Why does the colour of my skin, matter in the grand scheme of things? (Revisited)

Newscaster 1

Live from Nagasaki via New York City

We’re joined by a Dr Nguyen

(Standing by shadow engraving of a body)

For coverage of the 76th anniversary

Dr Nguyen, can you hear me?

(Nothing, just static… akin to imprinted ashes)

Technical issues I believe?

Dr Nguyen, can you hear me?

(A sound of flat line, no sound of life)

Newscaster 2

Anything…?

I can’t hear a thing?

(Unbeknownst to newscasters, producer signals off-air – technical difficulty)

Does he even speak English? Look at him standing there with no conviction

Honestly who organised this? Does anyone do their research?

(Airwaves signal out to the Doctor)

These days it’s all about meeting diversity quotas, aren’t they happy taking our jobs and houses. He better not bring the virus back here either

He looks asleep, his eyes are so small. I can't even tell if he's awake

(No he can see you, right through you and will finally wake up to your damage)

Dr Nguyen

Sorry, I can’t do this, not after what I witnessed. I have to interrupt this coverage

I will not condone what you fellas just said, your words scream ignoramus archaic, elitist, racist, bordering supremacist

(It all starts with silence and he will not be silenced)

So what if my name is Nguyen? Do I need to prove I’m American?

You determine my worth by the colour of my skin, whitewash my mannerisms, judge me stereotypically?

(His pride needs to be recognised)

In the midst of all the bashings and killings?

You dare make fun of Asians, attempt to make me ashamed of my kin?

(His difference is a cause for celebration.)

Newscaster 1

No, Dr Nguyen, we didn’t mean anything by it, you have more than every right to feel proud of your heritage

You are a citizen of a nation that prides itself on rights and freedoms

(His face screams the following sentiment: Ungrateful leach to our great nation)

After all, what are you without what our great nation offered you?

Perhaps remind yourself that you would not be alive here without our government giving you refuge

(His eyes light up at the thought of the stars and stripes)

You should know as a migrant, and prospering

Who could say their luckier than to grow up here in the land of the free

(In other words, you should be grateful and pledge allegiance)

Newscaster 2

Dr Nguyen, let me ask you this; I’m curious since you clearly harbour some sentiment

Who would you side with, in the coming war, China or the U.S?

(Newscaster thinks Dr Nguyen, adorns a red star in his heart, not the stars and stripes)

And do you condone the actions of Pearl Harbour?

Do you condone their takeover of Asia, or have you forgotten the reason you are where you are?

(It was justified, is what he suggests. Might as well celebrate the bombs dropping with that sentiment)

You're either with us or them, and do not try to downplay the role of what we did? We ended it, we're the saviours.

We’re the heroes, we’re champions of democracy and freedom

(Producer comes in, says cut transmission... not happening)

Dr Nguyen

With all due respect, what good is a refuge, without security and respect?

How can I pledge allegiance, when to people like you I’ll always be a ‘them’?

(That’s how I am made to feel by my colleagues and compatriots)

And how can I commemorate or be a patriot?

When I see of another attack, so filled with hate

(Another elderly, easily could be a relative, even other minorities participate in it. Another extension of white supremacy. When will that be covered?)

You can hide behind your coverage, but do you really care about us, this?

You guys had no sympathy until COVID hit, you’re still complicit in your silence

(Stop peddling the tag ‘China Virus’, you heightened this. Your hashtagging of #STOPASIANHATE is just a slap in the face)

Newscaster 1

But Dr Nguyen, this country is rid of the previous administration

You should not be worried about discrimination, you’ve got the side of the justice system

(What about justice for the continual bludgeoning of Vincent Chin?)

Could we please go back to the coverage of the anniversary?

It’s important that we maintain a standard of presentation here

(What about a presentation of the massacre at Rock Springs?)

We have enough misinformation out there as it is

This is no time to draw attention to trivialities, we called you here for your expertise

(Yet let’s stay silent for the lynching’s in the alley in the 1870s)

Newscaster 2

I think Dr Nguyen makes an interesting point

But I think he forgets about the enormous #STOPASIANHATE coverage

(How much sympathy does that garner anyway, amongst the racists? A hashtag does not undo centuries of pillage)

Surely you’re satisfied by the coverage?

We’ve got plenty of condemnations, even from our president

(Newscaster thinks they’re relentless, they keep taking our jobs, why won’t they shut up)

Then you implied we were racist, I have an Asian wife, for god’s sake

You warrant an explanation. How can I be racist if I love her and her delicious Chow Mein not forgetting Lucy Liu in Charlies Angels?

(So do leaders of alt-right nationalist movements, it doesn’t mean a thing. Love is genuine, passionate, not things you like to consume)

Dr Nguyen

You downplay our plight; and still cannot account for why we remain voiceless and unseen

Why do we rarely see our kind on screen other than to be a punchline?

(There's more to us than Karate, Jet Li or Bruce Lee)

How could we go on with such history? Suddenly you think the release of Crazy Rich Asians makes everything okay, we should be filled with glee?

How could we be taken seriously with such tokenism and mockery?

(All they see is Mickey Rooney and agree with Steve Harvey that Asian men are ugly. Seriously those sentiments hath no fury?)

So I’ll take my time, telling you why the makeup and the colour of my skin

Is so important in the grand scheme of things?

(I cry equally for The Colour Purple as I would the Killing Fields, why can’t everyone feel this way)

Newscaster 1

Let me just say, I am proud to be American, as should you

I love our tradition, our religious and cultural freedoms

(Ironically still coy with sexual orientation and where others fall on the political spectrum)

You should be lucky that the U.S stopped at what they did with your country, Dr Nguyen

Your whole country could have easily been wiped out

(Damage was already done with massacres in the village, Agent Orange)

Now if you want to bring in race, make a fuss about plights

Just remember when I was your age, I was fighting for you to even have your goddamn rights

(Regimes deposed, running amok with military operations aka invasions)

Newscaster 2

Now, Dr Nguyen, you’re a sociologist

You talk about all these tropes – how it mocks

(They say race is just a construct. Right. Well racism is not and unfortunately, it’s a reality for many who feel its brunt)

Could you then enlighten us with some of your knowledgeable offerings,

What is it you find so offensive?

(Is yellow peril not enough to jog minds?)

Are you really so sensitive that you need to hide behind cancel culture?

You can’t shape or write the rules of history to your liking, claim critical race theory

(Victors always do it, they control the narrative)

Dr Nguyen

How could I be at ease, when I know my children will be subjected to the same things?

Sexualisation and fetishization of our women, emasculation of our men

(Not forgetting microaggression, exclusion and oppression)

What future have I, if I let colonialist ideology rule my life?

I say enough with caricatures and the model minority myth

(These all permeate my fabric, with great detriment)

These are issues not minor, rather systemic and toxic

Just like your fake sympathy. That’s as manufactured as our consent of your biased, dogmatic and hateful rhetoric, for that I say enough of this

(In fact, your hate is more weaponised and sophisticated than any bomb you guys ever dropped)

Newscaster 1

Dr Nguyen, you’re really going off-script in Nagasaki, shall I say unnecessarily

We really need a level of professionalism. We want good honest reporting about the anniversary there in Nagasaki

(Why should he stop now, silence is complicit)

And you’re very right the model minority is a myth

You demonstrate that now, with your tirade on live T.V

(How can we make his race more submissive than it already is)

I suggest you refrain from attacking a country that gave you refuge

Is this how you repay a country so fair and free. We’re the land of opportunity

(You hashtag Black Lives Matter yet vote in leaders complicit in African American incarcerations then ignore slavery, history? Not forgetting the plight and genocide of Native Americans. The cycle repeats. You call that free, a land of opportunity, a democracy?)

Newscaster 2

Dr Nguyen, we can see you are hurting

We don’t like seeing what’s happening to Asian Americans especially elderlies

(Where are the tears for other crimes inflicted, it happens daily?)

But you must have hope. After all, you’re successful

And you’re living and working in the greatest country in the world

(Nation with high levels of inequality and elected a racist, ignorant president)

Now if you were so aware, with your degree, why not consider geopolitics

Surely you are aware of Sinology and the threat of China. Why fail to mention that?

(What threat? You have China surrounded, bombarded more like it with QUAD)

Dr Nguyen

You say I am making a fuss but if I am to keep living,

I must thrive and I must take pride in my kind

(Or we'd be shadows, non-living. Only engraved still in Hiroshima, Nagasaki)

You talk of how the government could have easily vaporised my mother country

What will your government threaten next, internment? Another dose of Agent Orange? Waterboarding, CIA backed assassinating?

(Again, and again, with or without outpour)

If I fail to speak of my pride. We may as well perish

And the colour of our skin, our hopes, dream, experiences and history

(All of that would have been for nothing in the grand scheme of things and if we stay silent, we let you win by controlling the narrative and allow you to go on destroying and pillaging with your capitalism, greed and unpunished deeds of slavery, industrial-scale killing and degradation of ecology.)