Go Back to Where You Came From: And Other Helpful Recommendations on How to Become American. Este artículo no está disponible.Go Back to Where You Came From: And Other Helpful Recommendations on How to Become American

This is just one of the many warm, lovely, and helpful tips that Wajahat Ali and other children of immigrants receive on a daily basis. Go back where, exactly? Fremont, California, where he grew up, but is now an unaffordable place to live? Or Pakistan, the country his parents left behind a half-century ago?Growing up living the suburban American dream, young Wajahat devoured comic books (devoid of brown superheroes) and fielded well-intentioned advice from uncles and aunties. (“Become a doctor!”) He had turmeric stains under his fingernails, was accident-prone, suffered from OCD, and wore Husky pants, but he was as American as his neighbors, with roots all over the world. Then, while Ali was studying at University of California, Berkeley, 9/11 happened. Muslims replaced communists as America’s enemy #1, and he became an accidental spokesman and ambassador of all ordinary, unthreatening things Muslim-y.Go Back to Where You Came From

Wajahat Ali is a New York Times-contributing writer, recovering attorney, and tired dad. His work has appeared in the Atlantic, New York Review of Books, and other outlets. He lives in Washington, DC.