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?
By
Clelia O. Rodríguez
