ANTIBLACKNESS & COLONIZATION

There is no decolonization without uplifting Black lives.

By Whitney Sparks

As a black woman of Turtle Island I am asking EVERYONE to STOP speaking of “Decolonization” without explicitly naming and confronting Antiblackness.

Antiblackness is deeply, unshakably inherent to colonization — as much as land theft, rape, genocide, white supremacy, hierarchy.

“In a racist society it is not enough to be non-racist — we must be antiracist.” — Angela Davis

What does it mean to be antiracist?

It means taking the following actions:

1. DECOLONIZING ONE’S PERSONAL & HOME LIFE

2. RECOGNIZING ONE’S OWN PRIVILEGE

A few notes on TOXIC WHITENESS

3. DISRUPTING ANTIBLACKNESS EVERYWHERE

In action the praxis of being antiracist is a lifelong process and unending series of practices, experiments upon oneself, developmental excercises, personal risks, education, labor, exchanges, pauses etc. The actual steps are as diverse as they are multitudinous. For example I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention:

4. UNLEARNING THE GENDER BINARY and

5. RESPECTING ( SUPPORTING, LISTENING TO) WOMXN+ / femmes, feminine energies, beings, bodies, words, spaces, practices, and actions.

Antiracism in the United States and/or on Turtle Island necessarily, critically, crucially involves the above acts (I’d argue that they are in fact globally required), in addition to explicit:

1. Acknowledgement of Native Indigenous land sovereignty and our presence on unceded territories, inheritors of settler colonialism. This involves learning and self education on the Indigenous people native to the land where you reside — locally and continentally. What’s their name? to begin. Listen to, defer to, respect and Pay Indigenous people. This is a lesson…