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I Hate Racism

Go back to where you came from - even if you’re an American who happens to have parents who were born elsewhere

That’s what your Trump says. The fact that he is also the child of immigrants amuses me but this is not what this post is about.

I live in Britain. I am British, I was born in Britain. My mother is from Barbados, my father is from Burkina Faso. But if I go back to where I came from, I go back to the Royal Surrey County Hospital.

But I’m black, so I’ve heard this line all my life too. Before you complain about things here, go sort out the problems in your own country. Britain is my country. I’ve never even been to Barbados or Burkina Faso. The USA is those politicians’ country.

Trump using those lines to them will justify people shooting that line at me. Racism is on the increase and it makes me sick. I despise anyone who could possibly think that these words were anything less than shameful.

And Trump did go back to Scotland, where his mother came from, my sympathy for the Scottish independence movement would increase tenfold.

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ArthurP · 80-89, M

While I agree with your main contention, your own use of hyperbole and describing anyone who disagrees with you as 'shameful' does in fact foster an equal and opposite response.

TheQueenBree · 26-30, F

@ArthurP it isn’t hyperbole. The fact that it isn’t considered shameful to attack people based on their parents (not even their own!) origins shows the horrible mess our societies are in.

ArthurP · 80-89, M

You clearly have no idea what hyperbole means, as your response is yet another sad reflection on your gross misrepresentation of contemporary society. By any measure, the society you live in is better than any society that has ever existed. Of course there are deep faults and many intractable problems, but it is hard to identify a single one which is not less awful than a generation ago. The society you say is an awful mess is the one where, a generation ago, 32% of the worlds population lived in dire poverty. Today that figure - still far too high - is 9%. A generation ago, average longevity was under 60 years. Today it is 71 years. And in respect to racism, consider the USA 50 years ago, where you would be legally forbidden to sit on bus seats reserved for whites. Or the UK, where notices on rentals would say "No blacks" Or South Africa, where apartheid was in full swing.

the world always has been, always will be an imperfect place. But for you to describe this world - the best world humans have ever inhabited - as a horrible mess - is the very definition of hyperbole.

TheQueenBree · 26-30, F

@ArthurP yay. The world is better than it used to be. It’s less of a horrible mess than it was then. Of course I’m happy I live now rather than then.
But if racism is rising, and presidents are making these comments, that’s what I meant by a mess. That didn’t happen even 5 years ago, we’re going the wrong way. I don’t want the next generation to have it worse than I have it.