Let's stop asking where you're from

And you, where are you from? This seemingly innocent question hides a ticking time bomb. It means you look like you're not from here. It means we have a prejudice about what people from here look like. It means you believe that if you look unconformable to that prejudice, you can't be considered from here. The consequence is that the person being asked the question perceives they're not considered from here, and they may feel annoyed, insulted, excluded, and discriminated against. Surely with good reason, even if the person asking the question may have done so with the best of intentions and out of genuine, friendly curiosity. Prejudices are also reflected in language and small details.

The response of the young people of Torre Pacheco against racist attacks stems largely from this unease, which is a daily constant and brought to light by extreme situations like the one fueled by xenophobic fascists. It's true that the hate speech and anti-immigration narrative sweeping the world, validated by Trump and followed with delight by the entire European far right, including Vox, has become rife. They dominate social media and know how to use it to make younger people believe they've been "invaded," paradoxically, probably by their own high school classmates. The avalanche of lies—the tweet that ignited social media about the attack on an elderly man in Torre Pacheco corresponded to another attack perpetrated by young Spaniards—and the self-serving falsehoods are so prevalent that they prevent any rational debate. But we can't focus solely on the narrative of the racist extremists who call for a "hunt" for immigrants.

This is an extreme. But we should be more concerned about what lies beneath all this, as sociologist Blanca Garcés explains in an article. We are no longer—if we have ever been—a homogeneous society. With the various and multiple waves of immigration, we have been incorporating new populations from very diverse origins, who have had offspring, which has enriched Catalan and Spanish society. Fortunately, there is no going back. We now more resemble what could be seen in the United States, Great Britain, and France a few years ago. But despite having arrived later to this diversity, we have not learned from the mistakes made by many of these societies, and instead of paying attention to how they work to correct their errors, we fall into the same patterns of exclusion, discrimination, and segregation, which affects this new population and their descendants.

Economic and social measures are needed to prevent the perpetuation of this segregation and its resulting malaise. And, also, and above all, a change in the internal narrative is necessary. How is it possible that the left, and democrats in general, are incapable of combating xenophobic rhetoric both online and in the streets? Without do-gooderism, with the truth, with reality, with the data and discourse of local people. We've seen for many years how falsehoods and racist narratives are gaining ground in societies that, on a daily basis, are diverse and much more transversal than what the networks convey. Is it so difficult to combat this narrative with their own means? Actively, intelligently, and directly. Is there no one on the other side?