The World Is Yours!
Issue #3
The Politics Suck Issue
September 1996

Take it to the Streets!

In mid-August, a couple of young API activist folks from the L. A. area went down to Dago (that's San Diego, to you) to protest the Republican National Convention. Many went down for different reasons, some to protest the Republicans' stance against Affirmative Action, some to focus attention on the cuts in Welfare and Immigrants' Rights spearheaded by the Republican congress, and others went to counter the attacks on bilingual education, the increase in the military and crime budgets and the decreases in educational funding. Some, like me, just went down to protest against evil.

In any case, the protests for all their bluster were pretty crappy, partly because of the lack of media attention, and largely because of the "cage." The "cage" is the area that Dago police authorities conveniently set aside for all the "rabble-rousing protesters" who came to focus attention on the Republicans. Let me paint a picture of it for you. Imagine the Dago convention center. Now imagine a big fence between you and the center. Now imagine train tracks in front of the fence. Now imagine a fenced in protest area with only two entrances in front of that. That was the "cage," the "designated protest area" (Have you ever heard of such a thing!?!) and the site of our protests. What made me sick, however, was not only the fact that the authorities had set up such an area to cordon us off, but that almost all of the people who came to protest accepted the limitations of the "cage," and stayed inside its confines like sheep. That was pretty bad in and of itself.

But worst of all was the symbolism of the location. For all intents and purposes we had been segregated from the main convention center. We, the colored people, poor people, and undesirables were literally on the other side of the tracks, and many speakers noted the parallels between the segregation of the protesters and the segregation of the olden days where train tracks separated poor people of color from the rest of society in apartheid-style ghettos. The funny thing about the whole scene, was that while I agreed that the Republicans had put us on the other side of the tracks, I couldn't help feeling like we were on the tracks, tied down, and that right at this moment, the whole conservative agenda was bearing down on us and all the communities of color like a buck-wild locomotive ready to explode. Saddest of all, I knew that no heroes would be swooping down to save the day, and that we'd have to wriggle out of or cut our own bindings by ourselves.

And indeed we're at a real junction even as we speak. On many levels, the attacks on our civil and human rights continue to increase. Just the other day, a Korean man named Young Ho Choi was mistakenly arrested for the slaying of a CHP officer in Fullerton. While in custody, police officers called him a "cop killer," and one officer pointed his fingers at Choi in the shape of a gun and said, "Cop Killer. Boom." Later while giving blood samples, he was wrestled to the ground by four officers, was not allowed to use the phone, and was not allowed to contact his attorney. So much for civil and human rights.

Even further, the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium recently reported that hate crimes against Asians increased 80% in 1995. If society as a whole is perpetrating more crimes against Asians, and the cops are also committing crimes against Asians, then who do we turn to for help?

Tough questions require tough answers, and as we head into the election months, our vote is only one small part of the solution, and is the least that we can do to address the issues at hand. More importantly, however, we need to organize our communities for their collective defense, and develop true empowerment for our ultimate liberation. And this means that we, as activists must organize more than just those people who are already privileged, those who are already college-educated, and those who already have an awareness of the issues. Our reach as a movement must expand and continue to make inroads amongst the unorganized elements in our communities, and especially amongst high school students.

Recently, some friends and I have been meeting to address the problem of dropout rates amongst API high school students. In central L. A., we found that 16% of the API students at Lincoln High dropped out last year, with 13% from Marshall High, 14% from Fairfax High, 14% from Belmont High, and a whopping 34% from Los Angeles High School. The last figure blew us away most of all, since a full third of the API class at L. A. High dropped out of school last year and no one was even talking about this. When counted all together, we're looking at thousands of API kids that are not finishing high school in L. A. alone. So where are they going? Some turn to gangs, some turn to drugs, some become teen parents, and some just end up at the morgue. The lucky ones get jobs at the local liquor store, post office, or whatevers. All in all, though, it all points out the need to truly impact society and organize our brothers and sisters in the high schools.

Even further, this all points out the need to take the skills that we have learned and be willing to walk the streets in order to bring our people up. We need to be spreading our message throughout L. A., to the students, to our neighbors, and to the people on our streets. Our message of hope and solidarity is something that we must actualize on a daily basis in all aspects of our lives. In this manner, we take our movement to the streets, and in this manner, we build a golden foundation for the future and for the generations to come.

Issue 4
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