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PALESTINE | USA | RACISM
‘Anger Is A Gift’
Yes! I’m an angry Middle Eastern male. Now deal with it!
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I run the gamut of self-soothing to calm the bubbling cauldron that my heart has become. Breathe … count to ten … take a walk in nature … an hour of sunshine … run around the lake … chamomile tea, and still, my ribs quake in rage at the sight of childhood maimed by the world’s inaction.
Millennia of history and culture and civilization culminated in proving their utter worthlessness. Instead, they came down with the weight of ten thousand collapsing buildings to crush an infant barely born.
‘Anger is a gift’
Yo, check the diagonal, three million gone,
come on
’Cause you know they’re counting
backwards to zero …(Anger is a gift)
— Rage Against The Machine, ‘Freedom.’
As a Palestinian in America during an American-funded and -ordained genocide of my race, I seethe at the deluge of excrement from the mouths of corporate-media personalities and politicians alike: “Israel has a right to defend itself … to defend itself … defend itself …” An army of parrots mobilized against bone-thin toddlers locked in a cage.
‘Anger is a luxury we cannot afford.’
My father told me: “Anger is a luxury we cannot afford.”
Be composed, calm, still — laugh when they ask you, …This is why we dance:
If I speak, I’m dangerous.— Mohammed El-Kurd, ‘This is Why We Dance’
My instincts warn me to restrain my rage. “Americans aren’t comfortable with any expressions suggestive of anger. I keep getting weird looks if I raise my voice.” So I learned from decades of on-site observations — an immigrant in this country. My parents taught me to “behave” in front of Europeans, especially the British. “What will they think of us?” (In our colonized minds, our freedom was conditioned on gaining the approval of the colonizers, but I digress.)
I could not take it anymore. … Not only was I barred from my birthplace, but I was condemned to a lifetime of discrimination at…
