#decolonozation

[angelamariaxo]

Babel by R.F. Kuang Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I went into this book blindly but also knew of it thanks to TikTok when it came to THAT TikTok video review. This book definitely blew my expectations! Each page kept me reading more and more that didn’t want it to end. My emotions were everywhere when reading it but a lot of anger and disgust when it comes to main theme: colonization. Robin, Ramy, Victoire and Letty’s years at Babel show their journeys through the novel that in the end you see where each of them fall. It’s a historical fiction book with more history that people should be made aware of. While also having a fantasy and dark academia theme that kept me on my toes. Definitely recommend. Also need to pick up Kaung’s other novel The Poppy War. *HCP umbrella so I tagged the hcpunion page* #babel #babelnovel #rfkuang #bookstagram #bookreview #bookworm #2023bookchallenge #historicalfiction #fantasybooks #darkacademia #historicalfantasy #colonialism #decolonozation #booktok #chineseauthors #asianauthors #asianamericanwriters #hcponstrike #hcpunion https://www.instagram.com/p/CnudL0dJKPO/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[butchpeabody]

being us-centric is so ingrained into the psyche of the average (esp white) usamerican its insane like its something i have to consciously make an effort to not do until it sticks because thats just how being in the us brings you up. the us wants you to think that we're the main characters of the world so bad like i saw a post talking about how crazy it was that other usa residents say shit like "Other Cultures" as if 1. said Other Cultures are not already alive in the us and 2. as if there are two states of being, usamerican (really white and usamerican) and Other. i think thats the kind of shit they mean when they say youre not immune to propaganda, not everything is carried out with insidious intent on a day to day basis but constantly positing just like, existence and heritage and shit as "us and them" is kind of nuts right??

[the-four-humors]

"Decolonozation is always a violent event" says the white American from the comfort of his own home, well aware that if an indigenous person put a gun to his head, he'd beg for his life

[woman-respecter]

the thing about mormonism is that it isnt just incidentally racist and colonialist its that it’s essentially FOUNDED on racism and colonialism. like to an extent that goes beyond normie christianity.

[ambrinmacp-blog]

Smith, Linda Tuhiwai. Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples, 1-18. London & New York: Zed Books; Dunedin, N.Z.: University of Otago Press, 1999. 

In the introduction to her book Decolonizing Methodologies, Smith, a New Zealand Indigenous academic, discusses the relationship between research and Indigenous peoples. In the colonial context, Smith positions research as a scientific justification for the Western gaze on the ‘Other’. She argues that the objectification of Indigenous peoples in order to ‘explain’ and document their cultures for a Western audience, and the policies that have developed from such research, have caused immense harm to Indigenous peoples around the world. Acknowledging this historical tension between research and Indigenous peoples, Smith’s book aims to support and guide Indigenous researchers in their work. 

Smith’s text highlights the importance for non-Indigenous researchers, such as myself to an extend, to consider the historical relationship between Indigenous peoples and research. As discussed by Danny regarding the work of Local Time, how and if local knowledge is documented, who this knowledge is shared with and who benefits or suffers from this insight are crucial points to consider when working in Indigenous contexts. 

[starswallowingsea]

My prof says our 5 paragraph essay in Spanish should be on a (simple) issue within our field of study and all the papers coming up and all the things that I have like as a physical reference do not tackle simple issues

[dominicanslovehaitians]

This week has been so full. So full of surprises and unexpected blessings. So full of understanding and allowing for growth to come through. So full of reconnecting to our body and understanding we have been waiting to emerge here as our full potential. So blessed for the many places we have gone internally this week so we can fully be ourselves. Allowing ourselves to be fully present to our anger and the limitation of our compassion and the willingness to be here where we are. Soon you’ll join us as witness to the process we are undergoing. #bettysdaughter #artscollective #performancefellowship #artsactivist #culturalworker #emancipator #decolonozer #disruptor #ourancestorsgift #uprising #revolution #ase

[adventisttoday]

11 August 2020 | Pastor Joshua Maponga, a controversial Adventist pastor active in the Southern Africa-Indian Ocean Division of the denomination, has been banned from speaking to Adventist congregations in the region. Originally from Zimbabwe, Maponga had publicly called for the decolonization of Christianity which he claimed depicted a white Jesus and promoted white culture. According to Gambia’s Kalemba news site, the division’s Evangelism, Personal Ministries and Nurture and Retention Director, Michael Rugube Ngwaru, had voiced concerns about both the content of Maponga’s preaching and his communication style. Maponga is banned from attending, speaking, preaching and officiating at any function of the Church in Southern and Indian-Ocean regions. South Africa’s Sunday World reported on July 29 that Maponga is launching a legal challenge against his suspension, demanding it be lifted. The newspaper reported that Maponga had recently preached that Christianity was not created to serve the black race, especially not in Africa. Maponga allegedly preached that Africa was on a cross, crucified by the west and other powers. In addition to his duties as an Adventist pastor, the preacher has carved out a reputation as a motivational speaker, philosopher and musician. According to the Briefly news site, Maponga graduated with a BA in theology and personal ministries from Andrews University in Michigan and has been an Adventist minister since 1991. Image: Defeat of the Ashantees, by the British forces under the command of Coll. Sutherland, July 11th 1824 – public domain. Before you go… We are living in unprecedented times. Physical gatherings like a weekly church service are not possible in many parts of the world. But meaningful community is more important than ever. Adventist Today works hard to provide you with an extended family that values independent news, commentary and conversation in the Adventist community. In the last few months we’ve also added two new weekly innovations: our stimulating Sabbath Seminar and the uplifting Anticipating AT1 video programming. To do all this, we really need your help and financial support, especially right now, during our AT Summer Fundraiser. So please check out the article above, share it with your friends and help us continue to bring you excellent, informative and encouraging content. You can donate one time by clicking this link: https://ift.tt/2LOOdmd or monthly by clicking this one: https://ift.tt/34F3Jtv You can also give via an IRA Qualified Charitable Distribution here: https://ift.tt/2UVqZiR or call us toll-free at 800.236.3641

[colour-blind-me-blog]

WHEN TWITTER ROSE, FEES FELL!

The post will explore how new media works to influence our political lives positively. It will discuss how Twitter, as a social media platform, helped the protests on the removal of the statue of Cecil John Rhodes at the University of Cape Town to advance to a larger scale. A simple hashtag (#RhodesMustFall) influenced another protest (the fees must fall protest) and it was through Twitter that the whole nation stayed fully informed. Not only did students use the platform on Twitter for their own discussions, but they also reported news ahead of mainstream media. The post will discuss how students countered mainstream media by being reporters of their own story on Twitter.

It was on the 09th of March 2015 that a student at the University of Cape Town painted the statue of Cecil John Rhodes with human faeces as a way to voice out his grievance to the government. The student was pleading with the government to have the statue removed as it was thought of a figure that was perpetuating the racism that was taking place at the institution. Cecil John Rhodes is one of the colonialists who brought colonization to Africa and having his statue at the institution seemed as if the apartheid government was being celebrated. After the student made headlines, other students stood in support of him and took to Twitter to start a hashtag called #RhodesMustFall. The #RhodesMustFall enabled students to not only discuss the removal of the statue, but to also discuss other race issues too as Bosch states that “the campaign known as Rhodes Must Fall led to a wider student-led political movement which calls for widespread transformation of the university, including ‘decolonizing’ the curriculum, raising issues around the low number of senior black academic staff, and an awareness-raising campaign around artworks which are seen by the movement to promote institutional racism” (2016:1).

Twitter did not only help students to discuss racial issues going on at the institution but helped for the statue to eventually be removed within a month (Bosch 2016:1). Students realized the effectiveness of Twitter that when the government announced that tuition fees would increase by 10% for the academic year of 2016, they started another campaign. Daniels (2016:176) states that “the next major project, also assisted by the hashtag in social media, began at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg in 2015”, and this one affected the whole of South Africa.

  Students from different parts of the country and different universities came together on Twitter to plead with the government to not raise fees for the academic year of 2016. Despite the distance between students across South Africa, they could have instant conversation on Twitter and this created a lot of unity that influenced physical protests as Bosch states that “social media has facilitated protest participation by increasing opportunities for engagement in collective action” (2016:4).

The majority of the black South African youth come from disadvantaged backgrounds and increased tuition fees would be harder to afford. Without bursaries, the disadvantaged youth would have to resort to loans that they would have to repay yet again after completing their studies.

Students then went on to start physical protests that affected the whole of the country as it is argued that “thousands of students joined the #RhodesMustFall protest which spread nationwide, so that every university was out on boycott of classes, coining another hastag, #Nationalshutdown, leading to the complete shutdown of universities, in October 2015”.

A simple first hashtag on Twitter got the whole country talking. Even though it was students who were at the forefront of online discussions, journalists and public figures such as the late Winnie Madikizela-Mandela joined the online discussions. 

For each and activity that was about the development of the protests, students took to Twitter to keep whoever was in support of them informed as it is stated that “debates and discussions…took place in several online and offline spaces…through the hashtag #RhodesMustFall and simply #RMF, which was used as centering tool for the debate, bringing together local and national contributors to the online conversation” (Bosch 2016:2). As discussions kept going on, they went as far as influencing universities in the United States of America and the United Kingdom to stand in support of the falling of the statue and of fees. Some of these universities had already had their struggles with unaffordable tuition fees and it is stated that “Fees Must Fall movement (#FMF) which began in South Africa in mid-October 2015 and also spread…to some parts of the United States and the United Kingdom, with similar smaller scale marches …were held in those countries” (Bosch 2016:3).

YEP, thee ‘OXFORD’ university in the UK was influenced by  South African students to also protest!

Mainstream media is owned by the elite and by the state which means that the reporting of news is almost always bias. When ordinary people, such as students in this case, stand against the government in protests, mainstream media depicts them as deviant and rebellious. Mainstream media is always trying by all means to protect the state as it is stated that “critics of mainstream media argue through political economy philosophy that mainstream media play a role in the maintenance and production of hegemony” (Daniels 2016:177). Thanks to Twitter that students were able to tell their side of the story and show that they were not deviant but rather fighting for a worthy cause. Mainstream media is always a leader in the reporting of news, but in this case, Twitter allowed students to be the leader of their own story and mainstream media became a follower as it is stated that “newspapers, television and radio-did not ���fall’ during the two protests but its number one place in public discourse and debate was knocked from its plinth to become a follower of news social media rather than a leader” (Daniels 2016:189). Simple hashtags on Twitter led to change that the statue ended up being removed and “the #FeesMustFall protests at the end of 2015…achieved the reduction of fee increases at South African universities from 10% to 0%” (Daniels 2016:176).

      HOW ABOUT A ROUND OF APPLAUSE FOR OUR STUDENTS?

In conclusion, the #RhodesMustFall campaign began at UCT as a way for students to plead with the government to remove the statue of Cecil John Rhodes as it embodied colonization and supported the racism at the institution. This Twitter campaign was successful that the statue ended up being removed and this motivated students to use Twitter again to plead with the government to not raise tuition fees for the year 2016. The #FeesMustFall happened on a really larger scale that led to the national shut down of universities and physical protests at universities across the country. It was through Twitter that students were able to unite and tell their side of the story without having mainstream media depicting them as deviant, violent and rebellious.  From simple hashtags, students were able to succeed through Twitter that the statue got removed and tuition fees did not increase.

EVEN THOUGH THE GOVERNMENT STOOD STRONG, STUDENTS SHOOK BUT DID NOT FAIL!

BIBLIOGRAPHY

2013. Bargain Basement Bachelors-Where to Find Free College. https://www.tuition.io/tog/free-college/

Bosch, T. 2016. Twitter activism and youth in South Africa: the case of #RhodesMustFall. Information, Communication & Society, published online 16 March, pp. 1-12.

 Daniels, G. 2016. Scrutinizing hashtag activism in the #FeesMustFall protests in South Africa in 2015. In B, Mutsavairo (ed), Digital Activism in the Social Media Era. Cambridge: Palgrave Macmillan

GenuisLevels. 2015. What Is Black Tax & Why You Should Care. Online, retrieved 28 August 2018. https://www.genuislevels.com/2015/10/what-is-black-tax/

 Given. 2018. #Free Education. Online, retrieved 28 August 2018: Madiadigital.blogspot.com.

 https://www.google.co.za/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fcs.mg.co.za%2Fcrop%2Fcontent%2Fimages%2F2016%2F11%2F01%2Ffees.jpg%2F800x450%2F&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fmg.co.za%2Farticle%2F2016-11-01-south-african-students-across-the-uk-march-in-solidarity-with-feesmustfall&docid=Be1gIwAIYU8FiM&tbnid=Ap8BKlcHgKrVGM%3A&vet=10ahUKEwj82YnkjJLdAhXSasAKHdZuC-UQMwhAKAQwBA..i&w=800&h=450&bih=871&biw=1255&q=oxford%20university%20march&ved=0ahUKEwj82YnkjJLdAhXSasAKHdZuC-UQMwhAKAQwBA&iact=mrc&uact=8

 Marie Claire Reporter. 2016. Online, retrieved 28 August 2018. https://www.marieclaire.co.za/mc-recommends/fees-must-fall-people-say

 Photo credit: UCT Rhodes Must Fall.  Online, retrieved 28 August 2018. Postcolonialist.com/civil-discourse-rhodes-must-fall-decolonozation-symbolism-happening-uct-south-africa/.

[youthincare]

By Clelia O. Rodríguez

The politics of decolonization are not the same as the act of decolonizing. How rapidly phrases like “decolonize the mind/heart” or simply “decolonize” are being consumed in academic spaces is worrisome. My grandfather was a decolonizer. He is dead now, and if he was alive he would probably scratch his head if these academics explained  the concept to him.

I am concerned about how the term is beginning to evoke a practice of getting rid of colonial practices by those operating fully under those practices. Decolonization sounds and means different things to me, a woman of color, than to a white person. And why does this matter? Why does my skin itch when I hear the term in academic white spaces where POC remain tokens? Why does my throat become a prison of words that cannot be digested into complete sentences? Is it because in these “decolonizing” practices we are being colonized once again?

I am not granted the same humanity as a white scholar or as someone who acts like one. The performance of those granted this humanity who claim to be creating space for people of color needs to be challenged. They promote Affirmative action, for instance, in laughable ways. During hiring practices, we’re demanded to specify if we’re “aliens” or not. Does a white person experience the nasty bitterness that comes when POC sees that word? Or the other derogatory terminology I am forced to endure while continuing in the race to become America’s Next Top Academic? And these same white colleagues who do not know these experiences graciously line up to present at conferences about decolonizing methodology to show their allyship with POC.

The effects of networking are another one of the ways decolonizing in this field of Humanities shows itself to be a farce. As far as I understand history, Christopher Columbus was really great at networking. He tangled people like me in chains, making us believe that it was all in the name of knitting a web to connect us all under the spell of kumbaya.

Academic spaces are not precisely adorned by safety, nor are they where freedom of speech is truly welcome. Not all of us have the luxury to speak freely without getting penalized by being called radicals, too emotional, angry or even not scholarly enough. In true decolonization work, one burns down bridges at the risk of not getting hired. Stating that we are in the field of decolonizing studies is not enough. It is no surprise that even those engaged in decolonizing methods replicate and polish the master’s tools, because we are implicated in colonialism in this corporatized environment.

I want to know what it is you little kids are doing here—that is to say, Why have you traveled to our Mapuche land? What have you come for? To ask us questions? To make us into an object of study? I want to you go home and I want you to address these concerns that I have carried in my heart for a long time.

Such was the response of Mapuche leader Ñana Raquel to a group of Human Rights students from the United States visiting the Curarrehue, Araucanía Region, Chile in April 2015. Her anger motivated me to reflect upon how to re-think, question, undo, and re-read perspectives of how I am experiencing the Humanities and how I am politicizing my ongoing shifts in my rhyzomatic system. Do we do that when we engage in research? Ñana Raquel’s questions, righteous anger, and reaction forced me to reconsider multiple perspectives on what really defines a territory, something my grandfather carefully taught me when I learned how to read ants and bees.

As politicized thinkers, we must reflect on these experiences if we are to engage in bigger discussions about solidarity, resistance and territories in the Humanities. How do we engage in work as scholars in the service of northern canons, and, in so doing, can we really admit what took us there? Many of us, operating in homogeneous academic spaces (with some hints of liberal tendencies), conform when that question is bluntly asked.

As someone who was herself observed and studied under the microscopes by ‘gringos’ in the 1980s, when pedagogues came to ask us what life was like in a war zone in El Salvador, Raquel’s questions especially resonate with me. Both of us have been dispossessed and situated in North American canons that serve particular research agendas. In this sense, we share similar experiences of being ‘read’ according to certain historical criteria.

Raquel’s voice was impassioned. On that day, we had congregated in the Ruka of Riholi. Facing center and in a circle, we were paying attention to the silence of the elders. Raquel taught us a priceless lesson.  After questioning the processes used to realize research projects in Nepal and Jordan, Raquel’s passionate demand introduced a final punch. She showed us that while we may have the outward face of political consciousness, we continued to use an academic discipline to study ‘exotic’ behaviors and, in so doing, were in fact undermining, denigrating and denying lessons of what constitutes cultural exchange from their perspective.

From these interactions in the field emerge questions that go to the heart of the matter: How do we deal with issues of social compromise in the Humanities? In unlearning? In many cases, academic circles resemble circuses rather than centres of higher learning, wherein a culture of competition based on external pressures to do well motivates the relationship between teacher and student.

One of the tragic consequences of a traditional system of higher education is working with colleagues who claim to have expertise on the topic of social activism, but who have never experienced any form of intervention. I am referring here to those academics who have made careers out of the pain of others by consuming knowledge obtained in marginalized communities.This same practice of “speaking about which you know little (or nothing)” is transmitted, whether acknowledged or not, to the students who we, as teachers and mentors, are preparing to undertake research studies about decolonizing.

Linda Smith speaks about the disdain she has for the word “research,” seeing it as one of the dirtiest words in the English language. I couldn’t agree more with her. When we sit down each semester to write a guide to “unlearning’,” or rather a syllabus, we must reflect upon how we can include content that will help to transmit a pre-defined discipline in the Humanities with current social realities. How can we create a space where a student can freely speak his/her mind without fear of receiving a bad grade?

Today, anything and everything is allowed if a postcolonial/decolonizing seal of approval accompanies it, even if it is devoid of any political urgency.These tendencies appear to be ornamental at best, and we must challenge the basis of those attempts. We can’t keep criticizing the neoliberal system while continuing to retain superficial visions of solidarity without striving for a more in-depth understanding. These are acts for which we pat ourselves on the back, but in the end just open up space for future consumers of prestige.

The corridors of the hallways in the institution where I currently work embodies this faux-solidarity in posters about conferences, colloquiums, and trips in the Global South or about the Global South that cost an arm and a leg. As long as you have money to pay for your airfare, hotel, meals and transportation, you too could add two lines in the CV and speak about the new social movement and their radical strategies to dismantle the system. You too can participate in academic dialogues about poverty and labor rights as you pass by an undocumented cleaner who will make your bed while you go to the main conference room to talk about her struggles.

We must do a better job at unpacking the intellectual masturbation we get out of poverty, horror, oppression, and pain–the essentials that stimulate us to have the orgasm. The “release” comes in the forms of discussions, proposing questions, writing grant proposals, etc. Then we move onto other forms of entertainment. Neoliberalism has turned everything into a product or experience. We must scrutinize the logic of power that is behind our syllabi, and our research work. We must listen to the silences, that which is not written, and pay attention to the internal dynamics of communities and how we label their experiences if we are truly committed to the work of decolonizing.

Clelia O. Rodríguez is an educator, born and raised in El Salvador, Central America. She graduated from York University with a Specialized Honours BA, specializing in Spanish Literature. She earned her MA and PhD from The University of Toronto. Professor Rodríguez has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in Spanish language, literature and culture at the University of Toronto, Washington College, the University of Ghana and the University of Michigan, most recently. She was also a Human Rights Traveling Professor in the United States, Nepal, Jordan, and Chile as part of the International Honors Program (IHP) for the School of International Training (SIT). She taught Comparative Issues in Human Rights and Fieldwork Ethics and Comparative Research Methods. She is interested in decolonozing approaches to teaching and engaging in critical pedagogy methodologies in the classroom.