When a racist told Black TikToker Gregory Lakhan to “go back to Africa,” he didn’t get mad, he got creative. Lakhan, known as @SirGregolas on TikTok, turned the insult into a satirical challenge: if people really wanted him to move, they could pay for it.
“Alright, folks, you asked and you shall receive, so let’s fing make this s happen,” he announced in a video, leaning into the idea with tongue firmly in cheek.
A New Yorker who posts video essays and music videos, Lakhan set up a $30,000 “relocation” fundraiser, but there was a twist. He launched it on GiveSendGo, a controversial crowdfunding site often used by far-right groups. Earlier this year, the platform came under fire for allowing a Minnesota woman, filmed calling a 5-year-old Black boy the n-word, to raise over $800,000 in donations, much of it from white supremacists and extremists.
Some racists told this brother to go back to Africa and this was how he responded😩 pic.twitter.com/qUZj2Ash6b
— Liii ❤️🖤💚 (@MsLoveLiii) July 22, 2025
Last month, Lakhan posted a video explaining his plan. People who really wanted him “back in Africa” could donate to his GiveSendGo page, cheekily titled, Help Me Return To Africa For Good!
“Don’t just waste your time and energy writing angry comments in my comment section. Actually, do something about it. You can actually make a difference,” he says in the clip, with upbeat music playing.
But here’s the punchline: Lakhan has no plans to leave the U.S. The donations will go toward his film school tuition in New York.
On the fundraising page, he explains: he “jokingly dared bigots to fund my hypothetical one-way ticket out of America. The internet exploded, but shocker, the ‘send her back’ crowd wouldn’t put a single dollar behind their nonsense.”
Instead, he’s “converting their wasted energy into something useful: my Film MFA in NYC. With your help, I’ll turn their trolling into tuition—and their hate into art.”
The response was huge. It got eight million views on TikTok and waves of praise from viewers. “Sometimes it’s not about what racism does TO you, but what racism can do FOR you,” one person wrote. “This is God level sarcasm. Respect!!!” said another. A third comment read, “This was a master class in marketing.”
While Lakhan’s “move to Africa” isn’t real, the idea of returning to the continent is more than a joke for some. In 2019, Ghana’s president, Nana Akufo-Addo, launched the “Year of the Return” to mark 400 years since the first enslaved Africans were brought to English North America. That year, he granted citizenship to more than 100 African-Americans and Afro-Caribbeans in a special homecoming ceremony.
That energy is pure gold, turning hate into something legendary.
— efe 🕊️ (@efe206925896290) July 23, 2025
Since then, Akufo-Addo has urged global leaders to create a Global Reparation Fund for descendants of enslaved people. Around 1,500 Black Americans have moved to Ghana since 2019, and last year alone, more than 500, mostly Black Americans, were granted citizenship.
Other African nations have also opened their doors to African Americans, with some even offering citizenship based on ancestry. Liberia’s history runs even deeper. It was founded in the early 1800s as a settlement for free and formerly enslaved Black people from the U.S., becoming an independent nation in 1847.
