ATLANTA — President Trump has more than doubled down on his controversial comments telling four freshman congresswomen to "go back" to the country they came from.
Some have called his remarks racist, including people from within his own party.
This is the tweet that started this all: President Trump referring to three minority congresswomen saying, "why don't they go back."
It’s a message he's continued to press on as the fight over his comments has waged over the last few days, with no signs of slowing down.
But what’s the history of these words, and do why some find them to be so inflammatory?
"Go back": those were the words from President Trump to four democratic congresswomen - all American citizens, and all but one born in the United States. They have sparked painful reminders for some.
“This country has always had people in positions of power who were allowed to define the value of others,” Dr. Illya Davis explained.
Dr. Illya Davis is a professor of philosophy and African-American studies at Morehouse College and said the language used by the president divides by its unspoken message.
“What's being implied is there's something that is essentially 'American',” Davis said. “There's something that is essentially pure, and all others aren't to be related to this group.”
But this is nothing new, according to Davis. He explained the US has seen this type of coded language since the end of World War II, after seeing what happened with the Holocaust - when some began to take notice of how others were treated.
“The idea was, we have to re-fashion the way that we referred to people because there are people looking out now,” Davis said. “They are people more sensitive to how we were referred to the ‘other,’ and we've been othered in ways that have been divisive enough to create polarization - Balkanization - in ways that, again, don't give value to those individuals.”
According to Davis, we see these words and actions because America hasn't yet addressed its past with race, its association with slavery (and its end) or how we interact with other minority groups.
"'Go back to your homeland,’ well the implication there is xenophobic. You're different, we don't just subscribe to any of your differences,” Davis said. "One would not use that phrase referring to England. As an example, England would not satisfy the stereotype of 'going back' or 'get out.'”
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