6.1.01 You Know Who You Are By: Shwaw Vang & Txwj Xob Vaj

You know who you are.
We don't need to write your name here.
WE don't need to quote your arrogant and racist remarks
when you say that we are uneducated,
that we do not belong in the same room with you,
that we are not fit to control our destiny,
and that we should bow and crawl before you!
You may be educated,
but you speak only one language,
you live in only one culture,
and you see education only through your eyes!
Most of us speak three different languages,
and we live in three different cultures.
We will bow to you,
and you do not have a right to control our destiny!
You act as though you are in our country,
in Vietnam, Combodia, or Laos
where you look down on us,
where you expect us to carry you on our shoulders
as though you were the President of the United States!
When you were in our country
you were a bad representative of your people.
You looked at our wives and daughters as prostitutes,
and you looked at us as simple minded peasants.
Its a shame
that you have not changed.
You think you know what is best
for your shildren and their future,
for our community and our culture,
for us and our destiny!
When we look at you,
you seem lost and daze,
your own people disown you,
you are a joke!
WE welcomed you into our lives
only to have you spit in our face,
only to have you criticize our ways of life,
and you had the nerve to call us your children!
If you cannot live with us
without criticizing our culture and our dreams,
then go, run away
before we are forced to kick you out of our lives.
You slap our face with your degree,
you criticize us publicly with your perfect English
and you expect us to be silent!
You are ignorant to expect us to be silent!
You are arrogant to think that we cannot speak in you tongue
even though you cannot speak in ours....
You know who you are....