The Absent Presence of Power

Cultural diversity is good, let’s celebrate!
I have culture!

I am bringing in culture!

I am cultured!

I am culture!

The indigenous peoples have cultures.
Their cultures are good so you keep them in the reserves.
People who came after you have cultures.
Their cultures are so good that you grant them the festivals.

One day, you feel pity and ponder if you have your own culture.

You don't have a reserve to stay!
You don’t have a festival to celebrate!

Don't cry! Open your eyes!

Your culture is everywhere!

It's in our textbooks and daily news!

It's in the shopping malls and restaurants!

It's in the parliaments and chuches!

It's in the gallaries and museums….

Don’t cry! Don’t cry!

Being invisible is not easy.

Consuming Diversity, Subsuming Otherness

Diversity is our strength!
Praise the Lord!
The colour of my skin is in your paintings;
The accent of my voice is in your music;
The history of my ancestor is in your fiction;
The suffering of my soul is in your ego.
With me in your imagination,
rainbow shines in the sky,
melody dances in the air,
glory fills your memory, and
sympathy occupies your heart.
My body, my voice, my past and my soul
are ingredients of your humanness.
The Otherness in me is there every moment you appreciate life.
What a wonderful world! You praise.
Fixed in your gaze, it is indeed a wonderful world!

Celebrating Cultural Diversity

Cultural diversity is good! Let’s all celebrate!
I have my culture, they have theirs!
There are peoples who were here before your arrival.
Their culture is so good that you keep them in the reserves.
There are peoples who are coming after you.
Their cultures are all good so you grant them the festivals.
You feel pity and ask if you have culture to celebrate!
You don’t have a reserve to stay!
You don’t have a festival to celebrate!
Wake up!
Your culture is everywhere!
It's on TVs!
It's in our textbooks and daily news!
It's in the shopping malls and restaurants
It's in the courthouses and museums ….
Don’t cry! Don’t cry! Being invisible is not easy.

DisOrientation

Oh dear my friends!
The compass my ancestor invented no longer works for me!
Can you please tell me where I am?

Why China is the East, Canada the West,

if we fly to China via Vancouver?

Why is Australia a Northern country,

if Ghana a Southern?

Should I turn my head or the map upside down?
I am lost! I really am!

Please, tell me where I am!

Where I stand!

Can you tell me where I Am?

Righting Whiteness, Mystifying Transcendence!

Can we transcend from our emboddied privilege?
Can we cross boundaries of difference?
Should I stay? or Should I go?
What happen if these become the theme songs of the day?

When the privileged become good guys,
Hegemony finally completes.
The privileged are now both the oppressors and the messiahs,
or the critiqued and the critics.
While justice is celebrated,
has power differential changed?
As the privileged are playing on both sides of the court,
the deprived are remained silenced.

The racialized bodies are taken care of as minors in tulelage!

Systemic mutism is further entrenched.
The powerful allies are the well celebrated speaking subjects;
The oppressed are rendered invisible.