[clip from Jay-Z's "Dead Presidents II", see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeadPresidents%28song%29]
I was illegal in this country
when I arrived in this country, I arrived as an illegal immigrant.
As I got older, I recognized that, uh,
my brother, my adopted brother and I could be deported at any time.
This after our family had been in North America
since the advent of the California gold rush in 1849.
And yet it is only my children,
who were born in '73 and '75,
are the first in our family to be born in North America,
that's after a hundred years, a hundred some odd years.
That tells you what exclusion and head tax and racist immigrant policies can do.
And my grandparents suffered that.
My grandmother and grandfather
were seperated for 25 years by racist law.
My grandfather paid a head tax,
which was the equivalent of two houses when he came here.
You could buy two houses for $500.
As I got involved in these issues,
these issues changed my life.
I rearranged my life so I could, so I could
continue to participate
and, and, and, if you want to call sort of
being one of the leaders in the movement.
I became self-employed,
I learned skills to be a media producer,
I learned skills to be a community organizer.
All these things I had to do when I got involved.
So y'know, for young people I would say that
y'know, this is your world,
y'know, you're the future,
get involved,
but get involved with the idea of contributing,
and get involved when you have your bases covered.
And when I say that,
don't count on the movement or what you're getting into to provide your basics.
Uh, the two campaigns
that, that i've put about 25, 30 years into is
the Chinese Head Tax and Exclusion Redress campaign,
and also community television.
I joined the redress campaign in '83, and community television in '86.