Go Back Where You Came From

And Other Helpful Recommendations on How To Become American

Wahahat Ali 2022 CedarMillLib 921 ALI

This book started out well. Funny responses to bigot emails, interesting childhood in the US, amusing anecdotes about cultural adjustments. Author was born in Fremont California, back when it was affordable for his parents. No longer, hence modest-income author cannot afford to move there.

Then come the complaints. And more complaints. I understand the motivation to complain, the author is a public person mixing with 300 million other Americans, most of whom are less intelligent and educated than he is. If he was better educated and even smarter, he would encounter even more stupidity. I'm third/fourth/Nth generation US, and I encounter too much stupidity. I would rather learn about things that he likes that I hope I would like as well.

I stopped finding enough amusing/educational motivations after page 100 or so, and encountered more complaints.

• Page 104: "Krugman must have forgotten the 481 hate crimes recorded in the year after the attacks, and the real figure was likely much higher considering that most cases are not reported or documented".

  Citation Needed, cite a statistically defensible source of much higher, and compare it to the 1.4 million violent crimes committed in the US in 2002. I don't know for 2002, but in 2017 the US was 1.1% Muslim. If the Muslim fraction was half that in 2002, and Muslims were treated no better or worse than the other 99% of us, we could expect 7700 violent crimes against Muslims, not including all the other ways that Americans abuse each other.

That said, it is very likely that Muslims, and Blacks, and Chinese, and many other "muhnoreetees" (redneck pronunciation) are abused more than middle class suburban 3+ generation Caucasians. If I see abuse near me, I'll jump into the fray and protect the victim, hopefully gaining an interesting new friend. My bruises heal as friendships grow.

But I don't go out much, and don't live in a place with frequent "free crime delivery". I'm not even sure how many Muslim acquiantances I have, only a few "for sures" because they choose to discuss their fascinating background with me. I'm usually more interested in the things people know and do with physical stuff, not the labels they use for their invisible friends.