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.<\/p>\n
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 \u201csand niggers\u201d for being Arab. My soccer team often broke up into \u201cUS vs World\u201d 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\u2019t like them. And that they were the ones on the right side of history.<\/p>\n
These words are powerful. Destructive. They go straight to the core of a person\u2019s self-confidence and self-worth. And they just tear you down.<\/p>\n
You lose your sense of who you are.<\/p>\n
And now the President is doing that to every non-white, American child with his hateful and racist rhetoric.<\/p>\n
Through all of this, what I\u2019ve 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.<\/p>\n
And those who think otherwise? They are the ones on the wrong side of history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pQyAq-vd","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":120,"url":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2009\/01\/31\/when-men-dont-wear-pink\/","url_meta":{"origin":1935,"position":0},"title":"When men don't wear pink","date":"January 31, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The NC State's Men's Basketball team lost to UNC today. It wasn't a great game, and there was definitely a large discrepancy in both talent and desire. This post, however, isn't about the frustration of being an NC State fan. That's chronicled well in the hearts and minds of Wolfpack\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "just thinking out loud"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":509,"url":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2012\/02\/10\/gosh-i-miss-college-basketball\/","url_meta":{"origin":1935,"position":1},"title":"Gosh I miss college basketball","date":"February 10, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Between NC State beating Georgia Tech tonight (which we desperately needed to keep NCAA hopes alive), and the quality of the last 4 minutes of the Duke\/UNC game, I'm reminded how much I miss college basketball. I genuinely believe that it is the purest form of the game. The level\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sports Stories"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1010,"url":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2014\/03\/16\/this-week-in-review-10\/","url_meta":{"origin":1935,"position":2},"title":"This week in review","date":"March 16, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Not a lot of sleep. Micky being in NYC fills the whole house with weird creaks, and this strange sensation that every noise is someone out to get me (or maybe I've watched too much Burn Notice...). The week ended well, and the weekend was even better. Saturday was good\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Life Updates"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":175,"url":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2009\/09\/18\/making-a-wish\/","url_meta":{"origin":1935,"position":3},"title":"Making a wish","date":"September 18, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Tuesday night was Kadir Gecesi, and I asked my co-workers to join me in fasting that day. Kadir Gecesi was the one psuedo-religious\/cultural event that we celebrated as children. One prayed that night, and whatever was wished for would be granted (or so the story goes according to my mom).\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "just thinking out loud"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":185,"url":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2009\/09\/20\/memories-from-king-tut\/","url_meta":{"origin":1935,"position":4},"title":"Memories... from King Tut","date":"September 20, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Today I went to the King Tut exhibit at the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park. Just walking through the ten rooms that they set up really took me to another place and time. Clearly, the exhibit itself takes you back over 3000 years, and gives you that glimpse\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "just thinking out loud"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1195,"url":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2014\/05\/17\/my-moms-dance-showcase\/","url_meta":{"origin":1935,"position":5},"title":"My mom's dance showcase!","date":"May 17, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I red-eyed to Raleigh last night to get here in time for my mom's dance showcase! I landed, and we headed straight for Bojangles. That was good. We spent the day watching soccer, and just being around each other. Semra showed up at 1pm, and she and I mom worked\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Life Updates"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1935"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1935\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}