Monica Ellis

San Diego, CA
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The AMERICAN Asian Woman (feedback please)

Eternally the Yellow Peril

I see what you think of me, do you?

Isn’t it enough
...that I love this country?
...that I was born and raised here?
...that I am a citizen?
...that I don’t speak my mother tongue with fluency?
...that I follow your culture more than mine?
...that I obey your laws even when excluded by law
...that my ancestors assimilated and denied the importance of our heritage long before I was born?
...that I am a “model citizen”?

Isn’t it enough
...that my brothers and sisters fought and died for THIS country?

No

I am exotically intriguing
I am a commodity and service
I am yours to take and violate
You have rights to my body that I do not.

I must be excluded, avoided, ignored, silenced
and eliminated.

*This provocative poem reflects the racial identity imposed upon us in place of our own and reflects submissiveness and sexual objectivity themes. It questions American views of “others” and immigrants, the insidious pervasion of subtle racism, bias- unconscious as much as the overt. It is addressed to the racist and the “color-blind” non-racist who has yet to take action and speak out as Anti-racist.
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