Flashing Palely in the Margins
Sorry, not sorry.
I’ve always known that there were pockets of resentment for the “other” in America, and here in Canada too. Anyone who has grown up as part of the other has seen discrimination, subtle or overt, numerous times through out their lives.
That this resentment for people like me exists is not new; that so many people in America harbor this hatred—so much so that they elected someone who stands for bigotry, misogyny, and outright racism as their leader—is what astounds me.
I am sorry for the state of our world when we have arrived in a place when multiculturalism is not seen as strength, but as threat. I am sorry that my difference is seen as a detriment rather than an opportunity. I am sorry that young people people today have to grow up in a world that keeps telling them that homogeneity takes precedence over diversity. I am sorry that so many of my friends and family members woke up on November 9 to a country that told them, loudly, that they didn’t belong.
I am, however, not sorry for who I am. I am not sorry to have immigrated to New York thirty-two years ago (and a few years later, here to Canada) and made this country my own. I am not sorry to proudly be myself, and use my diversity of thought, opinion, and experience to help make this a better place to live.
I am sorry that so many people hate the other, right now, but I am not sorry to be a proud and loud part of that other, either.
For the “sorry not sorry” edition of The Mixtape Concern, a collection of songs about the immigrant experience.
- Heems: Soup Boys
- La Santa Cecilia: Ice El Hielo
- Médine f. Aboubakr: Ni Violeur Ni Terroriste
- Calle 13: Pa’l Norte
- Riz MC: Englistan
- Gaby Moreno: Ave Que Emigra
- Blitz the Ambassador: BISA
- Sade: Immigrant
- Swet Shop Boys: T5
- Public Enemy: Icebreaker
- M.I.A.: Borders
- Manu Chao: Clandestino
- K’naan, Snow Tha Product, Riz MC & Residente: Immigrants (We Get the Job Done)
As always, you can download all the songs above on Dropbox.