HEARD / WORD | January 25, 2021

This month, Paul Yumbla reads “From What Do I Resign?” - a pledge of unallegiance, a piece born out of rage and resistance.

To find out how your reading can be featured, click here.

from what do i resign?

By Paul Yumbla

From what do I resign? What space or institutions do I no longer see myself being a part of? Well, there are a couple but the biggest culprit is the man in the red, white and blue. Uncle Sam.

I want to write a letter of resignation to this country but I cant. I cant because I never worked here. I was never a part of the staff. I cant resign from something I was never included in. I cant walk away from a space I was never meant to be a part of.

From what do resign if not from the vile land soaked in blood. From what cup will i fill my spirit from now. The red white and blue stains bleed into the parchment in front of me.

From what do I resign if not from the hate spewed from the empty vessels of white rage. Do I resign from the glances or from the spit. The parchment takes form the angrier I get, combining with the ink as if both have the same fleeting motivation. Resign from what and on who’s terms? This employment contract is riddled with loopholes and the jargon of white power. To live in this country is to live in the face of colonial contradictions. It is to live in a country that has rigged the game. The referee is both a cop and a klan member. Showing you a red card, yellow card but taunting you with a green card.

From what do I resign if not from the unwavering fear that black and brown bodies continue to be the mulch of this stolen land. This mulch mixed with soil ensures these colonial roots persist. Ensures that with enough tending to, these roots take over. Like with any good plant, there comes a warning. For optimal care, water weekly, soil drainage, bright light, fertilize sparingly. For those that have been dismissed, neglected and left to rot, thats exactly what happens to its roots. A sign of infected and sick plants is root rot. This illegitimate state is seeing itself from the ground up. Starting into rotting roots. The cure seems simple enough. You sever the rotted roots and salvage what you can. But what happens when the entire acre is rotting? When the whole fucking planet is rotting?

I resign from this project. I bow out in a manner that captures both my contempt and my privilege.

I want to resign from this nation but I would not even be heard. Structurally and systemically there is no pathway for me to quit. In this state’s mind I am trespassing. Not being a citizen, this existence, this body I occupy and the space I take up. Is trespassing. I cant resign from this nation because I am actively being attacked by the employer. From what do I resign if the employers, the ones in charge are killing my people. No, no I can’t resign. Resigning is not justice. The only document or notice or information that needs to be communicated to this nation, to our boss, is one of a right to revolution. To openly declare, we demand justice by any means necessary.