscriminately at all People of the Global Majority around the world, no matter their ancestral journey, citizenship, or nationality.
There is a reason why there are so many of us within Empire and away from our motherlands. Several generations removed for many people. Some of our ancestors were stolen from their own lands. And some had their lands stolen from them. And because of this, many can never know where they are from in the first place.
Empire erased lineage, records, homes, or they’ve destroyed where we can return or could have returned. Historical agreements and documents. All traces.
Because of that, some of us cannot even know where we can return and many can never know where they are from in the first place.
There is a reason people come to colonial countries like the US, UK, Canada, Europe, Australia, and Empire. Even now, even today, and even in the future. It is because these very colonial countries have made it difficult for us to have a life in our own lands.
The sheer contradiction, a specialty of white colonial dominance, to yell “go back to where you came from” but refuse to acknowledge that contradiction, and refuse LandBack for Indigenous people. The ultimate suspension of logic. But then again, oppression has nothing to do with logic.
“Go back to where you came from.” The people who think that, the laws that enforce that, the Sinophobia, xenophobia, anti-immigrant policies, white capitalist colonialism, borders, those are all different versions of “Go back to where you came from.”
What they mean when they say “Go back to where you came from,” and we are witnessing it within Turtle Island, the UK, Canada, Europe, Palestine, is not truly about wanting us to go back to where we are from. It means, “Leave the land we have stolen and colonized.”
If Empire really wants us to go back to where we came from, Empire needs to leave first. It is only then that we can begin the process of healing and finding home that they so badly want.
Out of Sudan.
Out of the DRC.
Out of Turtle Island.
Out of Palestine.
Out of Hawai’i.
Out of Puerto Rico.
Out of the UK, Europe, Canada, Australia.
Out of Everywhere.
Colonizers out of everywhere first if you want us to “go back to where we came from.” Because the land is where we all came from, and the land is where we all stay and go.
“Go back to where you came from.” Yes, I will. I will go back to the land. That means LandBack and no borders before anything else.
That is what I am fighting for in my lifetime.
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