Mike Ditka, former coach of the NFL Bears, was annoyed. When asked what he thought about players kneeling during the national anthem he recently declared, “they should get the hell out of the country. That’s the way I feel. Of course, I am old fashioned, so I’m only going to say how I feel.” He continued, “I think there’s a way you protest, and I think there’s a way you don’t protest. You don’t protest against the flag, and you don’t protest against this country who’s given you the opportunity to make a living playing a sport that you never thought would happen.”
We have all heard or read the similar taunts. “Go back to where you came from,” or “If you don’t like it, leave,” or “We are going to take our country back.” In truth, we know that these taunts come from all segments of the political spectrum. Many of us have said similar things in our moments of anger or weakness. It is time to cease and desist in this practice. It is time to reaffirm citizenship and its inalienable character.
It is human tendency to draw group boundaries and within groups to define who is in-group, and who is on the periphery The mechanisms of othering, status defining, and exclusion were all arts that we practiced and had exerted upon us from our earliest interactions with peers. It is harmless enough when sports fans attempt to define the status of the “true fan” as opposed to the “bandwagon fan.” However, when it comes to setting up classes of citizenship, we play a dangerous game.
A declaration that someone else should leave their country is an act of arrogant privilege and power. It claims the power to define who is an authentic or real citizen and who is not. It is a technique to censor and silence someone voicing an opposing viewpoint. When this phrase is uttered against members of ethnic or racial minorities, it is particularly pernicious. This was the case when President Trump tweeted that Congressional Representatives Tlaib, Pressley, Omar, and Occasio-Cortez “were 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.”
The President’s tweets were a thinly veiled assertion of white supremacy. They presume that people of color should be thankful that they have received citizenship from magnanimous “real Americans”. The fact that three of the four women were born in the United States escaped the President. He clearly regards people of color as second class citizens. As a white liberal, I have occasionally been told that if I am critical of the President, I should leave the country. However, I am never told to go back to where I came from, as if I really belong somewhere else.
We have been through many struggles, including a costly civil war, to redeem the central assertion in the Declaration of Independence that all citizens are created equal. Most fundamentally, this means that we are guaranteed equal treatment under the law. Citizenship is an inalienable right attached to the individual. All citizens have the same individual and political rights. You also have the same responsibilities to participate and work for the creation of a more perfect union. There are no “Real Americans,” there are simply Americans.
One nation, many backgrounds, many experiences, many opinions. Citizens all.
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