An Ode to Multicultural-ism

My recent poem did not need to sound lyrical:

I won’t be a victim of their myopic definitionNot a subject of their divided and ruled abstractionDon’t dare call me a lovechild of illegal immigrationWill never give in to their verdicts for societal seclusionDon’t just divide this world up into several borderlinesAnd compel me to produce a passport to prove my allianceI don’t hold torches or flags; I wont fight with no “enemy” beingsAnd I ain’t no reserved pig, won’t dance to their muddy signsThey’ve been asking long for me to sign the checkbox of my ethnicityAfrican-American, Asian-American, Latin-American and any other entityThe terms that they block us by, and those divisions subject to atrophyThey devise multiculturalism and play favorites, so we fight for each legacyThe whites of the World are surely united for their common historiesIt’s the people of color who are grouped differently by some taxonomiesI wonder why there are no enlisted Europeans-American categoriesEven as the Native Indians are made to suffer from some identity crisisThe Third world and our diasporic folks in First World have some in commonWe have always fought the rulers bravely, to repel the ghastly intrusionsWe’re the strongest force to reckon with, as the victims of oppressionsDivide us, calm us, comedy us, and we are soon our own frustrationsI know they secretly love to call us Niggers, call us Zappies, call us ChinkiesBut they wont call me Asian yet, for where will go the yellow lot Chinese?Now they call me South Asian and I wonder what need is for that teaseBut of course we are items stratified on their flawed geographical drawingsThey can call me at will, a different race and a different ethnicityBut can hardly ever separate me from my shared similar historyWith the peoples who suffered being part of one same colonyRuled and ravaged as uncivilized colored, yet laundered as valued moneySpanish, French, Dutch, Germans, English and the AmericansTheir ruling elites believing in imperialistic expansionsTo sustain the rule, have broken people into rival sectionsAnd now preachers of the G-7 and the self-proclaimed well-wishersNay, peoples of the world reject the rules of the ruling classesNo more nationalistic agendas, no racial superiority clashesWon’t take that bullet from them anymore, nor shall we shoot their gunWorking peoples of the world this time, will fight for their own revolution

Saswat Pattanayak

Independent journalist, media educator, photographer and filmmaker. Based in New York. Always from Bhubaneswar.

https://saswat.com
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