November 20, 2004

• …the struggle continues…

  We won Big Game today, a good thing in the context of school spirit and morale, but how relevant is that to our lives? It’s funny how something like a football game is able to generate so much money and mobilize so many people to be at one given place at a given time, and yet we can’t even get people to be passionate about stuff that affects their own lives and community, like voting. I don’t get it, I honestly don’t get how superficial and mindless our culture has become…

  As an activist, it’s frustrating to see that people of my community are more concerned with the outcome of frivolous things such as a football game than the usurption of their own rights and liberties. I’ve been working with the Third World Liberation Front and Ethnic Studies Collective for quite some time now to try to get a multi-cultural center on the campus, and a couple of days ago, I was quite disappointed in the outcome of the evening. It was a townhall meeting that lasted some 3-4 hours that seemed to undercut every step of progress that the core committee had worked so tirelessly to achieve. By the end of the evening, tears were shed, spirits were broken, and we had regressed at least five steps when we had only taken one. To say that I was disheartened by the outcome is an understatement. If people are going to criticize the work we do, you’d’ better damn well be prepared to be part of the change instead of whining like the little bitches that you are about stuff you haven’t even invested an ounce of sweat and time into!

  I’m an angry Asian man and you do NOT want to fuck with me!

  My Culture

  Grab a seat
  And let me tell you about
  My story, my culture
  Of struggle, of defeat
  Of privilege, and of pain…

  From the deep roots of Phnom Penh
  To the shallow lands of the United States of Exploitation
  Mine is a culture of struggle
  While my people fight for food and existence
  Y’all fight for oil

  See, I don’t need you to tell me
  How I should feel
  How I should think
  And what I need to do
  I know my roots
  Where I come from
  And where you need to be
  Out of my face
  Out of my culture
  And out of my business

  Cuz see, my people
  We was walkin’ tall and strong
  Way before you came along
  And our pride
  It’s stronger than any shackles you can put on our hides
  Cuz see, my people
  We believe in our culture
  A culture of resistance
  Grounded in the blood, sweat, and tears
  Of a work ethic you will never know,
  Of a struggle only you can impose upon others
  And still we rise

  From carpet bombings
  To carpet making
  From weaving policies
  To weaving rugs
  Ours is a fight to survive
  So don’t tell me about your White Man’s Burden
  Cuz my back’s been breaking
  Carrying your privilege
  Your hate
  Your standard of beauty
  And your need to discriminate
  So excuse me if I don’t sound like the Model Minority
  Forgive me because I didn’t know 187+209 equals equality
  I’m just trying to live in the land of the un-free
  Where 9/11 justifies the suspension of our civil liberties
  And to be different is death by democracy

  My experience is something you will never understand
  To walk a day in my shoes is something you can never withstand
  See, for me, this is life…
  Raw and real
  No glitz, no glamour
  No fake, no bake
  No turning back
  No escape
  So take your blue collar “philanthropic” attempts to civilize my “heathen” race
  And remember
  My culture cannot be learned from a book
  Because education comes not from the classroom
  But from the struggle…

  (C) 2004 All Rights Reserved Ty J. Lim

  • 10:51 pm
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