Staceyann Chin reads Las Casas on the Spanish genocide of Hispaniola

This is five minutes long, but well worth listening to all the way to the end. As a slam poet Chin always makes sure to save the best for last. The male voice you hear at the beginning is Howard Zinn, who just passed away.

See also:

• Haiti: a brief history – which is partly based on Las Casas
• Staceyann Chin: Pity the Nation – more good stuff from Staceyann
• genocide
  • How to deny a genocide
• Staceyann Chin
• Howard Zinn

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Staceyann Chin: Pity the Nation

I saw this on the blog Don’t Do That:

Pity the nation whose people are sheep,
and whose shepherds mislead them.
Pity the nation whose leaders are liars, whose sages are silenced,
and whose bigots haunt the airwaves.

Pity the nation that raises not its voice,
except to praise conquerors and acclaim the bully as hero
and aims to rule the world with force and by torture.
Pity the nation that knows no other language but its own
and no other culture but its own.
Pity the nation whose breath is money
and sleeps the sleep of the too well fed.
Pity the nation — oh, pity the people who allow their rights to erode
and their freedoms to be washed away.
My country, tears of thee, sweet land of liberty.

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