Most of my Latino and black people who are struggling to get food,
clothes and shelter in the hood are so concerned with that, that
philosophising about freedom and socialist democracy is usually
unfortunately beyond their rationale. They don't realize that America
can't exist without separating them from their identity, because if we
had some sense of who we really are, there's no way in hell we'd allow
this country to push it's genocidal consensus on our homelands. This
ignorance exists, but it can be destroyed.
Nigga talk about change and working within the system to achieve that.
The problem with always being a conformist is that when you try to
change the system from within, it's not you who changes the system; it's
the system that will eventually change you. There is usually nothing
wrong with compromise in a situation, but compromising yourself in a
situation is another story completely, and I have seen this happen long
enough in the few years that I've been alive to know that it's a serious
problem. Latino America is a huge colony of countries whose presidents
are cowards in the face of economic imperialism. You see, third world
countries are rich places, abundant in resources, and many of these
countries have the capacity to feed their starving people and the
children we always see digging for food in trash on commercials. But
plutocracies, in other words a government run by the rich such as this
one and traditionally oppressive European states, force the third world
into buying overpriced, unnecessary goods while exporting huge portions
of their natural resources.
I'm quite sure that people will look upon my attitude and sentiments and
look for hypocrisy and hatred in my words. My revolution is born out of
love for my people, not hatred for others.
You see, most of Latinos are here because of the great inflation that
was caused by American companies in Latin America. Aside from that, many
are seeking a life away from the puppet democracies that were funded by
the United States; places like El Salvador, Guatemala, Peru, Columbia,
Nicaragua, Ecuador and Republica Dominicana, and not just
Spanish-speaking countries either, but Haiti and Jamaica as well.
As different as we have been taught to look at each other by colonial
society, we are in the same struggle and until we realize that, we'll be
fighting for scraps from the table of a system that has kept us
subservient instead of being self-determined. And that's why we have no
control over when the embargo will stop in Cuba, or when the bombs will
stop dropping in Vieques.
But you see, here in America the attitude that is fed to us is that
outside of America there live lesser people. "Fuck them, let them fend
for themselves." No, Fuck you, they are you. No matter how much you want
to dye your hair blonde and put fake eyes in, or follow an anorexic
standard of beauty, or no matter how many diamonds you buy from people
who exploit your own brutally to get them, no matter what kind of car
you drive or what kind of fancy clothes you put on, you will never be
them. They're always gonna look at you as nothing but a little monkey.
I'd rather be proud of what I am, rather than desperately trying to be
something I'm really not, just to fit in. And whether we want to accept
it or not, that's what this culture or lack of culture is feeding us.
I want a better life for my family and for my children, but it doesn't
have to be at the expense of millions of lives in my homeland. We're
given the idea that if we didn't have these people to exploit then
America wouldn't be rich enough to let us have these little petty
material things in our lives and basic standards of living. No, that's
wrong. It's the business giants and the government officials who make
all the real money. We have whatever they kick down to us. My enemy is
not the average white man, it's not the kid down the block or the kids I
see on the street; my enemy is the white man I don't see: the people in
the white house, the corporate monopoly owners, fake liberal politicians
those are my enemies. The generals of the armies that are mostly
conservatives those are the real Mother-Fuckers that I need to bring it
to, not the poor, broke country-ass soldier that's too stupid to know
shit about the way things are set up.
In fact, I have more in common with most working and middle-class white
people than I do with most rich black and Latino people. As much as
racism bleeds America, we need to understand that classism is the real
issue. Many of us are in the same boat and it's sinking, while these
bougie Mother-Fuckers ride on a luxury liner, and as long as we keep
fighting over kicking people out of the little boat we're all in, we're
gonna miss an opportunity to gain a better standard of living as a
whole.
In other words, I don't want to escape the plantation I want to come
back, free all my people, hang the Mother-Fucker that kept me there and
burn the house to the god damn ground. I want to take over the
encomienda and give it back to the people who work the land.
You cannot change the past but you can make the future, and anyone who
tells you different is a Fucking lethargic devil. I don't look at a few
token Latinos and black people in the public eye as some type of
achievement for my people as a whole. Most of those successful
individuals are sell-outs and house Negros.
But, I don't consider brothers a sell-out if they move out of the
ghetto. Poverty has nothing to do with our people. It's not in our
culture to be poor. That's only been the last 500 years of our history;
look at the last 2000 years of our existence and what we brought to the
world in terms of science, mathematics, agriculture and forms of
government. You know the idea of a confederation of provinces where one
federal government controls the states? The Europeans who came to this
country stole that idea from the Iroquois lead. The idea of impeaching a
ruler comes from an Aztec tradition. That's why Montezuma was stoned to
death by his own people 'cause he represented the agenda of white
Spaniards once he was captured, not the Aztec people who would become
Mexicans.
So in conclusion, I'm not gonna vote for anybody just 'cause they black
or Latino they have to truly represent the community and represent
what's good for all of us proletariat.
Viva la revolution!
Harlem Streets lyrics