Deport Virgil Goode back to his native country of Outer Stupidia

This news article I just read has made me so angry, if I don't post about it before I go to bed, I'll stew.

Congressman Criticizes Election of Muslim

WASHINGTON, Dec. 20 — In a letter sent to hundreds of voters this month, Representative Virgil H. Goode Jr., Republican of Virginia, warned that the recent election of the first Muslim to Congress posed a serious threat to the nation’s traditional values.

Representative Virgil H. Goode Jr., left, said Keith Ellison’s decision to use a Koran in a private swearing in for the House of Representatives was a mistake.

Mr. Goode was referring to Keith Ellison, the Minnesota Democrat and criminal defense lawyer who converted to Islam as a college student and was elected to the House in November. Mr. Ellison’s plan to use the Koran during his private swearing-in ceremony in January had outraged some Virginia voters, prompting Mr. Goode to issue a written response to them, a spokesman for Mr. Goode said.

In his letter, which was dated Dec. 5, Mr. Goode said that Americans needed to “wake up” or else there would “likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Koran.”

“I fear that in the next century we will have many more Muslims in the United States if we do not adopt the strict immigration policies that I believe are necessary to preserve the values and beliefs traditional to the United States of America and to prevent our resources from being swamped,” said Mr. Goode, who vowed to use the Bible when taking his own oath of office.

....

Mr. Ellison dismissed Mr. Goode’s comments, saying they seemed ill informed about his personal origins as well as about Constitutional protections of religious freedom. “I’m not an immigrant,” added Mr. Ellison, who traces his American ancestors back to 1742. “I’m an African-American.”

When I was a young girl, one of the most hurtful things I had to experience was reading notes other kids put on my locker that said "go back to China".

Back then I was slightly envious of African-Americans because unlike Asians, they're not automatically assumed to be foreigners. I've also come to believe they face more covert racism and institutionalized racism than Asians do, so it's not that they really have it any easier. But still, doesn't their history entitle them to some sort of extra knee-jerk assumption of belonging?

I guess not. Virgil Goode basically put a note on Keith Ellison's locker that said "Go back to Africa". The Koran non-issue was only a trigger for some old-fashioned racist nativism.

I'm taking it personally and will remember his name and contribute to whoever runs against him in the next election.