The Power of One
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When you think about activism, you think collective action. Do you sit contented with life but sensitive to slights and injustice, or do you simmer in discontent? Who can blame you when there’s so much to be unhappy about, and not even the opiates of religion and sex and consumerism can dull this unhappiness? Intuitively, you know that the ultimate perversion of everything good is the appearance of all being well when everything is, in fact, rotting inside. People discuss and debate the Asian American identity and the Asian American plight, but so little is achieved outside this circle in the wider world, or so your daily experiences tell you. Feelings of deja vu, of same shit different day? Let’s face it: who cares? You are disrespected for sweating the small stuff; your so-called pettiness is reason enough for immediate dismissal of everything you say. Until one day when a racist cracker slips up and commits an act too blatant to ignore, too serious in magnitude, too far reaching in scope and, it is suddenly deemed important to our activists. We band together. We protest. We picket. We send letters. We shout abuse over the phone or deliver it via flying brick. Our voices pour out like a raging flood, and though insufficient to crush every Enemy, it is enough to strike a little fear into their hearts.
The Enemy does not fear the Asian community’s sanction, so much as the knowledge that blatant racism towards anybody in this day and age is sufficient to brand the burning sign of evil upon their foreheads and bring the smiting cross of justice down upon that same mark. It is beautiful. In this one instant, we act in unity, putting aside our petty differences and self-importance for the sake of our fellow yellow man and woman. We fight for what is good and we triumph, or we make a brave show, something to be admired in a community so small before giants. In this one instant, we have a sense of power beyond what an individual can achieve. We see our worth; we see our influence. We understand we can change things for the better. We see we are not alone. And we are pleased with our one victory. Or we measure our success by the rallies we attended and the change we have forced through them. Small victories. So we sit and continue with our lives just a little contented waiting for the next time we are called to battle to cross swords, spear, and shield with the Enemy. For is the war not won by a collection of small victories? Are our lives not improved little by little by winning every battle no matter how big or small? Thus by collective action, half the battle is won.
But only one half.
In your battles, have you forgotten the real reason you are fighting? Is it not so that you are viewed as an individual instead of a just another faceless chink who looks the same as the other yellow monkeys? Is it not for your career advancement and your achievements to be judged based on merit instead of racial loyalty or hatred? Is it not so that potential mates see all you bring to the table instead of a collection of negative stereotypes or a fetishized caricature? Is it not to be treated as a human individual under the eyes of the law and society, treated with the common decency and respect accorded other individuals? Is it not to be viewed as a fellow citizen as opposed to a foreign alien who happens to squat in this country, unwelcome, inscrutable, unknowable except through generalizations, always with the potential for treason and acts of foreign barbarism? In seeing the forest, have you missed the trees that make it?
This is a call to arms. You advance the cause not just when you participate in a show of numbers, you advance the cause and the common good every time you improve yourself and work towards the achievement of your goals and a strong awareness of your identity. You advance the cause when you make peace with yourself, when you become a man or woman on your own terms, when you learn a new skill, when you access your creativity, express yourself freely, when you get that degree, become a pop star, step on the moon, discover the cure for cancer. You advance the cause when you lend a sympathetic ear, when you volunteer to work with disadvantaged youths, when you when you give good loving to your woman or man.
Look at your limits and break them. Most are merely beliefs that can be changed. You can be smarter, wiser, faster, stronger, more articulate and superior in every way. Every time you achieve something, you give something back and the strength of the Asian community grows.
The community has a big stake in what is essentially your individual journey. Never forget your duty to yourself, and to us: that duty to express your individuality, to have a real presence in the world, and to be everything that you want to be.
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