First Person ColonizedWritten by Max Macias
I am an American. What does that mean? I am Yaqui, Spanish, and Portuguese. What does that mean? Sitting here on this 4th of July, 2005 contemplating my place, my time, and myself, these thoughts come to me. The concept of an American is intertwined so heavily with the concept of assimilation that they are virtually the same. The reality of the situation is that no matter how much Black and Brown people in our country try to assimilate, they will never be accepted by the REAL AMERICANS. The REAL AMERICANS are the so-called whites (Caucasians). They are the descendents of the REAL AMERICANS, who stole this land, and murdered and subjugated the indigenous inhabitants. This was done with such savagery that the Nazis seem almost tame when reading accounts of the Genocide perpetrated by the European invaders.
My culture is thoroughly American. I was raised to believe I was an American, and never taught Spanish, my family’s first language (Which incidentally is also a conquering European language); my parents had been severely persecuted as children for speaking Spanish. They never wanted to stigmatize me (They were so wrong, but I understand), so they did not teach me Spanish. On my mom’s side my grandfather was from México, and my grandmother’s father was from Mexico; on my dad’s side both my great-grandparents were from Mexico. They all spoke Spanish. Not learning Spanish alienated me from my people.
Now this would NOT be so bad if, as I was taught, everyone can become an American—that’s a lie! If by giving up my culture and becoming Americanized I could become an American, then at least everything would make sense. However, this is not the case. People of color, will never be treated fairly in the present shitstem we have. This condition, the condition of having neither place, nor people has been a great challenge to me. I have finally given my indigenous side the proper place it deserves in my life and things are becoming clearer.
I have been learning Spanish, and it is helping me understand myself. It also allows me to communicate more with my people. I am going to learn an indigenous language soon as well. Learning these new things has enabled me to see just how Ethnocentrized I had become. I have seen the world through European eyes up until recently. My whole world was fundamentally European, and this is what has been causing me problems. Seeing the world through Western eyes, I will use Western from here on in because the European ideals have taken root in many parts of the world today.
Education
The American educational system is primarily indoctrination into the Western views of the world, and most particularly the view that Arbeit Macht Frei ("Work Brings Freedom"). It is a system that creates workers for the corporations that run this country. Even science is now just big Business’ whore. This system still teaches ethnocentricism. We are taught that you can become whatever you wish, as long as you are wiling to work hard for it, and willing to do it the proper Western way. This is a lie, as we still have a classicist/White Supremacist system of government. I work in a school and have suffered severe repercussions for speaking my mind about such things. It is ok. This allows me to see the true face of the system I exist within.
Education in America is indoctrination into the American culture. It relies heavily on Western concepts, ideologies, and ethnocentrism. It is the center from which all else is judged. While at the university, I had my favorite History teacher, a European, tell me that the Aztecs had no philosophy, those people were too primitive. I was flabbergasted at his derision of an entire people in a classroom full of white people, but I did not have the skills to battle him. I just sat down humiliated and angry. He was talking about my people. He was talking about me…I couldn’t’ understand how he couldn’t understand that someone else’s cultural conception of Philosophy just might be totally completely different than your own.
We have teachers at the country’s greatest schools teaching White Supremacy. People like Samuel P. Huntington (from Harvard) can write books that are blatantly White Supremacist like: Who Are We: the Challenges to America's National Identity, while great teachers such as Ward Churchill get their entire lives investigated, up to and including their last bowel movement, in an effort to find a reason to fire him because of an essay he wrote. Churchill writes books that build pride, and self-esteem in Black and Brown History and Figures. He sets an example for all students to look at your history to understand where you are, and where you are going. No wonder why he is such a target!
Ironically, sometimes the only way a brown or black sister or brother can go to college is if they enlist in the military. Here too they become a slave to the state. They are literally property. These poor souls are then pitted against black and brown poor people in other parts of the world. They kill each other off. The system works well. It kills both external and internal enemies/potential enemies of the state. We must work to get to these people when they return from the war. They have seen the injustices firsthand. They have been sent into battle ill-equipped, and have paid in blood. These people are essential to our struggle for freedom in obvious and vital positions.
My people are usually too busy trying to feed themselves and trying to pay their rent to be able to focus on changing things. When they do go to school they often go into the professional/vocational programs so they can make money. I’m not saying that making money is wrong, but that if that is the only thing that is stressed, then we will miss out on many great minds that can change the world for the better. My generation and the latest are focused on themselves, and selfish. They were taught the American ideal, “take care of Number 1!”
When Black and Brown students make it to University they are often steered into Mathematics and the Sciences. Usually the explanation is that they can make a good living in those areas. Now we have the question of African American studies being taken out of schools as reported in a recent Chronicle of higher education. The reason—there is not enough student interest. It is no wonder that there is no interest when the school system downplays Black and Brown contributions to our history. When historical figures get talked about they are oftentimes scientists like George Washington Carver, or Louis Armstrong. Kids must be taught about Malcolm, and the Black Panther Party, and the Zoot suit riots.
Backlash against AA
There has been a concerted, intense, and unwavering attack on Affirmative Action particularly in Education. This has been exemplified California’s Proposition 209 which bans affirmative action programs in state hiring, contracts and education. This is tragic because there has been no dramatic increase in college graduates in minority sections of the population. If there were so many white people getting denied a place in college because a less qualified applicant of color was select over them, then there would be a whole lot more college graduates who are black and brown. This attack displays the ugly face of white supremacy that still exists in almost all aspects of our country. The attack against the Poor, the Black, and the Brown will not stop until it is met with an equally concerted effort to fight these White supremacists.
This backlash has been condoned and taken up by the Bush Administration with their siding of the plaintiff in 2003 when White students sued the University of Michigan. This steadfast and steady support has created a general tone of antagonism toward students of color. We were barely tolerated, but now it has become a dark cloud over those of us in school, or at work. There is a feeling in the Black and Brown communities that the government is endorsing White supremacy.
Separate Schools
This should be done in Elementary school. There should be special schools for the different races. If the parents want their children in a Mixed (I don’t say integrated because that has never been a reality) school, then they can go to the mixed school. Otherwise the children can be taught by role models who look like them, will educate them in their cultural traditions, and who are them. I hate to come to this conclusion, but White people need to solve their white supremacy problem amongst themselves. Conversely, Black and Brown people need to solve this same problem themselves before they can teach their children anything of real substantial progressive value.
Our children deserve a fair chance to succeed. I believe that White supremacy is so deeply rooted that our children would only get a fair chance if they were being taught by people like them.
Religion
Christianity, the official religion of the US is fundamentally white supremacist as well. It takes a religious figure from the Middle East and makes him into a white man. It derides other religions as being savage, or uncivilized, especially indigenous religions. There are still many groups in the US who ‘mission’ to underdeveloped countries and other parts of the world. They have the audacity to believe that their religion is the only true religion, and if people do not accept it, then they are doomed. As you can see it is NOT a giant leap to forcing people to believe in what you believe. The rise of religious fundamentalism is always being attacked when the US speaks of third world countries. However, the fanatics have already elected a president twice in our country.
Learning about indigenous religion is enlightening, and fulfilling. I have always had a lack of meaning in my life. It is the Nietzchean idea of Losing God, and not replacing it with anything that is alive and well. That is an issue here in the US, the fact that there is nothing to really believe in. This is why the religious right has been able to recruit such a following. I urge everyone reading this of color to look back and learn about their native religions. It is helping me deal with the colonized environment and resultant lack of meaning that we live with.
Government
The government has waged genocidal warfare on Black, Brown, and Poor people by using drugs as an excuse. While importing cocaine into the united states (to fund warfare that could not otherwise be funded), distributing it to the Black and Brown gangs, and locking up said gang members for most of their lives, the government accomplished much against the ground that had been gained in the 1960’s. The resulting violence and destruction makes it virtually impossible to escape from the violent cycle of crime, violence, and prison.
The government wages chemical warfare against the black and brown and poor with the drug/prison/violence industrial complex it created. How does a child learn when suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome? How does a child learn the value of education when one or both of their parents are locked up, on parole, or in the so-called drug treatment programs that literally result in a revolving door jail experience for many because they constantly fail drug tests.
The people of color in the US government are weak, and scared. They rarely stand up and speak out unless there is much to be gained from doing so. They merely bolster the status quo by filling their positions with Black and Brown bodies. From Thurgood Marshall, who demanded Robert Williams (R.W. wrote Negroes with Guns) be investigated for proposing self-defense, to Alberto R. Gonzales, the uncle Toms are in the house. They have NEVER changed anything. The Black Panthers changed much! Malcolm changed much!
Laws
The laws that comprise the above described warfare on the Black, Brown, and Poor are racist and genocidal. The drug laws in particular are insidious. They create a black market product which is then introduced into neighborhoods that are desperate. These drugs end up in the hands of criminals who fight each other for control of territories, and drugs. There is residual crime as well, from prostitution to robbery the neighborhood is enriched by all the dollars that are created from this prohibited substance. There was a time when someone who was caught with crack (the preferred medium of cocaine in the hood) would get years in prison. However, if you were caught with cocaine powder (the method of ingestion for most white middle class users), then you got a mere slap on the wrist in comparison. I can think of laws ranging from wearing your pants too loose, to loitering laws that are white supremacist in nature.
Police in Neighborhoods
I recently moved into a ‘better’ neighborhood. By better I mean a primarily White, and middle class. As I started my commute to Portland Oregon from Salem everyday I noticed something was different. It took a few weeks for it to sink in, but there were far fewer cops. I rarely see a cop in my neighborhood. This has much to do with people of color getting locked up in such disproportionate numbers.
If the cops are in YOUR neighborhood constantly searching for crime—they are going to find it. If the cops patrolled my neighborhood more I am sure they would find plenty of domestic violence, rape, molestation, and more…but hey—“those spics are selling weed! Lets get them (trans. “lets lynch `em!”) James Jahar Akbar Perez [1], Kendra James[2], and so many others are the end result of these increased patrols in crime ridden areas of the city (trans. Black and Brown neighborhoods).
Imagine this--you and your cousin and his homie are kickin` it talking on your cousin’s porch. A police car slowly drives by and both officers in the car mad dog [3]you and your crew hard! The car stops two houses down (this is a technique they use for intimidation). They both get out of the auto and walk briskly over to my cousin’s home. They call us down.
“Come here we want to talk to you!”
My cousin goes down first. We follow him slowly up to the pigs.
“What gang are you in?”
“What tattoos do you have?”
“Let me check your arms (Meaning check our arms for track marks from needles).”
“When was the last time you were arrested?”
These are NOT questions. They are strictly rhetorical. They finally let us go after keeping us there for an hour running our names through their database. By the time they were done humiliating us in front of my cousin’s home I was ready to kill them.
This is how problems develop. This is police saturation in Neighborhoods of color.
Prison
Our lives have been ravaged by the drug wars and the prison/slave industry. I am supposed to be a second generation Mexican gang member. I should be in prison, addicted to drugs, dead, or all of the above. Almost all of the Mexican kids I knew and hung out with in my youth fall into those categories. I often wonder why I am here. The thirteen year old homie who stabbed someone over a twelve pack of beer was smart, and gifted—he could have been a lawyer, or whatever—if he hadn’t had the wrong parents, or if he was the correct color. My cousin who was a brilliant mathematics student, and basketball ripper—who is now an alcoholic/drug addict/ex-con could have been a fucking rocket scientist man!
It is not by chance that these things happened/are happening, but that they were planned. Not specifically planned, per se, but the drug war was created primarily to keep our people tied up in endless warfare, trauma, and slavery. We will always be too busy trying to just survive in this system. Some will be killing each other for money, while others will be addicts, while some will be whores, and still others institutionalized slaves. We need to change the system before it destroys us. The prisoners and their families need to be educated and trained in their cultures, morals, and systems.
Slavery
If you are not killed, then you will most likely end up in the prison industrial complex. Once in the complex, you become a slave, which is constitutional according to the thirteenth amendment. This was only one way the enemy re-enslaved the black and brown after slavery was ‘abolished.’ For more information on this I recommend you read _Are Prisons Obsolete_ By Angela Y. Davis.
With the ascension of privatized prisons the work-farm becomes the new Plantation, while the prisoners are the new slaves. We need a slave revolt. No wonder we are never taught of the many slave revolts that happened in the US, and elsewhere. It was not until recently that I discovered this. We have a long tradition of resistance. It is up to us to live up to this tradition.
The victims of this institutional slavery must be reached, and recruited into the opposition against the fascist state. The lumpen have the most to gain and the least to lose. They are actually fighting on the wrong side now, as many exemplify the ideals of capitalism. The lumpen are all important, and are the reason some of the greatest leaders of our people were murdered. The government knows this and will do anything to stop the recruiting of them.
Fred Hampton, the Chairman of the Chicago Chapter of the BPP was about to unite the Black P. Stone Nation among other groups with the BPP when he was murdered. George Jackson was a famous coalitionist in the CA prison system before he was murdered. He had a record of garnering cooperation between the racially segregated factions of the prison system. He was also Field Marshall of the Black Panther Party. Our greatest leaders were murdered. Malcolm, MLK, Bunchy Carter, and countless others lie six feet under while their killers never paid the price. Of the many still living, numerous are locked up with no light in sight.
Resolution?
It is an interesting thing to ponder, one’s identity that is. How Did I come to be here? Who really are my people? What will we do to change things? How can I set an example for the young to follow? Will all the blood and death, and pain, and bars, and time be wasted, or will we finally get up and do something. Or will we continue to tell them to get educated/trained, get a god job, and try to become one of the exploiters.
I am NOT an American. My Mexican friends tell me they feel sorry for me. They mean that they are sorry that I don’t really have a place, or my own culture, or my own language to share with people like me. My American friends tell me the same thing. My place is becoming more solid as I learn more about my history, and my people, from my people’s perspectives instead of the Western view.
Max Macias 7/2005
[1] James Jahar Akbar Perez was murdered by Portland Oregon Police after failing to make a traffic signal and being pulled over. Sunday, March 28 2004
[2] Kendra James was murdered by Portland Oregon Police on May 5, 2003. During a late night traffic stop.
[3] To mad dog (verb) to look into another’s eyes with malice, and imminent violence in one’s eyes. |
Identity 
