As I woke up from sleep this morning and checked my Twitter feed, I saw an article in the NY Daily News that was very sobering and frightening at the same time. People who have green cards and visas from the countries that were included on the president’s executive order were being denied access to planes to come back to the United States.

As a child of two Nigerian immigrants, this hit very close to home for me. Even though Nigeria is not on the list of countries, I knew that this would affect all foreigners who didn’t come from European countries. Honestly, Nigeria could be a prime candidate for the list, it has a 50% Muslim population and has Boko Haram continuing to fight for their legitimacy.

There are a lot of Nigerians in this country who are Christian and don’t think that they or their family members will be affected by any of this. But, to be honest, there is no way to determine what someone’s religion is by their name. Everything depends on your country of origin. Even for people like myself who was born in the United States, I always considered myself Nigerian before I was American.

Unfortunately, the Obama years fooled a lot of non-whites that America actually had a place for them. Now in the era of our new president, I feel that that promise will be ripped back again from us. My only hope is that Americans of all backgrounds push back against those who want to pick and choose who is really American. My parents along with immigrants from various countries have worked hard and have contributed mightily to America being the country that it is today. In the end, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr said it best, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” I pray that many of us won’t catch ourselves on the wrong side of history because of our refusal to speak out in times of moral crisis.

•Chinedu Achebe is Author, Blunted on Reality. He first published this piece in huffingtonpost.com

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