I’m tired of being told to go back to where you came from

Well, I’m tired of hearing it. At an estimate, I would say on average over my lifetime I’ve heard this said to me around ten times a year. When I was younger that number could exceed thirty times per year.

The real problem I have with this is the following question – where exactly are they referring to? Let me break this down.

I was born in London, England. My mum is from the Caribbean island of  St.Vincent, but as all the people living in the Caribbean will testify, they have  ancestors who descended from different places.

Being from St.Vincent, my mum may have numerous places she descended from.  St.Vincent had African slaves, they also had indentured workers from different  places, most notably India (prior to India being split into India and Pakistan) and  Scotland. They also had settlers from both England and France; and let’s not forget the inhabitants who were there prior to European arrival, the Caribs (who came from South America), some of whom would have descended from the  Arawak.

And that’s just my mum’s side. My dad came from the other side of the world.

What I’m trying to point out is this – surely if you were born in a country, you  become a representative of that country. Otherwise, England would have a huge problem. Let me explain…

Within the UK, in 2018, BAME (Black, Asian & Minority Ethnic) people equaled 13.8%  of the population. That equates to just under ten million people.

Now, let’s look at BAME countries outside of the UK.

Well, we have Australia, where 40% of people recently confirmed that they had English  ancestors. That’s 20 million people.

Now look at Canada, where 65% of people claim to have English ancestry. That’s 25 million people. The US recently claimed 9% of it’s citizens are of English descent. That’s another 30 million.

So, already we are up to 75 million people and I haven’t even counted those in the  Caribbean, those in Africa, those in Asia, in other countries in Australasia or even  those ex-pats living abroad in Europe. If we did, this could potentially double the number.

Now look at the population of the UK as a whole (not just England). In 2019 it numbered 66.65 million. Once you remove any BAME people from England and (logically) transport back all those of English descent living abroad, you’ll probably be looking at increasing the population by 300% to 200 million.

The only cost the English have been asked to pay for the decades of wealth and  power this country has enjoyed at the hands of less power-hungry civilisations, is  honesty when it comes to BAME history, equality, and the support that Britain promised the lands of the Commonwealth.

Instead, we receive “get out of our country”, to which I say “cheddar man” (the oldest human skeleton found in Britian, who happens to black) and “go back to where you came from”, which at the moment is valid for me, as I’m living in Wales and was born in London.