the trump years gave us plenty of vile
catchphrases from lock her up to fire
fouchy but
send her back might just be the most
hateful
and bigoted moment in the trump charts
have a listen to what happened in 2019
so representative omar
blamed the united states
for the terrorist attacks on our country
and obviously and
importantly
omar
has a history of launching vicious
anti-semitic
screens
and tonight i have a suggestion for the
hate-filled extremists who are
constantly trying to tear our country
down they never have anything good to
say
that's why i say hey if they don't like
it let them leave let them leave
by the time trump supporters were
chanting that phrase at a rally in north
carolina trump had been using similar
language on twitter writing so
interesting to see progressive democrat
congresswoman who originally came from
countries whose governments are a
complete and total catastrophe now
loudly and viciously telling the people
of the united states the greatest and
most powerful nation on earth how our
government is to be run why don't they
go back and help fix the totally broken
and crime-infested places from which
they came
that message was directed at the squad
for congresswoman of color who were all
american by the way and i hope this is
already common knowledge but three of
them were born in the united states of
america almost every person of color i
know has had that ugly phrase or a
version of it hurled at them go back to
where you came from go back
and the racist meaning is clear don't
just take my word for it the us equal
equal employment opportunity commission
explicitly states that ethnic slurs and
other verbal or physical conduct because
of nationality are illegal if they
create an intimidating hostile or
offensive working environment examples
of potentially unlawful conduct include
comments like go back to where you came
from
and now following trump's example
another republican has taken up their go
back to where you came from torch
georgia gubernatorial candidate and
former senator david perdue who's
endorsed by donald trump and who aimed
the slur at democratic gubernatorial
candidate stacey abrams
y'all see what stacy said this weekend
said that george is the worst place in
the country to live
hey she ain't from here let her go back
where she came from she doesn't like it
here you know i don't think a lot of
people in georgia understood when she
told black farmers you don't need to be
on the farm and you she told black
workers in hospitality and all this you
don't need to be she is demeaning her
own race when it comes to that
and this wasn't a one-time flub or
off-the-cuff remark perdue made the
comment more than once about his fellow
candidate for georgia governor
she has lied to the people of georgia
she said just this week weekend you know
she it's the worst state in the country
in which to live she's not from here i
you know my inclination is saying well
look you don't like it go back to where
you came from
first of all purdue has taken stacey
abrams comments totally out of context
surprised she was referring to the
state's mortality and incarceration rate
and in the very next breath said georgia
is capable of greatness second stacey
abrams may have been born in wisconsin
but she's lived in georgia her entire
life since high school since she was a
kid she was the minority leader of the
georgia house she's georgian she has
nowhere to go back to
but that's beside the point we all know
what this phrase means what it stands
for all of us
all of us know this people of color in
particular we know this i remember the
first time someone said it to me
when i was a kid another child on a bike
rode past me shouting it out at me
i can never forget that moment and it
wasn't the last time i heard it either
so let's be clear go back to where you
came from isn't racially charged or
racially divisive or racially coded
it's racist and we cannot allow
republicans to just say it without
consequence
let's bring in
ali columnist for the daily beast and
author of the memoir helpfully and
relevantly titled go back to where you
came from and other helpful
recommendations on how to become
american uh thanks for coming back on
the show you literally wrote a book go
back to where you came from
when is the first time you remember
someone saying that phrase to you and
how did you react
yeah well thank you to david perdue for
promoting my book i really appreciate it
uh you know if you're a person of color
you first find out your place in the
american hierarchy at school usually at
the age of five or six medi you know
oftentimes we have this conversation in
this country well how young is too young
to talk about race and people of color
like yo when i was the age of five i was
asked how come your skin color is the
color of poo
uh what what language are you speaking
urdu or bird do go back to where you
came from so it was school was like i
was five or six and then you know i
every single day
in the past 20 years especially ever
since the 9 11 terror attacks at least
once a day i get of one variation of go
back to where you come from and i always
respond fremont california the bay area
i'd love to you could subsidize the rent
or are we taking historical here you
want to take the delorean back to
pakistan how about pre-partition india
or you want to go back to the mother's
womb let's go freudian uh it is the
one-hit wonder of every lazis lazy
racist band in america they've been
saying this to the germans then they
said to the catholics then they said at
the italians then it said the japanese
americans and they said it david purdue
said it to stacy abrams a black woman
and really the core of it is
you don't belong
you are not a real american you are not
an average american we are the right
americans we are the white americans go
back
and and we can make jokes about this and
people of color often handle racist
abuse by kind of laughing it off or
turning it around as you mentioned there
with the bay area gag but of course it's
not something we should have to do and
republicans are doing this now today
knowingly based on that history that we
all experienced they're shamelessly
doing it they're bringing back these
old-fashioned but very explicit racist
phrases and then saying what me racist
no i was saying she should go back to
wisconsin but no one i don't think even
their own base buys that their own base
knows what they're doing
yeah you don't belong it's it's cl and
that's the danger it's the it's the same
dna of the replacement theory that says
that the real american the right
american the true american is the white
man who by the way came to this country
he immigrated to this country right last
time i checked it was a bunch of white
folks here in the united states of
america but what it implicitly says is
no this country belongs to us and the
rest of you should be
grateful that we have allowed you to
stay and oh stacy abrams even though
your ancestors were brought here against
their will as slaves you go back to
where you came from and so it really the
contempt here is so clear the nativism
the xenophobia the fear the hate the
ugliness what it says is that even if
you are a u.s congresswoman i'm glad you
ran that clip even if you literally are
a citizen in this country even though
you're born and raised in this country
never forget
you don't belong and you only belong
because we the real american the white
male american is generous enough to
allow you to rent a room in our home
it's
it's interesting that the leader of the
republican party uh is donald j trump
who lives in florida i've never asked
i've never had anyone tell him to go
back to new york go back to queens he's
not from around here we never use that
suddenly suddenly go back to where you
came from it's about interstate travel
now it's not about good old-fashioned
places
yeah
who's literally campaigning and running
in one state living in another let me
ask you this i mean you mentioned a
couple of names let's mention some more
stacey abrams ilhan omar kamala harris
katanji brown jackson i can't quite put
my finger on it but what is it that
unites these people that drives
republican white conservative nativist
men up the wall what is it that you know
i'm so close yeah i i i don't i and also
not just black women but let's not
forget that david perdue when he was
running for senate remember his
anti-semitism when he ran that
caricature of john ossoff enlarging his
nose remember that people kind of forget
that that was david perdue and let's not
also forget where he would deliberately
mock the name of kamala harris again
these are all these are not dog whistles
the they don't need dog whistles anymore
the hoods are off when you have the
replacement theory a white supremacist
conspiracy theory there is a mainstream
talking point for tucker carlton and
elise stefanik and it's been a week
since the buffalo terrorist attack and
they still haven't condemned it mitch
mcconnell refused to condemn the
replacement theory why are we surprised
that david perdue is using an
old-fashioned classic oldie but goody
nativist chant go back to where you came
from especially when as you just saw
donald trump used it against four
congresswomen of color all of them u.s
citizens even then that is not enough
because they're not american
to them so here's the problem and the
reason we ran the donald trump clip at
the top and as you mentioned it now is
when he said it it was quite
controversial for a short period then
everyone moved on as is often the case
with trump
but it was con but it was controversial
when he said it it did cause an issue
even trump tried to walk it back and
said well i wasn't the crowd was saying
it wasn't me
um but here's the issue a few years
later purdue says it and it's almost
normalized this is what the republican
game plan has been you know steve bannon
talked about you know flooding the zone
with excrement it's this idea that even
when they say something controversial
you wait a little while months years and
it's not controversial anymore what do
the rest of us do to stop this group of
people mainstreaming and normalizing
what was once non-mainstream and
abnormal well that's exactly and i'm
glad you mentioned it's moving the
overton window it's very deliberately
pushing this fringe uh right-wing
extremist rhetoric into the mainstream
and normalizing it and saying oh we're
just joking oh we're just asking
questions oh no no and then projection
right they project and say no it's the
democrats doing it for the rest of us
you have to call it out for what it is
the new york times did something brave
and bold it actually called it out wait
for it
as racist so first and foremost name it
for what it is racist the majority yes
the majority exists and we have the
power right now flex condemn it and then
i also think mainstream institutions
have to stop being charlie brown right
stop falling for it you do not have to
reward bad faith actors and in fact you
have to disassociate yourself from these
individuals can you imagine if the rest
of us said this what would happen would
we have jobs
on television i think it's would you get
hired
i think it's important that some of the
corporate donors to the stefanik
campaign should rethink some of those
donations given what she's been saying
and doubling down on
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you