Asian American.
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A people’s alliance to effect social and political changes. We believe that the American society is historically racist and is one which has systematically employed social discrimination and economic imperialism both domestically and internationally, exploiting all non-white people in the process of building up their affluent society. -AAPA
c(re)ativity: poetry“1, 2, 3” (Third World)
Coercion and Break Skies blue, waters clear, lands green. Despite the abundance that felt like a spree, Our values and traditions made us glean. We welcomed the Mayflower in open arms, Only to be greeted with guns and epidemics which wiped us clean. “What’s ours is yours,” No, we don’t mean it like that. Our silk and tea were in high demand, In the name of fair trade, we wanted more. No, not ah-pen-yen, I woke up, my home torn. Who did this? Cold sweats and shivers inundate, They said it was the only way I’d cooperate. Justification in the name of “sea to shining sea,” Called it God’s will. Our destinies had just started to manifest, Stopped short as I looked for the Nueces from the Rio Grande. They were back for more, For our ivory, diamonds, rubber, and cocoa. Rifles and rovers galore! Explosions heard from Cape Town to Cairo. We cheered for the white man to shoot the elephant. You came uninvited, Compounded wealth at the expense of our dignity and more. We were without structure, forced to drop all progress, All for the hegemony of the so-called First World. As we reluctantly wore our Third World labels, We learned of a man on the moon, We saw mushroom clouds from afar, We were the collateral of your modernization. Root of Internalization Sentiments and Experiences in Homogeneity Let yourself be defined by the caricatures, Laugh at the ignorance, laugh along with it! Would you? React positively to exoticism, Embrace the duality of the oriental. Am I a carpet or a person? My brain turns into sludge, My tongue tied. My face flushed as I am filled with rage. I couldn’t even defend myself, I didn’t know my history. I was embarrassed by it. If I’m so clueless, how do I begin to defend myself and my culture? I’m exhausted from running, My inaction fuels the wheel of ignorance. I knew American and European history like the back of my hand. And yet, I can’t satisfactorily recount enough of my own. Why are your histories part of the core curriculum? Why is mine an elective? When we’re in the periphery, How do we—how can we, continue our legacy? Know History, Know Self. The Multidimensional American Being American was all that she had known, America is where she is really from. She didn’t know the significance of following the lunar calendar, Ma and Pa say they do it because the previous generation did. She didn’t know what she could become in the mainstream society, None of her heroes looked like her. Soon, she learned. Her parents immigrated from a rural region, Where harvests depended upon positions of the sun. Soon, she saw. There were in fact heroes that looked like her. Grace Lee Boggs, Asian American philosopher, academic, social activist, feminist. It goes on. They existed. She exists. She is Asian American. She is American. No history, No self. Know history, Know self. |
These maps pin to important places surrounding the AAPA movement at UC Berkeley.
The top pin indicates where the protestors were at the article on the right. (click on the link to see the full PDF) The second pin indicates where the plaque from above stands, serving as meeting place and vital point of the Asian American Movements in the late 60s. |
We regard AAPA as both a means to an end, and a beginning toward the end itself; that end is a better society in which people can live as people. Both in its goal and in its existing structure, we feel that AAPA should work toward merging that here and now, and not only in the Utopian future. With this in mind, we attempt here to find some type of functional “structure” by which AAPA can reach its goal and exist as a part of those goals.