Jose Soto – A Case Study [Video]

I’m sitting in a class I can’t afford

it’s filled with students have brighter

and bleaker futures than myself and we

are all watching the professor’s

struggle with a projector again the

student to my rights it’s more

comfortable than the rest of us refuses

to ever address it to my left a student

finally finishes mansplaining how Bernie

Sanders really could have won had he

been given the chance and beauty sits in

the air with privilege in all its

classes glory as irony sits in the

corner of the room softly clearing her

throat suddenly the projector spits life

onto the screen today the professor

announces we are looking at a case study

today we are talking about click failing

countries click sinking homes click

today we’re talking about Venezuela and

my heart becomes an icicle and my throat

and no one can see the thin glass

separating the precipice beneath our

feet but me class begins click Venezuela

is a modern socialist revolution by the

end of this year its inflation rate will

increase over 1 million percent click my

parents and I welcome recently arrived

family they keep telling a story over

and over and over about how many mouths

can 5 dollars a month feed I look down

at my plate and think about how many it

doesn’t click the average Venezuelan

lost 20 pounds in 2017 alone click my

parents and I are watching old home

movies we see my uncle’s skin used to

hold circus tent tight I get his rotund

belly instead of hanging like a tattered

flag we all laugh in silence click the

student to my right blames the left

scoffs away a nation’s struggle as he

pulls on the sides of his boots click

the student to my left blames the right

says there was no reward in revolution

if we halt in the face of struggle click

and this is where the glass shatters and

my mouth becomes the spilling see how

easy is it to demand a nation’s blood be

spilled when you have no skin in this

game look at the scoreboard

how many more brown bodies after die so

you can win a Facebook comment section

get my country the [ __ ] out of your

mouth you’re swallowing the hungry hole

you’re using my family tree to pick my

cousins from between your teeth these

statistics were never our names

numbers are a terrible way to mourn the

dead irony stands up and tells me stay

quiet and sit down class continues click

over the last two years millions and

millions millions of Venezuelans have

run away from their home

click I’m standing in Austin

click I’m standing in Denver click

Chicago click Salt Lake click oh ma

click click click I’m standing in front

of you right now begging a crowd please

tell me I’m not alone here on most days

I feel like an immigrant bully drowning

in an ocean of my kin click class ends

irony and I walk out of the room she

tells me I cannot ask for aid while

demanding nuance millions of voices get

stuck in my throat begging that’s

somebody anybody please do better

you

[Applause]