I see a homeless man rocking a Kobe Bryant jersey Up from Sunset at the end of Alvarado, standing In front of the AutoZone All alone White skin tone The promise of his life is blown Because his youth is gone His epidermis Badly burned pink discolored blotchy by the sun Hoping for a different tomorrow is done Or at least that’s what I read in his eyes In desperate need of vitamins and rest He doesn’t laugh, Exalt, And he doesn’t detest He just survives By adapting Ignoring notions of Self-Actualization Temptation Salvation I should have known This is this situation This is how it was gonna be in the 2013 City of Angels Empty white hands filled By black and brown donations Because, let’s be real The hipsters who’ve gentrified, and keep gentrifyin’ They walk right past this man Never willing to know him Avoiding all eye contact Not willing to get his back Despite the fact that this neighborhood is his too Meditate on that for a moment, and you’ll see it’s true Real talk All those who sleep on the streets Are disregarded because they’re meek By those who have the most to give When again, will the poor inherit the earth from the rich? Real talk This man’s invisibility doesn’t make him eliminated Even in the dead of night, His face and body are illuminated He’s not hidden in the dark He’s well lit, like the reopened Echo Park Real talk On his face, there’s a rushing stream of headlights, He sits and stands under streetlights, He can’t sleep because of police helicopter spotlights, And if he stops moving, it’s siren sound tracked strobe lights, The irony Is the juxtaposed, Never-ending fight, For all human beings to actually receive human rights The reality Is a series of cold facts Beginning with the truth that All of us giving out change on the streets here are homeless Thanking the Lord for our blessings, Can’t make us un-know this Fact: We don’t own the buildings of the neighborhood we live in Fact: It doesn’t matter how hard or smart we work, we still rentin’ Fact: The average cost of a “starter” home here is three-quarters of a million Fact: Better schools, and cleaner streets with less taggin’ Would make the unlikelihood of our American Dream all the more unlikely And futile is desiring That which you can’t have, So we spend , And we spend, On what we can afford Just to keep from going mad Distracting from sour impulse by chasing fads Peep us at the Targets or the name brand Outlets Peep us at the swap meet or the two-for-one tianguis Peep us eating and drinking in places with games to make our kids happy Peep us with shallow pockets living with our mommies, grandmothers, or aunties Peep us marching for citizenship for mixed-status families Peep us working fulltime, but still studying for community college degrees Peep us believing in the promises of the free market democracy Let’s be real again Maybe some of those fashionable hungry people lined up in that parking lot Ordering food from the old silver, wildly stickered taco cart Pulled around by the driver of an old van Own the deed to a plot of property in this part of Atzlan Real talk Most of us are barely hustle enough to put gas in our car We roll around bumpin’ Banda, Cumbia, and the occasional Maná Blastin’ every Dre beat, Pac verse, and battle verse by Kendrick Lamar This is Los Angeles Home of the scandalous No, not the notorious celebrity But the shame of unresolved inequity The notoriety of multi-million dollar houses and overcrowded Skid Row streets The infamy of a people overwhelmingly black, brown, and Asian, Who become invisible every time I turn on my television Hollywood is here And so is Burbank So why is every show filmed here lily whiter than lily white? Why won’t film studios hire actors and writer’s of color to tell our people’s plight? Folks who don’t live here have come to believe (1) Black faces are only found in South Central As though no black people ever heard of Westside rentals (2) Brown faces are all found in East L.A. As though no Mexicans or Central Americans ever crossed the 5 Freeway (3) Asian faces… Well I guess they live in Chinatown Someone tell Monterrey Park and Arcadia to shut down The next time I’m eating BBQ or singing karaoke in K-Town I’ll make sure to remind folks if they’re not supposed to be around Could an Indistry exec. find L.A.’s historic Filipinotown? Perhaps I should ask these kind of questions Because (4) If I even try to ask about Native Americans Eyes will glaze over or fill with panic As folks remember that casinos hardly make up for reservations Yet, if there’s ever been a moment of clarity That’s been clearer than clear It’s that people of color founded this city Built this country And despite genocide’s best efforts We’re still here When I read Baldwin on America Or review the evolution of MLK I see the movement DREAMers led And undocumented folks are still leading today To make this country own its present and its history Why we want an end to deportations and raids shouldn’t be a mystery No one chose to be without But now you want us to choose being without Poverty was not a lifestyle choice But now you want us to choose lo live poor and without our families Vulnerability to racial profiling, and workplace exploitation Were not voluntary selections And yet it is your expectation That we Like the homeless man in the street Embrace invisibility and the possibility of being eliminated When we know how to survive like this man wearing a Kobe Bryant jersey And the people attending town halls Or holding signs in street corner demonstrations Speechifying and screaming to express their frustrations Because they don’t want any kind of amnesty or further immigration While usually white, Like the gentrifying Aztlan plot buyers Are often also living paycheck to paycheck, Like those of us rental property occupiers Which leads me back to the notion of inequality If it’s a zero sum game, and it’s either you or me Why then aren’t you trying to take from the multi-million dollar home celebrity? If on the other hand, this is the land of plenty? Then why does giving some of the “enough to go around” make you angry? Every single day I see expensive cars speeding. In every news interview with a professional politician I hear lies. But I’ve never seen car owner or elected officials pay for their perceived crimes. In contrast, black and brown folks are stopped and frisked in New York. Held until they can win special release from private detention facilities in Arizona. And in L.A. Shit, you can be anything you want to be except free. And I’m not just saying that because of the price tag of a college degree. California’s destiny is interwoven with this land So long as HB 56 exists in Alabama, we must take a stand And as long as the price we must pay for citizenship from Washington Is a militarized border We must organize and object Not because this country’s laws we seek disrespect But because they disrespect us All of us Documented or undocumented Black, brown, Native, Asian So long as our sense of belonging is questioned We cannot pretend as though this is a post-racial nation And if our condition is truly one of evolution and reconciliation That means the laws that govern our habits are subject to examination Under scrutiny, our institutions won’t break But we must attend to those mistakes we’d otherwise continue to make That means standing up and demanding change from Congress But it also means telling President Obama we won’t stand his Record of 400,000 deportations a year He is the Chief Executive and can no longer equivocate or remain unclear An end to family separation is a must, as is a pathway for the deported to return And if states don’t open jails to free nonviolent offenders Use the power of Presidential pardon to open every cell I Have a Dream, Bring them home, Free at Last, Free at Last… (Repeat)
Posted on: Sat, 17 Aug 2013 10:37:25 +0000
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