"Broken Speak" by I Was Born With Two Tongues:
The Agony and Beauty of Birth; What Happens When Asians Shout?

Review by Todd Lee
7/30/01

When I borrowed "Broken Speak" to write this piece, I have to admit I was filled with both eager anticipation and lingering doubts. The idea of Asian rappers made me hope that this was not derivative of African American hip hop; I have a world of respect for what Chris and Nobuko did with Grain of Sand many moons ago, but have always thought of that as progressive Asians playing somebody else's music. I was concerned, too, with the group's name. The "two tongues" image conjured up images of Stanley Sue hyphenated Americans; although I saw promise in the kind of freakish and tribal images the two tongues idea also hinted at.

What Tongues Say
I shouldn't have worried. "Broken Speak" is fiercely original, and a major contribution to contemporary Asian American art. It has a lot to say about the sickness of racism experienced by Asian Americans and about the struggle to liberate ourselves Ô both our internal struggles to rid ourselves of the chains of oppression and repression and the struggle in the world to fight oppression and to define ourselves. It looks at these issues with intensity, biting humor and deep thoughtfulness. Though at times not explicitly political in content, the CD is tough-minded and revolutionary in spirit, and has not only the energy of youth, but youthful wisdom.

The African American revolutionary poet and writer Amiri Baraka once wrote something to the effect that the purpose of Black art is "to find the self, then kill it". "Broken Speak" amends this to mean that the purpose of Asian American art is to zero in on the truth of Asian American oppression, to dare to call it out in all its sick reality, and then to build on its ashes. There is an edge and an anger to the explosion of stereotypes that really goes beyond anything I've seen in Asian American arts since Frank Chin. And it's different in that while Frank was about, largely self-hate, the Tongues are only about self-hate insofar as Asians have bought into the lame propaganda of the oppressor. When the Tongues, in "Letter to Our Unborn Children" spit out disapproval of the media stereotypes of Asians as "comic props and paper whores" there is no winking good humor or wistful forgiveness implied. There is only righteous rage at the effect this has on our sanity and ability to fight. When Emily and Anida declare "stop masturbating in my culture", the image is sick, but the reality of white men who get off on a disturbed Asian fetish is sheer profanity. Broken Speak is raw, but it is not raw or hard as hip-hop star posture (although it's part of a conscious stance), but because the real pain and other emotions of the oppressed; and the will and commitment to resist, are raw stuff.

Brokenspeak2 Sick Self