JE ME SOUVIENS  (I REMEMBER) by Céline Leduc 12/2013

I REMEMBER is the motto of Quebec
I remember the English colonized me.
I forget I colonized First Nations.
I remember multiculturalism is bad.
I forget it allowed me to keep my culture.
I remember the Church is my downfall
I forget it was Louis XIV and Napoleon politics
I remember my language matters
I forget I imposed language on First Nations.
I remember my culture
I want others to forget their culture
Quebec’s  new motto should be
I FORGET -- J’OUBLIE

as we collect our stories and reclaim our names
we become aware of the possibility
that, in fact, we always live with our ancestors
as we collect our stories and reclaim our names
we start to contrive
the raw material
to obtain our fibers
as we collect our stories and reclaim our names
we start to cultivate the insights of how those fibers can be woven into strands
that when interlocked with other fibers
create a collective blanket, untold histories

No, not a patchwork-quilt, not a melting ***, not a salad bowl
not a room full of flags with countries we cant place on a map
and full of people WE can’t help but fetishize
no, No, NO
this is an interwoven stitch
this is a tattered rag
that has been used to wipe **** off of colonizer’s *******
that has been used to wipe the dripping *** off of Thomas Jefferson’s ****
as he finishes up with his Saartjie Baartman,
that has been used to hide the faces of the KKK as they drag uppity black boys down the street
and LYNCH them in carnival and spectacle
that has been soaked in Black and Brown blood on the streets of
Ferguson, Baltimore, New York, North Carolina, Milwaukee, and every other city and district in the US of KKK

This is not a handholding session with me
I am the oppressor and I must fear my own wrath
my fiber is white, my strand is white
and too many strands are white
and too many Black, Brown, Red, and Yellow strands have been bleached
or told “wait your turn to be included in the blanket"
or "be thankful we even include you in the stitching
give us a TOKEN of gratitude”
I take YOUR strands and use them to cloth MY babies while yours lie naked

The time is now
to take the clorox and gulp it down as it eviscerates our throats and consumes our souls
We don’t need anymore whitewashed histories
we dont need anymore white sheets
we don’t need to go to BED, BATH, and BEYOND
I cannot come to you with a bail full of cotton and ask you to join me in a knitting session
#IMNOTRACISTBUT…

this is not a time for diversity and multiculturalism
or the co-option of “social justice”

this is a time for Solidarity

this is a time for Liberation

this is a time for Abolition

this is a time for Insurrection

this is a time for Rebellion

this is a time for Revolution

I cannot be the leader
but I can contribute
I cannot be the voice
but I can sure has hell listen

and this is how we will transform the blanket
not with hollow words and moderate reforms
but with direct action and liberatory collaboration
by yelling the phrase “white supremacy is as American as apple pie” at the top of our lungs

not with corporate funding and 5,000 dollar a plate galas
but by dismantling the looms that have woven the threads of
Hate, ****, Land theft, and Genocide
that have woven the strands of
reservations, redlining, white flight, and gentrification
and by co-creating ones that speak to our destroyed histories
that refuse to use the bleach
even when the blanket gets *****

Send the immigrants back; unfortunately the referendum was based on that.
Misplaced Hate,
Created by power,
Forcing a debate of the darkest hour.
Hate towards immigration, but wait!
What if you need an operation?
The health service is crumbling, needs multiculturalism to keep the cogs turning.
So you want a debate on immigration?
Let’s talk about your integration.
What’s your heritage?  
Where is your blood line from?
I doubt it will be a solely British one!
Our kids walk the streets with knives and guns, yet our politicians talk with plums.
Claim to understand society, but driving flash cars is their priority.
Don’t give a **** about local business rather see corporations strip our economy.
Self-Serving politicians feed the fat cats ambition, Cameron or Corbyn? It’s us the people who are suffering!

When I was five Miss M sat the Chinese
new girl next to me and I made a face.
Miss gave a sharp look like: empathy please,
an ethnic discriminates against race?

Even as a child I squirmed at being
cast as Other. I wanted to be with
the anglo kids. The natural fleeting
first impression of a child who writhes

at injustice. I was conditioned to
socialise and be protector of those
who I didn't want anything to do
with. The brash Anglo kids I suppose

were oblivious and weren't burdoned by
ideas too mature for them. Ah equality.

My internal clock is set at Manhattan
I face the world with a jaded point of view
Manhattanites are chauvinistic, snobbish, opinionated
And relentlessly focused

Manhattan energy drives our universe
Like the taxies forge the streets
In a frontal assault

Art, history and multiculturalism
Remain the melting *** of stew
Brewed from micro to macro
But always after the brass ring

Always reaching upward
Like the skyscrapers of today and yore
Clamoring to be the tallest in the world
Yet knowing that we already are
Simply because we’re Manhattanites

Faith in our own destiny
We’re Manhattanites after all
And being a Manhattanite
Is all that needs to be said

We hear Donald Trump might become president,
And we thought we had it bad when we voted for Justin Trudeau.

When the U.S. Bought Alaska we were happy we didn't have to be the biggest country in the world.

If Donald Trump wins we have tons of room, and ****.

You guys legalized gay marriage, you  guys are great at simon says.

We are surprised still no one has tried to throw a nuclear missile yet at you, since you do stick yours up everybody else's ***.

If Donald Trump wins he should visit Canada and find out what multiculturalism is, if that's not to big of a word for his mind.

O and let's not forget multi religious, free health care, (and not just for the middle class)
Big *** guns that can **** people are illegal, and our gun regulations actually work.
We actually invest in things other than our military.
That have their ***** in other people's country that the U.S. Just "legally" gets and begins to dictate stuff. They "own" 3/4 of the earth.
So that's why the United States Of America is $34 trillion in glorious debt.

They throw in Drummer Lee-Rigby,
To bleed.
Un-defended, just as culled.

His landmark a rain washed gutter,
Which flushes the detritus of human living into a divisive Thames. 
The cities true testament to multiculturalism.

Young Lee-Rigby never knew fresh from his red rose home,
That the pride of his life would out live that day, and be left to his boyhood alone.

And why up-rose to nightly unrest,
White boys with hate unleashed in their breast.

Yet portion of that well-trod street
Will Lee-Rigby forever be,
From blooded tarmac to fiery melee.
From hate filled night,
To grief filled day.

The death of a forgotten land,
And a scarlet line drawn in their sand.

Take me back to the days
Where the feel of texture and distinguishing colors among Africans didn't matter
Where the only word was black, and not pale or darker
Where the only weapon was loyalty upto royalty actually smarter
Where mother tongue superiority excelled the rest was after.
Where rituals and ceremonies were significant in culture
Where oral traditions activities was a preservation of history.
Where inclusivity wasn't done based on tribe, status or age
Where inspiration and education was passed from generation to generation through storytelling.
Where people performed rather than spoke
Where the media was the speaker's tone, volume, and cadence

Take me back to the days
Where people did not blame nationality, ethnicity,
culture, economics and education
Where there was no colonial *******
Where there was no concept of slavery, racism or discrimination.
Where Africa was rich in culture and not the fallacy of primitive and a backward jungle
Where Africa was peaceful and not a race with guns and violent.
Where shouting am black and proud wasn't important because color didn't matter.
Where respect for elders remained an unbroken cornerstone in african culture
Where birth, marriage and burial rites was honored.

Welcome to today's Africa
Where exporting and importing of cultures have become the trend
Where cultures travel through deserts, cross trade routes and through immigration borders
Where exchange disregards our notions of geography and race.
Where virtues such as hospitality, empathy, courtesy and respect is long gone
Where the only thing left are byproducts of culture.
Where multiculturalism has faded and everone hails on becoming one
The richness is not in Africa looking like Europe
What makes the world beautiful is in the diverse contributions

Welcome to today's Africa
Where culture is paraded on an image of drum beating
Where media's notion is dancing naked or eating bush meat
Where in the midst of it all culture lost its definition
Where there is no importance in defending a territory with no boundaries.
Where technology dominated our land and mind
The struggle lies in reclaiming what is rightfully ours
I refuse to fall and cramble because I'm for the idea of sameness.
In the mind is where it all starts
I put no blame on culture, not my affliction.

Verse 1:
Strictly speaking with these IV stickens,
I’m not a fan of incisions,
For in the past it was a means for sterilization,
So, I can understand why so many are iffy with vaccinations,
After all, why should we believe that it doesn’t cause autism?
After all, my people were lied to before, which lead to devastation.
Growing up in a system intent on extermination,
Growing up in a environment filled with racism,
Growing up in a nation that sees my people as an infestation,
As an inconvenience that deserves damnation,
With people telling me to go back to my reservation,
Like, I can’t even go shopping without being seen as a villain,
Getting followed or patted down for investigation,
What did I do to deserve being put into this prism?
It’s like a prison,
Trapped in a country torn apart because of colonialism.
And if I succeed is it because of my hard work or is it based off of tokenism?
Just a pat on the back for corporations,
To showcase that they are indeed all about “multiculturalism.”

Hook:
They tell me to inject the needle,
The same ones whose ancestors slaughtered my people,
They tell me to inject the needle,
The same ones who continue to oppress my people.
They tell me to inject the needle,
The same ones who don’t give a **** about my people.

Verse 2:
Yeah, the same ones putting pipelines through indigenous land without permission.
The same ones that stand against Wet’suwet’en.
When the Supreme Court has already found in favour of Wet’suwet’en.
So, why is Canada still using RCMP as a means of attrition?
So, much for reconciliation.
Getting told to check our privilege from an ******* who is a heteronormative Christian Caucasian.
Making over $100,000 dollars and using $900 tax dollars towards subsidization.
So, dear Jason Kenny how about you check your ******* privilege!
The fact that people voted a idiot like you in is depressive.
Especially when the NDP was way more progressive.
Reducing the conservatives selfish expenses.
Like private jets and golf courses,
And putting some of that money towards social services.
Instead of lining their own pockets like the conservatives.
Yet the right wing media biased and undermined these great changes.
And now that they are in power they are cutting social services.
Now that they are in power minorities and natives are again facing persecution.
Now that they are in power the world once again favours heteronormative Christian Caucasians.

Hook:  
They tell me to inject the needle,
The same ones whose ancestors slaughtered my people,
They tell me to inject the needle,
The same ones who continue to oppress my people.
They tell me to inject the needle,
The same ones who don’t give a **** about my people.