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Immovable Object vs. Unstoppable Force

from Use Your Voice - EP by Use Your Voice

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about

This is a polemic description of what scholar Ronald Takaki calls the "plantation pyramid," which was both a physical mountain in a Hawaiian sugar plantation during colonial times and a metaphor for white supremacy. The lyrics compare the plantation pyramid to the Trump administration and white supremacy in the United States. The plantation pyramid consists of the white master's house at the top of the hill, allowing him (most likely a him) to look down upon his slaves/nearly enslaved workers below. The different elevations on the hill are occupied by different ethnicities of laborers. The lower on the hill a group is, the more hard labor they do and the less favored they are. The groups in the middle strata of the hill are used to enforce the master's orders to the groups below. These groups are the "middleman minority," which many believe is the social space that APAs occupy. This status is closely tied to the idea of the "model minority," meaning Asians are viewed as hardworking and docile, and a model for "lesser" minorities to emulate. The lyrics are a rejection of the model minority and middleman status, and a rejection of white supremacy.

lyrics

There's a shining White House upon a hill
After centuries it stands there still
There's a man who lives inside its halls
Who enforces his almighty will
He gazes down upon this hill he owns
From his ostentatious golden throne
At the base the black man toils and dies
This hill is (built upon his bones)

No justice (no peace)
I'll never be your middle minority
No justice (no peace)
Down with the silent majority

Above the black man who toils and dies
Below the white house on the hill
Is where I live and become utilized
The plantation master's laughing still
So he gives me praise and respects my wealth
Only if I agree to become his rod
It's a crime that's best performed in stealth
He worships this hill as his god

No justice (no peace)
I'll never be your middle minority
No justice (no peace)
Down with the silent majority

I'd ask you to go choke yourself
If your hands were bigger than your wealth

Fuck your golden tower
Fuck your fascist lies
We will take the power
From all that we despise
It's your final hour
We see through your disguise
We will never cower
Prepare for your demise

Here's to all my family who want to feel like they belong in their own fucking country
Who want to pursue a better life without being viewed with suspicion
Who have been hurt physically and mentally for simply existing as they are
Who refuse to play the game and buy into the hierarchy
Stand with me

credits

from Use Your Voice - EP, released April 28, 2017
Lead vocals: Will Penix
Guitars: John I. Kittle
Bass: Ethan Voytko
Drums: Matt Nguyen-Ngo
Backing vocals: Matt Nguyen-Ngo
Monologue: Matt Nguyen-Ngo
Gang vocals: Matt Nguyen-Ngo, Will Penix, John I. Kittle

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Use Your Voice Williamsburg, Virginia

Use Your Voice is the band that founder Matt Nguyen-Ngo put together to create his senior project EP for Asian Pacific Islander American Studies at the College of William & Mary. It is made up of members from his previous bands, Say Your Name and Wind for Wings.

Members:
Matt Nguyen-Ngo
John I. Kittle
Will Penix
Ethan Voytko ... more

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