The President of the United States told four Americans to go back to where they came from. This is blatantly racist, and disgusting. To condone him is to support white supremacy. To support his statement is to wish me gone. I know because I grew up surrounded by those who did – wish me gone.

I dealt with this language and viewpoint growing up in NC. I was often reminded how I was less than my neighbors for not being Christian, and for not being a white southerner. My friends were called “sand niggers” for being Arab. My soccer team often broke up into “US vs World” when we scrimmaged. I never really understood that one. I was born in Greensboro, NC. Why did I end up on the world team? My friends reminded me that I was going to hell for not being like them, and believing what they believed. This all came with the best of intentions. But yet another reminder of how I wasn’t like them. And that they were the ones on the right side of history.

These words are powerful. Destructive. They go straight to the core of a person’s self-confidence and self-worth. And they just tear you down.

You lose your sense of who you are.

And now the President is doing that to every non-white, American child with his hateful and racist rhetoric.

Through all of this, what I’ve learned from so many who were stronger than me – I belong here. Those scared, American children born on American soil to immigrant parents belong here.

And those who think otherwise? They are the ones on the wrong side of history.