when i grow up i wanna be like yuri kochiyama
"Even though we Asians are of many ethnicities, cultures, and histories of past hostility in Asia, our Asian American experience of racism, anti-Asian violence, similarities with other people of colors and other discriminated people (like lesbians, homosexuals, radicals, Arabs, Jews, homeless, disabled, jobless, etc., etc.) should have aroused our consciousness and sensitivity to right the wrongs and narrowed thinking in this society. Together, we must fight racism, classism, sexism, regionalism, factionalism, and polarization.
As Asian Americans we must understand that we are connected with all people - beyond race, beyond color, beyond ethnicity, beyond class."
- Yuri Kochiyama
twitter.com/meenabeenz:
Rocky Rivera - Heart
Left him on a Tuesday
Found him on a Sunday
Cried when I saw my
Hankerchief in his suitcase
Letter folded neatly in his pocket
With my perfume
Knew that he was lying when he
Told me he’d be back soon…
I couldn’t sleep the night
He left me with a promise
That he’d always keep me close
When the struggle got the hardest
So I…wiped the tears
Tied the hankerchief around me
Rallied up the troops
So we could
Find the Spanish army
It was time to stop the cryin’
Time to start the fightin’
Love was the beginning
But my people steady dyin’
…
And so I promised him the same thing
Gabriela blast in the name of the Philippines
I could hear em in the back of my mind
They said “Please don’t break my heart”
It could only be a matter of time…
Studying overseas
When I heard about the blast
And I knew the little girls
Who were killed in Alabama
It was Carole, Addie Mae
Cynthia & Denise
The Klan got away
In cahoots with the police
Knew that it was coming
When the Panthers started forming
So I booked the first flight to the states
In the morning
To show them my solidarity
Tightened up my afro
Books in my hand
Revolution in my heart
So I used my education
To combat the injustice
It was more
Than Malcolm X and Martin Luther
In the trenches
Sistah soldiers put ya rifles up
Angela Davis ride when the Klan try to light us up
I could hear ‘em in the back of my mind
They said
“Please don’t break my heart”
It could only be a matter of time they said
It was modern day slavery
Livin’ in the Valley
Stockton, California
Pickin’ grapes with my family
And my people broke they backs
Just to make a couple bucks
While the whiteys in the town
Ridiculed us in they trucks
So I
Picked up the megaphone
Shouted to my people, El
Pueblo Unido
Jama Sera Vencido
…Told em to stick together
Demand to be treated equal
Otherwise
These fucking crackas
Will continue to abuse us
Threw me in the slammer
20 times and some change
Yeah they broke a couple ribs
But the spirit remains
Do it again in a heartbeat
Para mi gente
Dolores what they call me
