assimilation
Learn more about other poetry terms
Shed the skin of the colonizer
As if it is not also mine
As if the blood coursing through me did not also
pool along the legs of Malintze
Born in classic white suburbia,
The most American Dream of cities.
Gifted with white picket fences,
Highly rated schools,
And a Mexican population of 3.2%.
Father as I prepare to walk this stage I wrote another poem for you
I must admit, I too have been instutionlized
This cap and gown symbolize the assimilation process being complete
Immigrants
shipped into the American Dream
plundered of their culture
left as empty shells
crushed by greedy hands
tossed into melting pots
molded back into shells
carrying America within.
If,
I had only awakened only to see the one
I have been so desperately and passionately
Been waiting to embrace,
To let known as it has always seen
Not as it has always been perceived
They claimed that it was their destiny to move out west,
But people were already living there.
They claimed that the Indians were hostile savages who should be civilized.
I cant stand missionaries
No let me rephrase that
I cant stand the idea of it
Cultural oppression at its finest
The idea that you are right
And therefore everything else is wrong
Tell them it’s not me.
Tell them it’s not me anymore.
Tell them I’m not quiet,
That I’m not shy,
That I’m the one they should adore.
Tell them they don’t know.
land of the free, home of the brave
forced to conform
forget your culture
we'll beat the indian out of you
conform, be like us
or humiliated
shunned
unaccepted
be like us or get out
