The World Is Yours!
Issue #1
The Debut Issue
April, 1996

It's 4/29/96, Sa-I-Gu, four years after the riots here in this mad city of lost angels, and I'm working downtown, blocks away from Skid Row to the southeast and their modern day shantytowns and the Temple-Beverly area to the west where I'd heard about half a dozen kids had gotten shot last week, and I'm thinking 'bout all the madness I've seen in the last couple months. Just a half year ago, I looked down the barrel of a gun that some hakujin kid down in south O.C pulled on me. Not more than a couple of months later some haole cops pulled me and my Chicano friend over, frisked us, and illegally searched my car and trunk, even though we didn't do anything. The pigs said that they stopped us because "they had reports of an Asian and Latino doing drive-by robberies in the area," and we just happened to fit the description. Even more recently, my friends and I had a run-in with an Asian posse that claimed Wah Ching. That little incident left both my friend and my roommate on the ground with bruises and black eyes. And how can I forget hearing about this Asian Indian guy who beat down on a female friend of mine. And of course how can I forget seeing a Korean friend of mine fuck a dealer for a gram of coke, or seeing a Japanese friend freebase so much blow that she just sat there on the couch, unable to speak, even as she went back for more.

And now, I'm checking out the news and I'm hearing about this Korean kid who just got shot by the cops down in O.C. even though he was unarmed. And I'm hearing about the recent push to eliminate Affirmative Action in the wake of the "Three Strikes Bills" and Proposition 187. And I'm looking at how they just freed 72 Thai women from slavery in a sweat shop in El Monte, and dozens more from forced prostitution in a brothel in Rosemead. And I'm hearing about how the politicians are trying to remove bilingual education and ballots so that Asians and Latinos will be forced to lose their language as the ballot box moves further and further away from them. And I'm watching Riverside sheriffs pull unarmed Latinos out of a truck and just beat them like they were less than human and I'm wondering what the fuck is going on here? and I'm sitting with so much fucking rage and anger that I feel like I'm gonna explode.

I mean, shit, this ain't like the goddamned "Joy Luck Club," and why the fuck doesn't what's left of my family look like the cast of "All American Girl?" Why the fuck are the images on the screen so fucking alien to me that I feel like taking a bat and smashing the hell out of the TV!?!

Back in school, though, they just ignore my history, and tell me that "Asians don't have any problems," and look at me and wonder why I'm so angry. Even though, in L.A., Pacific Islanders have a poverty rate of 24%, Vietnamese have a rate of 25%, and other Southeast Asians have a whopping 45% of their population in poverty.

And I'm looking around checking out all these Asians chasing after white tail, and I notice sometimes how some Asians will avoid talking to other Asians or hanging out with them almost as if they're ashamed to be associated with other Asians. And I've seen some Asians change their names to "fit in better," watched some get colored contact lenses, and I've known some women who've had plastic surgery to change their eyes so that they'd have that double eyelid fold that fits so much "better" in a Western beauty standard.

And I'm looking around wondering why there aren't more Asians that are standing up to fight for their rights and I'm wondering when the old cry of "Asian Power!" will be heard in this city again. And I'm wondering when more Asians will raise their banners at rallies, learn their languages and histories, and stand up for what is right.

You see, I'm rambling to talk about all the reasons that went into why this 'zine had to exist and why it had to come out now. Because right now we're coming into a time of great change that will undoubtedly test all of us and even shake the very foundations upon which this country has been built. Because, not only do Asians make up more than half of the world's population, but in California, Asians and Latinos will be the majority within a few decades. And those who are in power (i.e. white rich men) absolutely see this and are doing everything in their power to stop it. Thus, the persistent attacks on people of color, women, and the poor as demonstrated in the current conservative reaction.

It had been with this background in mind that this 'zine had to come about, to give voice to those Asian youths that have not had a voice, to let each other know about what's going down in the community, and to bring together and celebrate our Asian cultures as we ask questions about what kind of a future we want for ourselves and what kind of a country we are making for our children. Even further it is a venue for us to start looking at ourselves and learning how to be proud of what and who we are, whatever that may be.

And it is because of this that this 'zine is called The World is Yours!, because the world truly does belong to our generation, and it's sitting there just waiting for you to take it. All it requires is for us to get real about what's going on out there, and take ownership not only of the internal problems within our community but also protect ourselves from the attacks coming from outside our community as well. As the future movers and shakers, culture-makers, workers, educators, artists, doctors, etc., we will make the future on our actions (or inactions as the case may be) right now. And I'm here to say that the World is ready, and waiting, and is yours for the asking.

So fucking take it already.

Issue 2
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