More Specific Ties

Let’s be specific Islanders. We all know where we come from, but not exactly how we got here. Yet we’re all here, so let’s be specific about where we are, both geographically and historically.

All lands are islands, but let’s be specific: some islands are small, like Hawaii, and some are bigger, like Madagascar; some we call continents, like Australia and South America, while others are simply land masses surrounded by water, like Eurasia. At some point, the land was separated from the sea. In the beginning, there was the world, and the world was good. And the world was with geographically ordered devices, and the world WAS geographically ordered devices. Let’s take a moment to be thankful for that. Now let’s be specific about what ties us together, as people. To do this, we have to go back to the roots.

We were all born of a Mother, from the Earth, and we share experiences of history on this Earth together. For my Asian American and Pacific Islander brothers and sisters, Black April, the fall of Saigon to Communism, and the fall of Cambodia to the Khmer Rouge were historic events that impacted all of our families and can probably explain why you ended up here in America. If not that, then our families shared the experience of colonial occupation and World War II before that. That might explain why a lot of our parents and grandparents may not speak English very well, had tough live sand want us to succeed.

It’s been a struggle to get here. It’s still a struggle to live here; in 2009 we’re dealing with climate and economy, health care and fl u pandemics, education and a debated loan system... Buddha figured out a long time ago that life is struggle, and that never-ending struggle ties us together on this island.

But hold up, Pacific Islanders aren’t the only ones struggling. Struggle is universal. America is a country built from immigrants, from pilgrims, to serfs, to slaves, to refugees, to Native Americans and Chicanos (who were here before the arrival of Western “civilization”), to people from anywhere looking for work, freedom, and opportunity. The nation will become a majority-minority society; it’s just a matter of time. But at this particular time, every immigrant community has, and will continue to have, a story.

So let’s talk about racial divisions real quick. We know race is a social construct, and that communities are held together (and kept apart) by intangible means, such as imagination. Here’s a rhyme spree: society has quietly divided thee, which has lasted, provided we be passive, acting mildly as the last kid. I would be massively disappointed if people don’t realize that our divisions lay not in race, but in classes. Racial distinctions (rather than stereotypes) exist of course, but what we experience in America is a class division. I could discuss this in more detail, but it’s a heavy topic and I would rather move on.

Now let’s localize and be specific about this notion of struggle by looking at community orgs at UCLA. Organizations from Samahang Pilipino, to MEChA, to ACA, to ASU, to VSU, MSA, NSU, and all the many, plenty community orgs that remain, have a story of where their people came from and how they came to be presently, carrying on the legacy of their family’s history. This is where we all stand historically, fighting for something different because we all experience a different struggle. Whether it is veterans’ rights, students’ rights, citizens’ rights, or marriage rights, we have to acknowledge that we all share in a certain fight and a struggle. We must acknowledge that some fights cannot be won by a single sub-community within a divided society. However, a collaboration of communities could leverage a majority onto the same page.

Power still lies within the people. But the people are divided into “island communities” by imagined constructs that separate our communities like bodies of water, while the only thing that cannot be divided is the individual. Let me tell you in annoyingly vague terms where we are, geographically and historically, in space and in time: we are here, and the time is now. Annoying, right? So...

In other words, our ancestors may have all started on different islands, but we are all on the Pacific coast, on this part of the North American island, together, at a place called Los Angeles. We’re here for more than just school, we’re here for class. The stories of migration are over, and we are settled on this island, making us all Pacific Islanders in the most literal sense of the word. The stories of the intellectual class in the21st century are just beginning. So that’s our Pacific tie. And within our community, we all got specific ties together.

And yo! If your feet were tied together, then one can’t make big moves without the other.

Written by: Tom Nguyen