By Sungii
Naruto: (surprised) You sound really excited! What happened?!
Sungii: Well it's like a bunch of cool things that happened really. I grew the courage to talk with this girl I've always seen on campus. I got back a very good grade that I didn't expect to get. I even got a cleaner understand on the entire race thing too!
Naruto: Oh tell me more! About the last one though, the others... you can keep them to yourself. (smiling)
Sungii: ... Okay... Anyways I watched a filmed skit called "Trying to Find Chinatown" by David Hwang but performed by my classmates. We also shortly went over a very famous speech titled "I Have a Dream" by Martin Luther King Jr. I even got to watch a couple episodes of the Boondocks before talking with you tonight! What I noticed amongst them was something really encouraging: hope.
Naruto: (smiling)
Sungii: It made me really smile. In the episode of Boondocks titled "The Passion of Reverend Ruckus" - episode 15 of season 1 - Huey's friend was going to be electrocuted to death for a crime he had not committed but accused of simply because he was black. Miraculously, he was saved. Huey had sent a letter to blackmail the mayor, which had a very low chance of success for the freeing of his friend, but against the odds it came true. Coincidentally the episode was also about Uncle Ruckus - another character in the comic and television series - who was preaching about a deep and intimate love with God and only white people. At the very end, thunder struck him and all his 'believers' were no longer in his midst. It kind of ended with equality at its purest state. A sign of some omniscient and powerful observer who sees a mistreatment for the people who are condemned for being different in this world.
Naruto: (smiles bigger)
Sungii: In the play "Trying to Find Chinatown", Benjamin first confronted Ronnie and things didn't appear to go so well. There clearly was a lot of misunderstanding between the two and Ronnie made that very clear by saying things like: "Do you see a cob pipe? Am I f***ing my cousin?" For most of the play it continued like this but a very diplomatic moment came across for Benjamin and I guess he felt the need to take advantage of it - which he did do. He began illustrating all of Asian culture which he studied in college and even a bit about his life being raised by adopted Asian parents. Although Ronnie doesn't clearly appreciate the lecture Benjamin gives him he still listens attentively. Towards the end, Ronnie - as I expected - refused to listen to Benjamin anymore. The conflict between the two didn't end well, but what I really enjoyed was Benjamin's own desire to learn more about a race he himself was not a part of entirely. He had already had a taste for it, but he was hungry for more so he pursued this as a goal - an academic one. It was the heart to understand what Ronnie was like that impressed me the most!
Naruto: (smiles bigger)
Sungii: And in the speech by Martin Luther King Jr...
Naruto: (chuckles)
Sungii: What?
Naruto: Nothing continue.
Sungii: Well in that speech there were three fundamentally strong principles of persuasive writing that I learnt today in EWRT that he used very effectively: ethos, logos and pathos. He was already an inspirational and known figure carrying out logically inclined words to satisfy the ears of those who seek mutual, concrete understanding along with sentiments that touched the hearts of many souls who longed for a voice much louder than theirs. It was beautiful, more so because it focused on a race that was deemed neglected. It focused on a "hundred years" of mistreatment and inequality that was to be restored but was not. I don't think I can say much more about it because that's really all I understood from the his speech. I'm actually very ignorant about the entire historical context of the speech but I know for sure that it reached out to an audience at the time and one 50 years into the future - today. That's powerful!
Naruto: (laughs)
Sungii: I wonder what's so funny. Anyways, to some it all up I just got off a video call with my mother - who is Hispanic. I told her that I felt very insecure about my life goal and direction. The pressure of a society that somewhat discriminates my success as a student being partially Hispanic. I'd remember the comments from my high school days, "you're only half Asian so you'll only be half as good in math" or stronger ones hampering my goal orientation like, "have you ever heard of a Hispanic engineer? No! They work for them, and by work I mean screwing and hammering bolts and nails." My mother was never the brightest in our family - measuring by degree status - and neither was she the most academically pressuring figure in our household, but it was her heart that moved me today. (tearing up)
Naruto: ugh... are you... do you want a tissu...
Sungii: She told me, "no matter what people tell you or what they think of you, remember that you have a dream you want to accomplish too. You were destined for a greater purpose and no one call tell you that you weren't. You like many other inspirational figures were told all the same things: you can't do it, a guy like you would never know, you're not meant for that kind of work. They never lost site of their dream and they held unto it very dearly. I held unto you all my life because I knew that my success wasn't going to be something I would share in words with the world, my contribution to the greater good was you. You hold all my dreams and aspirations. You are everything I wished I could be when I was young. You are everything to me. Above that you carry within you the strong will of your father who did very well in school as well! You have the ability to perform! Don't let someone tell you that because you're part of a negligent race that you're no good. I never gave up hope on you. I pray for you daily so that you wouldn't have to go through this, but when you said this my heart broke into pieces. Mi hijo, por favor, no te rindas." (my boy, please, do not give up)
Naruto: (tears flows down the eyes)
Sungii: Don't worry I'm tearing up too. I'm proud of my mom. I'm happy I have her. I'm happy that people like David Hwang, Aaron McGruder and Martin Luther King Jr. exists too. They might not be as powerful in effective speech as my mom will be to me, but they're like guidelines. They're my set cornerstones. I have no reason to give up on anything!
Naruto: This racial talk really hit you hard. I think you taught me something today.
Sungii: Yeah, I never thought about all of this until now. My thoughts on Marjane in the beginning up to my view on poetry and relationships was always slightly hampered by a bit of discrimination. I never saw it till now. I never realized that it was a part of me till now. I guess I can proudly say I've grown out of it, or maybe just a little (chuckles)
Naruto: Yeah! I think you've grown a lot in just one day. I guess there is no use for me anymore.
Sungii: Wait why?
Naruto: You're entire reason for calling me was because you needed a guide. Someone you could talk to because you were lost, but you're well on your way. You can walk now, I don't even need to teach you how to run. You're sprinting!
Sungii: So what happens now?
Naruto: I'm going back from where I came. I'm going back home.
Sungii: But where is home for you?
Naruto: Silly! You created me in your heart because you longed for an inner friend to talk to! I'll always be with you! I'm just going to get some sleep.
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