Frat Boy to Mehdi Hasan: 'Get the Hell Out'

They only want certain people in the U.S.

Unless you’ve been on an expedition in the rainforests of West Papua, you’ve heard of Mehdi Hasan debating 20 far-right conservatives by now. It was a carnival of white supremacy, xenophobia, Nazi sympathizing, and self-proclaimed fascism. One guy, the frat-boy prototype pictured above, told Hasan, a U.S. citizen, to “get the hell out” [of the country]. I could spend thousands of words unpacking the drooling hatred and artesian self-delusion rampant within this bunch, but I want to talk about Frat Boy in particular.

I grappled with writing about this gang-debate. Not only has it already been rehashed and parsed ad nauseam, but it’s also unclear if the debate and its attendant fallout has been a net positive. Some argue that platforming hateful, racist people, like Hasan’s interlocutors, only serves to expand the Overton Window, allowing extremists into the balmy folds of polite society.

Those same people contend that the only effective course of action is to shun these freelance fascists, as Nicole James proposed in her recent piece, “Hey, What If We Try Ignoring These F*cking Losers?”

It’s hard to argue with Nicole or anyone else who holds this view. I’ve actually never been convinced that debate is an effective information delivery system. Ultimately, though, it’s my personal experience with anti-immigrant sentiment and ethnic epithets that compelled me to write about this chucklehead.

You see, no one has ever called me “spic” to my face, but they’ve called me spic in an email. No one has told me to go back to my country to my face, but they’ve told me via online comments. One guy even threatened to kill me. This kind of language is usually uttered behind closed doors or within the anonymity afforded by large groups, like protests—wherever people feel safe saying it, in other words.

Frat Boy felt comfortable telling Hasan to leave the country in front of millions of people. We can debate whether or not Jubilee should’ve platformed these goons, but I’m sorry, I can’t let this shit slide now that it’s out there.

Additionally, I think there are people who want a strong border and strict immigration policies who aren’t racist to the bone and who don’t condone the abuse and torture of migrants. Some of these people may be reasonable, but many are also ignorant of the deep-seated hatred many immigration hardliners harbor for immigrants. They assume that because they’ve never sent a xenophobic nastygram to someone just because his name is Pablo that it doesn’t happen. That’s why I think it’s important to pillory troglodytes like Frat Boy: So that the more level-headed among them understand we’re not making this shit up.

Incidentally, I was born and raised in Hoboken, New Jersey, but that doesn’t matter to the people who’ve sent me horrid messages intending to belittle and intimidate. What they really mean is, “We don’t want your kind here.” That’s precisely what Frat Boy meant in his exchange with Hasan:

Hasan: “I am an immigrant. I’m speaking from personal experience.”

Frat Boy: “Get the hell out.”

Hasan: “I should get the hell out?”

Frat Boy: “Yes.”

Hasan: “Why?”

Frat Boy: “Because I don’t want you here.”

Here’s the full exchange:

It doesn’t matter that Hasan is a naturalized U.S. citizen. It doesn’t matter that he’s well-educated and well-informed. It matters that he’s a brown, Muslim immigrant. For people like Frat Boy, that’s the overriding factor.

“Because I don’t want you here.”

That’s what it boils down to for millions of people in the U.S. It’s not about policy or the rule of law. If it were, they would accept that people like Hasan are citizens. U.S. law says he is. But it was never about that.

It’s tempting to assign the Trump administration with all the blame for seeking to end birthright citizenship and prioritizing the denaturalization of U.S. citizens, a move that would effectively create second-class citizens—a hallmark of any unjust society—but many U.S. Americans want this. In their eyes, not all citizens are created equal.

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It should come as no surprise that Mehdi thrashed Frat Boy, leaving him red-faced and sputtering. The only recourse available to Frat Boy in the end was a parting shot as he walked back, roundly defeated, to his seat: “You’re gonna have to go, bro.”

Nah, bro, we’re not going anywhere.

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