THE DECOLONIZER: October 2015

1 October 2015

WORD OF THE MONTH: COLONIALISM

This month's word is colonialism.

Colonialism(noun): The systematic practice of occupying a territory, extracting it's resources, exploiting it's labor and dominating it's people. It is also the psychological destruction of the people, the erasing of their history, the extermination of their language, the eradication of their culture, the abolition of their religion, and the internalization of their inferiority. Colonialism is a racist, patriarchal, and gendered system.

Colonialism always begins with violence. Violence is required to sustain colonialism. Because of this, the murder, rape, torture, and genocide of the colonized is made into law. Colonialism justifies its self by claiming that it brings progress, modernization, and civilization to the colonized.

We have known it only to bring death, disease, and hunger.

Colonialism used in a sentence:

Until Western colonialism comes to an immediate end, the colonized people of the world will continue to pick up their arms in pursuit of freedom.

Decolonizing Culture

THE DECOLONIZER
October 2015

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WRITER OF THE MONTH: SONIA SANCHEZ

Sonia Sanchez

Sonia Sanchez is one of the most important poets of the Black Arts movement. She is the author of over 16 books including Home Girls and Hand Grenades, I've Been A Woman, Shake Loose My Skin, and Morning Haiku. She is a renowned writer, poet, essayist, activist, and lecturer.

Decolonizing Culture

THE DECOLONIZER
October 2015

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BOOK OF THE MONTH: HARVEST OF EMPIRE

Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America spans five centuries-from the first New World colonies to the first decade of the new millennium. Latinos are now the largest minority group in the United States, and their impact on American popular culture-from food to entertainment to literature-is greater than ever. Featuring family portraits of real-life immigrant Latino pioneers, as well as accounts of the events and conditions that compelled them to leave their homelands, Harvest of Empire is required reading for anyone wishing to understand the history and legacy of this increasingly influential group.

Decolonizing Culture

THE DECOLONIZER
October 2015

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FILM OF THE MONTH: A PLACE CALLED CHIAPAS

This 1998 Canadian documentary is a first hand account of the Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional, or the Zapatista Army of National liberation (Zapatistas). The 1993 signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement by the Mexican government allowed for the unrestrained exploitation of the Mexican economy by United States business interests and dollarization. To the benefit of the Mexican elite, the agreement had many disastrous implications for the impoverished indigenous communities of the Chiapas.

In response, the Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional staged an armed insurrection on January 1st, 1994. Zapatistas marched overtaking five towns and 500 ranches.

A Place Called Chiapas takes an in-depth look at life in the rebel territories after the 1994 insurrection. The fight for indigenous survival continues today in the Chiapas.

Decolonizing Culture

THE DECOLONIZER
October 2015

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INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE SYSTEMS

by Fabina Benites Colon

I remember like it was yesterday. The Summer of 1989. All I could hear my mother chanting over and over again was "agarrense de las manos!" So, we held hands tight--me and my four siblings, my grandmother and my mother--as we ran confused and lost across the airport to find our airline to board the plane. I was excited to leave Lima, Peru, but I didn't expect what was waiting for us in the United States.

I was 7 years old when I arrived to the Bronx, NY with my family. Being the youngest child in my family, my cultural history and identity was nurtured through all the amazing stories I heard from my siblings, parents, and my grandmother. Although I don't remember much about Peru, the stories took me through a mental journey that felt so real and triggered all my five senses.

STRAIGHT, NO CHASER: MISSISSIPPI GD

by Patrice Lockert Anthony

"Straight, No Chaser," is a monthly column, based in large part, on James Baldwin's contention (which he wrote of in "The Fire Next Time") that part of the evolution and revolution around race issues in America will be African Americans acting as white America's mirror. My column will address race issues in America both specifically, and comparatively (race issues around the world).

While I care about, and will address, myriad race issues, I will, more often than not, examine issues between whites and blacks in America. White European racial aggression and oppression may not have begun with black folk in America, but it is, arguably, the most historically, legally, and subtextually defined relationship with regard to that bugaboo called, "Race in America."

REPORT FROM KOLKATA: THE LIBERATION FRONT

by Sophia Terazawa

On May 19th, 1890, Ho Chi Minh was born.

On May 19th, 1925, Malcolm X was born.

Source: Ann Arbor Sun, May 9th, 1975 (p. 8-9)

On May 19th, 1970, a mass of university students and artists marched through Kolkata, India. Under the watchful gaze of a scorching pre-monsoon sun, brown youth raised their fists and with a shout―“Hands off Vietnam!”―they stopped at Harrington Street.

CAMPAIGN ZERO

Black Lives Matter organizers Johnetta Elizie, Brittany Packnett and DeRay McKesson team up with researchers and analysts to launch a comprehensive agenda to end police brutality.

by Dubian Ade

Campaign Zero

As the state-sanctioned murder of black and brown bodies continues to occur in the United States, critics of the Black Lives Matter movement have claimed that no official agenda to stop police violence has been released. In an interview with NPR's Audie Cornish,Brittany Packnett righteously explained "we've had demands for over the last year."

Why these demands, screamed from the top of the lungs of protesters in Baltimore and Ferguson were still unclear remains a mystery. But Black Lives Matter organizers from Ferguson along with researchers and data analysts have put together a comprehensive package of urgent policy solutions to change policing in this country. The agenda has been called Campaign Zero.

WHO WILL SURVIVE AMERICA?

KIESHA JENKINS

Kiesha Jenkins was a 22 year-old trans Black woman who was brutally beaten and murdered in North Philadelphia on October 6th. Minutes after getting out of a parked car, she was attacked by five to six males and then shot in the back. She is at least the twentieth trans woman killed in the United States this year.

JASMINE COLLINS

Jasmine Collins was a 32 year-old trans Black woman who was killed in June in Kansas City, Missouri. She was misgendered by police and remained unidentified until late August, after cisgendered woman Tia Townsel had been charged with her murder. She is at least the nineteenth trans woman killed in the United States this year.

JEREMY MCDOLE

Jeremy McDole was a disabled 28 year-old cis Black male who was shot and killed by a four-officer firing squad on September 23rd, as he sat in his wheelchair. Officers responded to a 911 call that McDole had shot himself. Video footage shows officers approaching him and demanding that he put his hands up, but no weapon is visible. Officers fired 10 rounds before McDole fell out of his wheelchair.

KEITH MCLEOD

Keith McLeod was a 19 year-old cis Black male who was shot and killed September 23rd by a police officer after attempting to get cough medicine with a fake prescription. He was chased through a pharmacy parking lot and shot three times after he allegedly made a hand gesture that "look like a gun."

REST IN POWER

Who Will Survive America?

THE DECOLONIZER
October 2015

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WHAT IS THE DECOLONIZER?

THE DECOLONIZER is not respectable

THE DECOLONIZER is not reasonable

THE DECOLONIZER cannot be appropriated

THE DECOLONIZER cannot be bought

THE DECOLONIZER cannot be silenced

THE DECOLONIZER cannot be pacified

THE DECOLONIZER cannot be gendered

THE DECOLONIZER cannot be reformed

THE DECOLONIZER cannot be co-opted

THE DECOLONIZER cannot be consumed

THE DECOLONIZER cannot be policed

THE DECOLONIZER cannot be repressed

THE DECOLONIZER is not white property

YOUR DOMINATION stops here

THE DECOLONIZER is the Xicana

THE DECOLONIZER is the Black woman

THE DECOLONIZER is the Campesino

THE DECOLONIZER is the sex worker

THE DECOLONIZER is the prisoner

THE DECOLONIZER is undocumented

THE DECOLONIZER is the Ghetto

THE DECOLONIZER is the Barrio

THE DECOLONIZER is the Reservation

THE DECOLONIZER, by any means necessary

What is THE DECOLONIZER?

THE DECOLONIZER
October 2015

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