ConCen

You suckers thought that you were so special, ennit? You thought that your heineys were just that much better and softer and more supple than all those poor people of color, huh? There was never any discussion of the “99%” for the past 400 years while Native lands were stolen, Native people were exterminated, black folks were enslaved, Latinos were gerrymandered, Japanese people were placed in internment camps or Arabs were sexually groped, fondled and heavily-petted at airports. No problem, right? There was never any discussion of the fundamental imbalance of power on this continent and inherent unfairness of the trickle-up economics for the past few centuries as the aforementioned groups were only seen as a source of labor for powerful white male interests. Not a word.

Because you thought you were special. You were immune to that. That little issue didn’t involve you.

Now, you see that these powerful white males do not care about you either. Now you see that they will—just like they did to “us,” all people of color in this country—extrapolate every single ounce of energy, money and value out of you, your kids, your wife, your mistress. After they do that, they will throw you away, fire you, lay you off, send your job to Mexico or India or someplace else where they can do exactly the same thing to those poor schmucks. Only they’ll do it for much less money. Now, you’re beginning to see that and so you started to call yourself the so-called “99%,” because you realize that you’re not so special at all.
Stupid white people.

The punch line though? You were always part of the 99%. Those powerful white interests love you as much as they love me. Which is to say that they love you about as much a man loves a pregnancy scare from a one-night stand. None. Zero. Idiots. The bad news: You’re not special and unfortunately you’re just now beginning to realize that. The good news: well hell, at least you’re beginning to realize it now. But those are the two reasons that people of color have not joined this movement en masse: #1 We cannot believe that you were so stupid to not know that you weren’t special and that these powerful white male interests were just using you, and #2 we want to make sure that you gullible sheep will not, as soon as those powerful white male interests try to buy you off with giving your job back with the little benefits and 401k, forget about all of us poor people of color who have been suffering for years. We are the faces at the bottom of the well, the very bottom of the 99%.

We are the 99th percentile. The bottom. We’re attracted to the movement, but we need assurance that you’re not gonna just up and leave and get tricked again, like you did before.

Now the invitation: we will join you. We are attracted to this movement. We want to join you. The truth is that we need this movement at least as much as you do. The truth is that we want to make something very serious and very permanent happen for the betterment of all poor and middle-class Americans—Native, white, black, Hispanic, Asian, Arab, everybody! The truth is that you have always been our brothers and sisters—you just didn’t know it. But we need to know that you’re serious. And what we mean by “serious” is that you aren’t going to back to thinking that you’re part of the 1% again and forget about us. You are not. We are in this together, whether you, my white brothers and sisters, choose to acknowledge it or not. We’re waiting.

So what’s it gonna be?

A moving piece, Mexika, and I found myself rather touched (though not in the same manner as the Arabs noted in your diatribe) up until the "invitation." I will explain why this is, and it will also explain why I have given up on fighting.

Us whiteys worked hard to ensure that you coloured got the shitty end of the stick. After we stuck that stick up your backsides for not working hard enough, we slapped you all time and time again. Endless beatings, murders, rapings, and other "injustices" that, due to our power, will, might and sheer arrogance, have not even begun to be answered to. It is part and parcel of my lineage that have gained, and kept, the world's power, money and resources.

Unfortunately, I only began my foray into this sector of corruption two years ago, many decades after anything we as a people, colour aside, could do to take back what was ours. I thought, up until a few months ago, that there was still a chance that we 99% (and I'm getting rather sick of seeing that figure pop up continously, and even sicker that I have to use such a thoroughly-pounded-into-the-oblivion-of-meaninglessness cliche) still had that opportunity.

No, people have been confused into becoming material addicts. We have been placated and allowed to drool over our precious televisions, fast food items and alcoholic beverages, thoughts of "having more" being fed to us all the while through advertising and entertainment. We fell into this rut very nicely, and now the powers that run our things have all they need to keep implementing one system of control and oppression over another.

The Occupy Movement is a last-ditch effort: an effort to crawl out of that last ditch in which we're so firmly implanted. This movement may or may not be the result of said powers further enforcing their control, and it does not matter. It is a farce either way - an option that can have no effect because it is simply too late for us to return back to our days of independence (which, it may be argued, has never existed for several thousand years or more).

While it would be fine and romantic to see coloured and white people join together in perfect harmony, it is futile, because we have actually already been joined together for a long, long time. We are all, regardless of race, creed, religion, colour, gender or other discriminatory values, part of the same mass of oppressed individuals who have begun to fight much too late for efforts to make a difference.

Picture us peons as the man who cannot swim, waiting in the ocean to be saved by a passing ship, attempting to gulp the last bit of air he can to counter the fluid in his lungs. The lungs continue to be filled, and the man has two options: continue to fight against something that cannot be fought, or finally give up and succumb to fate.

(We all know why we're called "peons" if the word is sounded correctly.)

However, if it pleases you to believe that your continued struggle will make a difference, certainly continue. It will give a significant percentage of the population (which is slightly less than the aforementioned, overused figure of 99%) something to shake their heads at, or chuckle at, or shed tears over, or gossip about while they're sucking back their take-out and beers. It will allow the news entertainment corporations to fill their airwaves with more material their staff won't have to exert as much effort in processing and airing. It will continue to give hope where there is none.

Have faith that your time spent on taking back what is already firmly owned by that miniscule number that has somehow outnumbered us for so long is not by any means wasted. We are being led by our leashes to our pens.

Our destinies have already been determined. The question remains to be answered: who is going to continue gulping those last spoonfuls of air, ignorant to the blinding fact that the damage has already been done, and who is going to succumb to the will and the glory of our masters, who have ruled over us for so long that we've fallen for the illusion that we have the opportunity to finally free ourselves?

We, Mexika, are all suckers of the teats of the corporations and those who flash enough money around to be considered gods.