settler colonialism & imperialism now

settler colonialism & imperialism now

911 nhte

9102 enuj a zine about refugeehood and militarism in southern california during the 2000s

by krystle montgomery

contents introduction 3 acknowledgements 4 a history of diaspora 5 migration and immigration 6 refuge and refugeehood

art 7 refuge 8 global refugees 9 nuoc 10 draining

citations 11 selected texts

race in the americas / 2

acknowledgements i would like to acknowledge that my experience in higher education takes place on kumeyaay land, and i would like to thank the following professors for their guidance in what part they played for me to culminate the past four years in the ethnic studies department: yen le espiritu crystal perez simeon man ly thuy nguyen k. yang wayne i also would like to acknowledge how much i have learned from my mom, a vietnamese refugee who literally taught me everything i know. and thank you to katrina ngo for contributing to this zine with both heartwarming and heartbreaking poetry. because of this, i would like to point out that my following definitions are from my undergraduate knowledge and that this zine is informed not only from research but also from lived experience, which is another form of knowledge.

- krystle

race in the americas / 3

a history of diaspora diaspora diaspora communities can come together for several reasons, like colonialism, imperialism, war, or military violence/intervention effects of diaspora include being unaware of the history of the "real or imagined" homeland or feeling distant from the physical memory of that land - lecture "[music] stages and presents creativity, politics, sex, violence, struggle, & diaspora connections; it is a site of invention, reinvention, parody, performativity, community, & critique."

- mckittrick 138 "vietnam war is not over, as americans have repeatedly claimed [...] it has continued to exact an untold toll on vietnamese in vietnam and in the diaspora" - espiritu 46

race in the americas / 4

migration and immigration migration "appealed to the downtrodden, the poor and those whose lives held no possibilities in their own imperial societies, and who chose to migrate as settlers. others, also powerless, were shipped off to the colony as the ultimate prison. in the end they were all inheritors of imperialism who had learned well the discourses of race and gender, the rules of power, the politics of colonialism. they became the colonizers."

- smith 9

immigration differs from colonial times because of globalization, where the U.S. is placed at the top in terms of (military) power that have the ablitily to control "less powerful" countries / nations "southern california [...] has become an archipelago of environments that do not relate to each other - atomized and fragmented territories [which] reflects the fragmentation of institutions, resources, and knowledge" - misra

race in the americas / 5

refuge and refugeehood refuge “outside the country of nationality” & “well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion” - UN, 1951 above quotation is focused on the plight of individuals rather than groups & emphasized the causes of flight & victims of political oppression above victims of natural disaster or other types of oppression (like colonialism and imperialism) - espiritu 8

refugeehood this is a centering of the lived experiences in other countries / nations besides the "real or imagined homeland." the effects of refugeehood are carried on for generations, especially through policy changes in the current political climate that lead to fear of deportation and further feelings of landlessness / no national belonging.

race in the americas / 6

"refuge" by maya le espiritu

race in the americas / 7

global refugees: displaced communities envision a brighter future race in the americas / 8

katrina ngo - nước uống nước or drink up your country drink up its sticky heat its creaking earth its wailing children, all burnt into the ground because nước was all they wanted to live in. uống nước của người vietnam, half water half flesh and all around bleeding all around breathing and then drowning drowning drowning until my người are floating down into the unforgiving sea. uống nước gì? water or country? water or earth we were banished to the former, sailing in an inter-nation between nation (ex-french, we stopped saying “nation”) if i need nước to survive then i am parched punctured please someone tell me who i am already. water or earth water on land my mother says that she is too scared to go back home and my father says that he does not remember it. how am i supposed to drink my country now? race in the americas / 9

katrina ngo - draining I. treading water

III. salivating

mẹ ơi, you are drowning me, pouring your water, your nước down my throat faster than i can swallow so i gargle our words, the accents and tones flickering off my tongue like spit: tại sao con phải học tiếng việt when you have already stopped speaking it at home? i do not want to be drenched in a nước that i will never drink again. let me inhale english and sigh america. i need to breathe to survive.

mom, my mouth waters for our nước, the drool trickling down the barren skin of my chin. i am foaming for the words that ripple me back to you and the rest of the water, but it is too late for me.

II. sweating mẹ ơi, beads of nước slither past my skin and into the cracked earth despite my attempts to blow them away. somehow, i am dripping in our nước, my soggy body sweltering in the seasalt air of a nước you murmur to me when the anaheim palm trees are suddenly clammy to the touch. nước dribbles past the race indentation of my licked lips

IV. withering my dewiness evaporated in the gust of an overbearing american dream, i have been left to dry like a worn, sodden rag clipped to twisted, stale rope, rope that gags and drains me of my luscious vietnamese, my juicy vietnamese, my nectarious vietnamese, my weary vietnamese.

in the americas / 10

citations espiritu, yen le. body counts: the vietnam war and militarized refugees. university of california press. 2014. mckittrick, katherine, "demonic grounds: sylvia wynter." demonic grounds: black women and the cartographies of struggle. university of minnesota press. 2006. misra, tanvi. "'un-walling' the u.s.-mexico border." citylab. the atlantic monthly group, 12 jan. 2017. web. 14 june 2019. smith, linda tuhiwai. "introduction." decolonizing methodologies: research and indigenous peoples. zed books.

2012.

race in the americas / 11