Much of the criticism directed at me and at System was also spiked with anti-immigrant rhetoric. We were portrayed as “the other,” not real Americans, even though we’d all grown up here. I was sometimes told that I should “Go back home!” Whenever I heard that, I would think, “Great. Where is that?” And also, “Unless you’re Native American, you can fuck off!” I don’t think I’d ever felt more like a man without a country than in the days, weeks, and months after 9/11.
