6 minute read
Kaiwen Speech Kaiwen Zhu
Voices from the Rally
By: Kaiwen Zhu
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To the racist American that is lurking at home; on the street; at the train station, or in front of businesses, waiting for a defenseless target to unleash bloodthirsty and violent hate:
I love you as a fellow Christian and American brother. And I will die before I hate you.
We have lost over a half million of our fellow Americans, friends and family to an invisible disease. Our families have been quarantined and isolated, and our businesses are disappearing. You are angry and hurt. I understand. While the first case may have started in China, our government– sworn to and paid by us to insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare– has failed us. They let us spread it freely, not wear masks, barely granted any stimulus, and our prior president has carelessly and conveniently scapegoated an entire race as the cause of all your suffering.
However, I warn you that the disease of hate is even deadlier and more contagious. We are not your enemy. We are Asians, but the fact that we have crossed oceans to be here shows you how much we love you, how much we love America. We are Asian-American and, by hating us, you are poisoning America and all that she strives for.
To cure this poison, I, Kaiwen Zhu, offer to be the last American to die of racism and demand that hateful racism in the United States must die with me.
To any Americans with racial hate in your heart, I also say to you–
If you must devolve to violence, have some dignity and beat, maim and kill me instead. I am a young man. I’m about to graduate and continue my life of love; surely, I have much more to lose than those elderly women. Is this the land of the free and the home of the BRAVE? Where grandmas cannot walk to the store and buy eggs without the fear of death? Or perhaps talk to me, hear my story and love me. Realize that you have let hate blind you, but know you still have love.
Like you, I had once hated myself, but now I live every minute with nothing but love. I am a soldier of the gospel of love; I will spread it until hate is no longer, and my first mission is to directly redeem your heart of hate. Because if you harbor a hate so violent that murders elderly American women on a bad day, then within me is the creative and redemptive love powerful enough to understand you, forgive you, believe in your goodwill and help you realize your love. And since the beginning of human history, love has, and always will, triumph over hate.
To my friends, family, and Asian brothers and sisters:
Please don’t tell my mom about what I just said about telling racists to come after me instead. She will kill me worse than any racist. Thank you.
Do not worry. I have zero desire to be martyred. I love living and laughing with you all too much. My offer is not radical when you consider the tragic reality that Asians are now in. We have an omnipresent target on our backs. We now live in fear, threatened by the knowledge that ourselves and our loved ones can be hurt or killed by anyone anywhere. I am simply taking control of that vile threat and using it to give a face, story and weight to my voice so that the nation cannot ignore or silence it for a second longer. It is my experience that 99% of Americans are amazing and selfless people, and I believe the good people of the United States will protect me.
Please search for your voice and share your story, but submit them through love. I feel your rage and your pain; however, we must not let the shooter’s hate capsize our own hearts or let our voices succumb to violence. Our enemy is hate, not people.
As Asians, we are neither Black nor White; we have been attacked and befriended by both Black and White. We have the unique ability to unite this country against hate and we can only do it with love. Let us elevate our voice above race not by screaming stop Asian hate, but by screaming stop racial hate.
However, many of you are silent because you are trying to ignore our new reality. That unspoken contract of submissive and silent acceptance of their racism is now VOID because they are killing the people who have sacrificed the most for us. Have our elders really come all this way, sacrificed and endured everything, just to be killed on the streets? What good will that money be if they kill your mother? What good is all those years of hard studying if you can lose it in an instant?
Vol. Xl, Issue I 5
Do you want your children to live every day with the fear that one day, you might be too slow in pulling out your pepper spray and won’t come home to them? We can do more than buying guns and lying to ourselves that we can physically fight them. We must go on the offensive of love to fight hate at its source TODAY. We cannot wait for time. Time is a neutral force, and if we, the good Americans, do not utilize it constructively, then the forces of evil will surely claim it as demon time. Please search for your voice of love. I understand many of you cannot speak because you are afraid. You want to preserve your friendships, your careers, your family’s safety. I understand. If you cannot speak right now, I humbly beg you to unite behind my voice of love. I cannot do this alone. I need help planning, organizing, marketing, fundraising and marching against and dismantling all manifestations of racism. Your inspiration will be more powerful than anything I can do alone.
To my Black brothers and sisters and brothers and sisters of color:
Unfortunately you are veterans of the crusade against racial hate. Everyday, I admire your people for the strength and grace with which you carry your history, and live it with pure love and beauty. With supreme brotherhood, reverence, honor, gratitude, and love, I humbly beg you to allow us to help you solidify the dream of Dr. King Jr. into reality and share in living that reality with us. We can only do it together. In unity, we stand strong.
To my fellow Americans:
Today, I fatefully declare that violent, hateful, bloodthirsty racism in the United States is drawing its final breath. Today is a new day of rebirth and united freedom. The time is now. The place is here. We Americans must emerge from quarantine, reborn from shadows of racism, into the sunshine of unity by remembering the love in our hearts, the love across our dinner tables, our love for our neighbors, our love for God and our love for the United States of America.
God bless you. I love you so much.
