Written February 6, 2009

I personally cannot believe I am making space for this on my website but I feel like it is warranted. I hope that people will benefit from this in general while using myself as an example.

While whatever I try to do on a personal level is minuscule in comparison to others, I do try my best to do what I can. I respect everyone who does activist work. Anyone who gets engaged in the community knows that you have to pick your battles, pick the front-lines you will charge at. Everyone has a different concept of this. There are different factors that come into play when picking your battles. I cannot address everything I take into account with my decisions (to use as examples), but I do want to address these emo activists who take offense when you don't get involved in their cause.

Out of all the possible reasons they think about why you're not getting involved, they will ALWAYS pick out the ABSOLUTE WORST of the bunch which is a concomitant characteristic of being EMO. Two annoying one's people might have dealt with before from these crybabies are: (i) He/she does not care about a particular group (ethnicity, culture, etc.) and (ii) He/she does not care about the cause. It does not even come across the minds of these people the complex factors that come into play when someone makes a decision to take up a particular cause which has nothing to do with either.

While I don't make it into a habit to explain myself, I will use myself as an example. Personally, I am involved in activism that involves the Muslim community regardless of ethnicity or culture. I honestly don't really give a damn what your ethnicity is or where the hell you come from. The same goes with someone's religion. But I will not lie and say that being Muslim does not affect the trajectory of my activism. It is the overarching influence in all my decisions. The same goes with my choice of friends, does that mean I don't have non-Muslim friends? Of course not. I have tons. The same criterions are taken into account (personal interests, political beliefs, etc.) when I make my choices. Nevertheless, majority of my friends are Muslims as I find it easier to get along with them as we share the similarity in our way of life: Islam. I do not pick them out based on ethnicity, I pick them out for these reasons.  Why do I have a lot of Pakistani and Arab friends? Does the fact that they make up a large majority of Muslims in Canada ring a bell? I take whatever comes along and I will not force friendships just to fill up a quota (One Italian, check. One Malaysian, check. One Filipino, check. One black guy, check). Don't be ridiculous. The majority of Muslims I interact with are Arabs and Pakistanis, thus, the chances of me befriending more of them increases. Of course, emotionally driven people do not think and would rather make loaded assumptions that I must hate this and that ethnicity which is completely baseless if they knew anything about me. It fits nicely into their thesis of a "self-hating Filipino" or whatever other labels people want to throw at me. I don't have to PAY any DUES to anyone just because I share a skin color, religion, ethnicity, culture or a similar looking hair on my ass. I follow what I am passionate about. Despite the pretty little convenient and self-serving thesis/arguments that people throw about, level headed people know the deal.

I get involved in the Palestinian cause because it is one of the most pressing humanitarian issue the world is facing today. It is at the absolute front-line of the fight against imperialism/colonialism and there are many who will argue to that fact. The conflict is also extremely muddled by misconceptions which needs to be stripped away to even address the issues surrounding it. There are other reasons but this is the one that I feel I can help with the most. It is also something that I have been involved with ever since I got into activism (and yes, being Muslim helps fuel my passion for it but I realize that it goes beyond discriminating between religions). Whenever I can, I put it within the context of colonialism and other oppressed people. I am involved in issues pertaining to the violation of civil/legal/human rights under the banner of "war on terror" but it just so happens that Muslims are getting targeted the most -- hence, the passion I have for this cause. But again, I don't care about what someone's ethnicity, culture or religion is. While I keep my work at Literacy Through Hip Hop separate from my activist work, at LTHH we really don't give a damn about any of the latter three factors. The goal is to help ANY child improve their literacy skills. Beyond that, I don't want to make any more comments about my work there. The same goes with my passion for campaigns against Islamophobia and in my involvement in looking to organize the Muslim community in activism. I am a Muslim-Filipino and these are MY reasons. Others have different ones and that is totally cool but I make no apologies for what I am passionate about.

Of course, the emo activists will not even think about all that but will just assume the worst: you're racist and you don't care about their cause. They will not even take half a step in assuming that you have no time on top of all the stuff you're involved with and that you have a personal life of your own. Those are the emo activists, I'm cool with the level-headed and rational ones who gives you the benefit of the doubt when you say you cannot get involved the way they want you too. Even worst, they will not even appreciate all the work you have done because it was not for them.

Let people pick their battles. Don't cry like a little baby when you don't get your way. That is no way of getting someone motivated to help join you ... even if they have time.

In the spirit of resistance,
Critical Mood