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.

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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.

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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.

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Decolonizing Culture

THE DECOLONIZER
October 2015

Read the full newsletter here »

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.

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Decolonizing Culture

THE DECOLONIZER
October 2015

Read the full newsletter here »

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.