Semantic hair splitting. Boo. The point at which one has to mine Google definitions of 'racism' and 'race' to examine whether or not the saying "go back to your own country" fits the bill is the point at which one loses the thread.

When it comes to racism, and especially when it comes to "go back to your own country," it can be useful to apply the old Justice Potter Stewart test: I know it when I see it. As kingmudsy pointed out, sometimes a saying doesn't have to perfectly fit the technical definition of racism if the person uttering the phrase makes no distinction between race and ethnicity. Is it not racist to condemn a moneylending Jew rat? After all, that encompasses the Ashkenazi and the Sephardic, the religiously Jewish and culturally Jewish, the Israeli and the American.

And if we ARE to lean on the dictionary definition, what descriptor would be more pleasing to the ear? Ethno-nationalism? Is that any nobler than racism? Any more acceptable? Is that where we want the national discourse to trend?

I won't argue that there aren't shades of grey. But "go back to your own country" is a darker thing entirely.