GO BACK TO AFRICA

The very first time I heard this phrase was about 1983. I was attending a football game of my high school and our crosstown rivals. As, I was a leader of the pep squad it was my duty to cheer for my team and get my fellow supporters to do the same. As I recall we were winning and I was cheering! We were all cheering. White, Black, Asian, male and female!! Then I hear a sit your a** down Nig**. I look around because surely they were talking to someone else. I keep cheering and again my ears are assaulted with those words. I turn and ask “are you talking to me?” This older (as in maybe 30 as that was old to a 17 year old) white man wearing the opposing teams jersey stands up and says yeah Nig*** I’m talking to you! By then my ire is on the rise. My friends around me are standing around in shock. I tell this man to mind his business and watch the game and that I’m sitting when I’m good and ready. I turn and continue cheering. I continue to hear the assault and then I hear those words, “WHY DON’T YOU JUST GO BACK TO AFRICA NIG***!! My head swings around like the girl from the Exorcist and I feel myself moving toward him. I at that point felt a rage that I had never before. I screamed some words at him that I can’t to this day remember but know it angered him as he came closer. As I was face to face with this man who was clearly upset with my mere presence all that flashed in my mind was “Go Back”. Go Back where? Go Back to Africa? I was born here! I am a descendant of those who I’m sure your family shipped here like cargo. Go Back!?!?

As the screaming continued and the rage rises I feel some hands on me that pull me back. I don’t recall who it was but they kept me that day from putting my Nig*** hands around that mans throat and going to jail.

As I tell this story it is clear as day in my mind and it causes me to take a pause and stand in solidarity with my sisters in Congress who are being subjected to the same kind of assaults that I did that day.

We People of Color are living in a time here in this so called United States in a State if Emergency. We don’t know when, where or from whom an assault will occur. No, this is not new but when our so called leaders are spewing this kind of hate and vitriol then others think they are empowered to do the same. This false sense of power is one that is dangerous. It is dangerous in that it is causing some whites to think they have free reign to do and say whatever they want to or about people of color. It is dangerous in that this kind of assault is heard by our Children of Color and can damage the way in which they see themselves, other People of Color and whites in general. It is dangerous in that People of Color or maybe I should say I am not going to stand for it. I stand with my sister Congresswomen of Color. The racism, bigotry, misogyny and hate must end and we who are being assaulted must stand and object to these unGod like attitudes. No, I am not going back to Africa as my ancestor have been here longer than you and this country was built on the backs of those who were beaten, chained dehumanized, degraded, raped and killed so that this could actually be the United States of America.

No, we will not go back to where you think we come from. Let us stand firm with each other to stop these assaults from the top down. We must call out this behavior and continue to walk in the grace and beauty that God has made each and every one of us.

Let us not be lulled into a false sense of security with the so called leadership of this country. Lets us pushback! Lets us snap back! Lets us challenge!! Let us call out! Let us awake from the sleep that some of us are in. Wake up dear brothers and sisters and use your God Given voice to call out that which God is weeping over. Lets us as Co-Creators with God do the work he is calling us to do. Not to stand by and wait for things to get better but to actually strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being.