Youth / OPINION : ‘I Am You From Far Away’

Rather than allow Hollywood to define Korean-American s, I would like to introduce you to Korean-Americans who aren’t “Falling Down,” as in the the movie, but rising up among you -- not in anger or hate, but with love and shared respect .

You see me as the same,

All the same.

No differences

To our faces.

We are masks

To you.

You probably think

We all think

The same.

We are as plain

To you

As grains of rice.

They used to say,

“They all look

Alike.”

Now, they keep silent

Their words. But I can

See in their eyes,

They think I’m no different

Than any other Asian girl.

“Chinese, Japanese, aren’t you?”

They ask. “No, I’m from Korea,

Land of the Morning Calm.”

“My mother and father wanted

A better life. They gave up

All they had to come here.”

Hey, I speak English now. Before

I spoke only Korean. To you,

My words probably meant nothing

More than pleas of homeless people

Begging in the dark. But to me,

I was trying to hand you

Cups of sunlight, to make clouds

Clear, to give America a face.

You think we smell of kimchee,

Drive badly and work all night

Without sleep.

Yet if you did see our faces

The night of the riots, and after,

You saw fear, pain, and anger.

You saw hearts driven mad with

Flames and smoke.

Now my heart beats like yours,

And yours like mine. It feels

Like yours, and wants to be loved

And to love.

You see, it is only the outside

That makes people different from

Their beating hearts.

Sometimes I feel people

Staring at me, whispering,

“You dirty foreigner, you don’t

Belong here. Go home.”

And I want to say to them,

“I have.” We all want to belong.

An American soldier, lost

In Korea, once spoke

To my father, without knowing

He could understand.

He was lonely, his heart far

From home. Here, I am

A soldier, too.

Koreatown sounds so strange

To my ears. Koreatown.

I walk down the streets,

Feeling trapped between Korea

And America, both so far

Away.

You see me as you drive past,

And you think I’m another one

Of those Foreigners: here to make

Money, buy a store, and get rich.

But first I need to find a home

For my heart, traveling without

A passport or a flag,

An Asian girl, traveling like all of us

Across the sea of life.

Please welcome me ashore,

For I will be there for you

When you arrive.

Stranger, brother, sister,

I am you from far

Away. Come here and stand

By me.