june24|back to my roots

i hit up the anakbayan east bay meeting tonight and it hit me how much i miss organizing..not just organizing but grassroots organizing..and not even just grassroots organizing for whoever but grassroots organizing for MY people..the pilipin@ community. don't get me wrong..but this past year i had the privilege of organizing within bridges a multicultural space and even within paa..but going back to my roots tonight felt really good..felt like home almost. 

some folks from anakbayan east bay organized an educational about the rice crisis that has been goin down not just in the phils but in other parts of the world..it was definitely inspiring and just fucked up at the same time. i realized that ive been really caught up in my own privileges that ive forgotten what/where my roots are. not to say that multicultural organizing is bad..because i definitely appreciate, respect and understand the importance and necessity of both ethnic specific and multicultural community building and/or organizing. i just havent been able to see a lot of pilipin@s that i can really identify with..in a minute..and im definitely not talkin about privileged ass pilipin@s who have the opportunity to advance themselves in this society through a highly academic education that perpetuates the oppression of our very own people...students...students who are sexy progressive organizers.

i miss the folks from pawis (the peoples association of workers and immigrants) that i used to organize with at the oakland international airport with s.o.u.l. (school of unity and liberation) and faa (filipinos for affirmative action)  just last summer. i feel hella guilty for not checkin in with them..goin to the kick backs at marina's house in hayward and all sorts of other opportunities ive had to keep in touch with the manongs and manangs that i organized with. they are the downest fucken og organizers ive seen in my life. and here i am going to school..my privileged ass not checkin nor rememberin where im from. fuck. where have i gone.

as a matter of fact, jay one of the organizers from anakbayan east bay was all like..."where have you been krystle" and all i could say was "school" and he replied with "you dont need school"...hmm maybe he's right. maybe im not supposed to be in school..i mean when i really think about it..i was never meant to go to a four year research one university like uc berkeley..esp since i was tracked to go straight into community college from high school..and like a helluva lot of other people of color...a victim of a privileged white male counselor that told students that they were just "not good enough to apply". 

what if my life was different..what if i didnt go to college..what if i didnt go to berkeley? how would things have been different?

have i forgotten about the commitment that i made a long time ago.....to give my self to the movement?

i also finally met marvin today..the revolutionary kid that chris was telling me about at logan hs..and that i mentioned in an earlier blog. he's on ab core now..and he's hella chill in person. what an inspiration....