All Hell Can't Stop Us Now

Zack de la Rocha clearly recalls how the hurt, anger and cruel surprise — the compound whack of ignorant racism — literally knocked the speech out of him. The singer and lyricist of Rage Against the Machine was in high school: a solitary Mexican-American teenager in a classroom of bone-white faces, a self-conscious exception to the privileged homogeneity of the Los Angeles suburb of Irvine, California. A teacher was leading a discussion about rock formations on the state’s Pacific coast. “He was describing one of the areas between San Diego and Oceanside," de la Rocha says, “and as a reference to this particular area of the coastline, he said, ‘You know, that wetback station there.’ And everyone around me laughed. They thought it was the funniest thing that they ever heard." De la Rocha’s voice drops to a measured snarl: “I remember sitting there, about to explode. I realized that I was not of these people. They were not my friends. And I remember internalizing it, how silent I was. I remember how afraid I was to say anything." Yet Zack — short for Zacarías — made a pivotal, empowering decision in class that day. “I told myself," he says, “that I would never be silent again. I would never allow myself to not respond to that type of situation — in any form, anywhere."