We’ve heard it many times. We’ve heard it for years. Sometimes it’s said quietly and other times, like now, it’s loud and incessant. Now they’re chanting and tweeting and just generally yelling it. They want us to leave, go back where we came from. It doesn’t matter if where we came from was just another US city.
So, I’ve been wondering. What do they expect to happen if we take them up on their suggestion? Where would the Native peoples go? Would they go back to the lands they were driven from? Would all the Central American people go back to those parts of the US that used to belong to Mexico? I’m no student of history, but I do know that a large part of the southwest was ceded to the US after the Mexican-American war.
What of the descendants of slaves? Do we get to choose some place other than Africa? We’re not 100% African by the way. Do we get to choose the Native ancestry or the Latin? Some of us can trace our roots to European countries the same as many of those doing the chanting. And they are quick to proudly trace their roots to some place that also is not here.
So aside from where we would go, I ask again. What do they expect to happen? Will they suddenly take the jobs they say are being stolen by the people coming here? Will they take over the small businesses they aren’t starting or running? Will they take care of their elderly relatives living in nursing homes and assisted living facilities? Will they clean their own toilets? Will they stand in the hot sun doing all those necessary outside jobs? I know a young man who worked in construction. He decided to finish his degree in computer science because he didn’t want to do that work forever. So are they going to get degrees and learn the skills needed for high tech jobs that they currently are not getting? And if they can do that then, why aren’t they doing it now? Oh, because we’re getting the spots in schools they should have gotten.
Are they going to start spending more money to make up for the lost revenue? I think we would take whatever money we have with us. Yes, we would have to find new sources of income. But haven’t we always had to do that? Haven’t we always had to be innovative, adaptable? Many of us came here with nothing. And yet, we educated ourselves, built businesses, made discoveries that could be productized, found ways to support and improve ourselves. Essentially we survived in an environment that was more often hostile than not.
A friend and I joke about the food as well. I think we’ll take our spices with us. Who will make the multinational cuisine found across this country? They can try to duplicate it, but again, you don’t get to use our spices without us.
We are also not all murderers, rapists, drug dealers and terrorists. You couldn’t tell from news reports and such. Still, I imagine all of that illegal activity will continue. There will still be people that take advantage of other people. There will still be people abusing drugs, many of them legal ones. They will be able to continue filling their private prisons, that 95% capacity requirement won’t just go away. They will Just have to do it without us.
Maybe if we were to leave, they would have no one to blame for their various situations but themselves. But I doubt it.