October 2, 2023 • 37 mins
Andrew and Mia discuss the effects of colonization on the formation of nations and the psychological consequences of colonial rule on both the colonizer and the colonized.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome to it can happen here. I am Andrew of
Thetube channel Andrewism, and today I like to take some
time to discuss nations, clonalism, and the people that constitute them.
That is of course quite broad, but in the end
I hope that folks are able to come away with
a sense of at least my version of the anarchist
position on nations, the impact of colonization and the psyches
(00:28):
of individuals within nations, and the role of national liberation
in social revolution. Today I'm joined by me Mia.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Who oh boy, A great topic. Interesting topic.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Yeah, indeed, indeed, indeed, I think part of what makes
the topic so interesting is because of how for lack
of a better term, how wiggly some of these terms are,
how hard to pin down some of these definitions are.
It's very important to be clear at the outset what
(01:03):
you mean by a nation, what you mean by national liberation,
that sort of thing. So what is a nation? What
comes to mind for you? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Oh god, yeah, I knows, have pre prepped an answer
to this. I have a very difficult time conceiving of
a nation as something that's separated from a state, which
I know is something a lot of people try to do.
For me, it's just been sort of permanently welded to
(01:39):
the nation state in a way that makes it hard
to sort of think about without conjoining the two.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
That's fair. That's fair. I think that that really is
part of what we're going to end up discussing, because
for one, you know, as we'll see, a lot of
nations were formed through the process of colonization and through
the process of incorporation into the global you know, superstructure,
(02:10):
global system. And secondly, it is seen to be the
ultimate aim of a nation, the greatest accomplishment of a nation,
to eventually establish their own state, to have a state
of their own. We call nations that don't have their
(02:31):
own state state less nations, the Kurds being one of
the most notable examples. But it really is commonly seen
that the ultimate accomplishment is for the libration of your people,
is that you establish a state to rule that people
for themselves. Of course, what for themselves actually means becomes
(02:54):
quite clear, as in many cases foreign rulers and the
practices of foreign rulers just take on a local face.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Yeah, there's a there's a Curtis joke that goes roughly,
getting your own nation state means that you speak, your
police torture you in your own language.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Oh that's fantastic, that is I like that. I like that.
And language really is one of the aspects of what
it is to be a nation, and it is not
it's not necessarily the only aspect or primary aspect, but
it is one aspect. For example, what is considered the
(03:37):
Basque nation, uh, those in northern Spain and part of
southern southwestern France. I believe their identity is not entirely,
but quite significantly tied to their language, because it is
a language that is completely distinct from any other language
(04:00):
found in Europe or really anywhere else in the world.
The language is just one aspect the nation. A nation
I mean not in the sense of a state or
a country or political constitution, but in the sense of
an imagined community of people. An imagined community of people.
(04:21):
I think that imagined aspect of it is quite important
as well. Student see, but an imagine the community of
people formed on the basis of a common language, history, ancestry, society,
or culture, who are conscious of their autonomy. So it's
not enough that a group of people merely share a language,
(04:42):
or share history, or share ancestry, or share society, or
share culture. It's important that firms we defined as a nation,
that they are conscious of the fact that they share
those things in common, and that they use that consciousness
to develop some sense of an imagine shared identity, imagined community,
whether or not each individual in that community knows all
(05:04):
the other individuals in that community. Nations are not necessarily
geographically bound, like you know certain conceptions of nation maybe,
but rather often diasporic, and some nations even united under
a banner of nations, such as in the case of
Pan Africanism, which is a form of nation movement or
(05:28):
pan nation movement that seeks to unite the thousands of
ethnic groups and also the diaspora of the consonants of
Africa in response to the exploitation of outsiders. In fact,
the Pan Affic nation is really a quintessential example of
(05:48):
how colonism creates nations while exploiting them. And although Native
America and populations retained slightly more of their heritage than
the placed African population in North America, though this is
not to deny what was lost their force displacement also
(06:11):
created something of a shared ethnic identity, which is where
you see movements like Red Power popping up during the
heightened Soviets era. Prior to the process of colonization, they
were distinct in their cultural groupings. This group would be blackfoot,
this group would be Cree, this group would be Sioue
(06:36):
or something right, this group would be Sue. But then
as they had the shared experience of colonization, they can
to develop a sense of shared identity against those that
were colonizing them, a sense of solidarity that transcended their
previous cultural distinctions and designations. Not that those designations don't
(06:57):
still exist, but many have adopted a sort of of
panor nation above that as a vehicle through which they
can undertake their struggle. However, mere opposition between a colonized
group and a colonizing force is not the only way
that clonism creates new nations. Also through social stratification, through hybridization,
(07:21):
through the imposition of new religions, through new education systems,
new languages, and new administrative boundaries. All of those are
ways in which cluonism can develop unations. For example, the
case of the meets, a cultural intermingling and intermarriage between
(07:42):
two radically different groups ended up with the birth of
the new nation of the meets in the unique colonial
history of Canada and as we've see in nations or
often the targets of subpraction and of subjugation and Eurasia,
African peoples were stolen from the constant and thoroughly stripped
(08:03):
of their languages, histories, and cultures, and continues to be
oppressed throughout much of the so called New World. In
the United States, African Americans faced centuries of systemic racism.
In Brazil, the afric Brazilian population also faced similar historical discrimination,
similarly in Colombia and so on and so on. Indigenous
(08:26):
nations across the world also continue to be denied their
autonomy as minorities within a domineerian state. Palestinians and Israel
have faced a long standing conflict due to the raisia
of their self determination. Colds and Released, as I've mentioned,
spread across several countries and do not have a country
(08:47):
of their own, so they have historically sought independence or
at least autonomy. Aboriginal Australians have faced struggles related to
land rights, cultural preservation, and self governance, and although New
Zealand has made progress in recognizing the rights of the
delicious Mari people. Marian New Zealand have also dealt with
issues related to land ownership and cultural preservation, whether be
(09:12):
the Armenians under the Ottoman Empire in the past, or
the current subjugation of Hawaiian in Puerto Rico under the US,
or the Tibetan population still under the firm of the
Chinese state. Really could go on and on. I really
could go on and on. Across the world, struggles have
been an arbi and fought by nations for the liberation
(09:35):
and much of the suffering a struggle is thanks to
the process of colonization. Our present national borders and demographics
were largely shaped and dictated by the colonization and conquest
of a few nations from Europe. But what is colonialism Exactly?
As one anthropologist, Chris quote Right put it, colonialism is
(09:58):
the establishment and control of a territory for an extended
period of time by a sovereign power over a subordinate
and other people which are segregated and separated from the
rule and power. He goes on to say that features
the colonal situation and include political and legal domination over
the other society, relations of economic and political dependence, and
(10:18):
institutionalized racial and cultural inequalities to impose their dominant physical
force through raids, expropriation of labor and resources, Imprisonment and
objective murders. Enslavement of both the indigenous people and their
land is the primary objective colonization. Through colonization, theseive cultures
(10:40):
must be destroyed either strict crushed, emptied, subsumed, cooperated, or dismantled.
And since colonism relies on a dichotomy of superiority and inferiority,
the colonialists must impose their own culture over the native population,
from language to dressed daily practice, that culture, which, by
(11:03):
the way, becomes native through that process of colonization. And
that already gets into the whole discussion of what makes
something native, what makes a people native. There are two
definitions that I balance or try and dance between, one
being indigenity through land relationship and the other being indignity
(11:25):
through colonial relationship. And so I'm referring to the indignacy
through colonial relationship when I say that a culture or
people becomes native through that process of colonization, because prior
to colonial inclusions, there was no non native to define
themselves against. They just will. You'll need to define yourself
(11:49):
as native to a place when an outsider or an
invasive force is pushing you out of that place or
trying to dominate you within that place. The old forms
of colonization are largely over, but the spirit of colonization
still linkers. It is a specter in the spheres of
(12:12):
culture and politics and economics. The colonial complex created the
world we see today and left quite the impression psychologically
on both the colonized and the colonizer. French Tunisian writer
Albert Mami wrote but against it to be a very
(12:36):
essential work on the relationship between the colonizer and the colonized.
That work, that book is called The Colonized and the Colonized.
It was published in nineteen fifty seven, and it was
written and of course in a very important time, in
a time when many national liberation movements were quite active.
(12:56):
And so this work is often held up with other
important words in that anti colonial milieu, including France phen Noons,
the Direction of the Earth, Black Skin, White Masks, and
A's discourse on clonialism. In the book The Colonized and
the Colonized, now mean he spent some time discussing the
(13:19):
psychology of both, and he splits the condition psychological conditions,
the colonizing the colonized into four parts, the colonizer who accepts,
the colonizer who refuses, the colonized who accepts, and the
colonized who refuses. So first there's the colonizer who accepts.
(13:51):
I've called that colonizer Christopher for obvious reasons, that being Columbus.
And so the Christopher accepts his role as a colonizer,
he becomes a colonist. That means he has to accept
the fact that his position of privilege is non legitimate.
(14:13):
So the any way he could really enjoy his position
would be to absolve himself of the conditions, of the guilt,
of the conditions under which he was attained. That's why
Christopher forcifies history, creates racist mythology, rewrites laws, and attempts
to whitewash his legacy. That's why he emphasizes his superiority
while castness, persions and the colonized. He has to do
(14:33):
whatever it takes to justify his evils, to uplift himself
to the skies while grinding those below him underground. Deep down,
Christopher knows all this semester, but he can't admit that
to himself. He has to keep degrading the colonized, and
so just as the colonal situation manufactures the colonized, Christopher
the colonialist is also transformed. Now he chairs on torture, discrimination,
(14:59):
and massacre. He becomes a reactionary, a conservative, and a fascist,
But the condemnation that he carries in his heart can
ever truly be raised. It pisses him off that he
relies on the colonize to maintain the colony, even though
he came looking for profit and already has a homeland.
But he has to direct his anger somewhere, so it
becomes a racist, and not just any racism, a racism
(15:23):
so fundamentally ingrained in his personality. Racism built on three
major components. One there exists some major gulf between him
and the colonized. Two that he can exploit these differences
to his benefit, and three that these differences are absolute
and cannot be changed. Therefore, he's able to remain separate
(15:45):
from the community the colonized by holding any social mobility,
and he's able to continue to justify superiority because honestly
circular logic. Right, these people are inferior because they aren't
at my level, and they answered my level because I
keep them in it, because I keep them in their
inferior position, and on and on and on. Added bonus,
of course, he gets to feel good about himself. While
(16:07):
doing so, he becomes a humanitarian. Surely the colonize needed
him to bring the light of civilization. Look at them,
so stupid and servile. All this is natural and e tonal,
So he has nothing to worry about. It is divine
(16:27):
grace that has brought him to this place. It is
a manifest destiny that he continues this tradition. And I
mean if he enjoys a couple of perks in his
quest to civilize them, well, surely is just justice. Colonized
should be grateful Christopher benevolent master of the natural order,
(16:51):
no question. And really, this is why missus there was
right to say. The colonization dehumanizes even the most civilized man.
It inevitably tends to change him who undertakes it that
the colonizer, who, in order to ease his conscience, gets
into the habit of seeing the other man as an animal,
(17:13):
accustoms himself to treating him like an animal, and tends
objectively to transform himself into an animal. No offense to animals,
of course, I'm just Cootins. There. On the flip side
of the coin is the colonizer who refuses John. You see,
(17:38):
not every colonizer becomes a colingless. John tries to resist
the role, but he is still a colonizer. He tries
to ignore his position of privilege, but he kind of
escaped mentally from a concrete situation. He kind of refused
the ideology of crinalism while continuing to live with actual relationships,
(18:01):
while continuing to benefit from the privileges he half heartedly denounces. See.
Colonial relations can't be boiled down to individual feelings, so
it doesn't matter much materially if John accepts or rejects it.
It doesn't matter if he feels guilty or not. His
(18:22):
identity is fundamentally defined in relation to colonization. He's still
part of the oppressant group. He shares in their good
fortune and will likely share their faith. Makes it clear
that the truth is between colonizer and colonized. There is
only room for forced labor, intimidation, pressure, police, taxation, theft, rape,
(18:44):
compulsory crops, contempt, mistrust, arrogance, self complacency, swinishness, brainless elites,
degraded masses, no human contact, but relations of domination and
submission or shin the colonizing man into a classroom monitor,
an army sergeant, a prison guard, a slave driver, and
the indigenous man into an instrument of production. Even if
(19:09):
John is a leftist, a progressive trying his best to
assist the national liberation, to colonize people's he's still in
a rough situation. Of course, not many colonizers have actually
been you know about it like that. But even if
John was to create a world or colonization, it maybe
hard for him to picture his situation change in all
(19:30):
that much. He's accustomed to privilege, and so equality is
probably going to feel like oppression. You can't imagine not
being who he is with the comfortable domination of his
culture and language. He's never had to accommodate others before.
He's never had to think, oh wait, maybe I should
try and learn their language, try and incorporate elements of
(19:53):
their cultural mores. He still holds the subtle vessiges of
the racist ideology that his country was built on, and
he will have to fight his own class interests and
his own fellow colonizers. Revolution would require the decimation of
his current identity and the rebooth of another. And that decision,
(20:18):
that gargantuan task maybe too challenging for some people to undertake.
So Mia, what do you think of the position of
the colonizer who accepts and the colonizer who refuses.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
One of the things that I think is interesting about
this is that the original concept of privilege was something
that came out of like this specific kind of analysis
was about like like it was it was it was
about French settlers in Algeria, and you know, it was,
it was, it was, it was. It was originally something
(20:54):
along basically along these similar lines where it's like it
doesn't really matter what your ideological beliefs are if you're
sort of like a French settler in Algeria, like you
just automatically have privilege that like other people didn't. And
this has been sort of like I don't know, I like,
the original sort of context of what this analysis was
(21:17):
has been sort of worn down. But I think I
don't know, Like I think I think it is colonizers,
like this is this is a structural position, right, like
you know, the sort of you can't sort of individualism,
you're way out of a structural condition. Yeah, And I
think that's something people sort of have this incredible capacity
to sort of believe about themselves and it's just not
(21:39):
really true. And that's something that's very difficult to sort
of like actually substantively confronts. But I think it's why
this analysis of stuff.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Is useful exactly exactly. It's not enough to just say, oh, well,
I don't think this is right, I think this is wrong.
That hasn't changed any thing materially. It's when you act
to challenge, to dismantle, to confront, and to act in
(22:10):
solidarity with those facing these challenges in a material way
that any of it really matters. I think it was
particularly Poltin, and of course Mami is writing this, and
Cesaire wrote in a time when colonization is really at
(22:33):
or rather the confrontation against colonizations really added zenith. And
so for those of us in the twenty first century
in twenty twenty three now who are looking back, were saying,
we might think, oh, well, surely this is a data analysis,
a dated way of looking at these relationships. But upon
(22:55):
further inspection it really continues to be quite topical when
you look at, for example, self proclaimed allies. Looking at
how Mami discusses the colonizer who refuses really gives you
a sense of I think, at least how far you
(23:19):
need to be willing to go in your allyship versus
how far most people have reached even today. We can
ask ourselves and those who maybe see themselves a bit
in the colonizer who refuses, Ask yourself how far I
(23:40):
mean you may recognize your privileges even while still you know,
enjoying them, But how far might you be willing to
go to see an end to this system? We speak
about how the loss of privilege can make equality feel
like oppression, but truly grappling with that, what would it
(24:04):
mean for, for example, English to no longer be the
dominant language, you know, what would it mean for us
to get used to will in which we might have
to learn another language? And then I've been thinking about recently,
(24:25):
even while occupying the position of a colonized subject, I
speak English, and that is a privilege. I speak English natively,
and I mean I'm trying to learn another language. I'm
trying to learn Spanish, which is another colonized language.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Yeah, that's of one of the other things is like,
you know, for me, it's like, okay, you have English,
it's this colonial language.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
You have Chinese, which.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
Is like also colonial language, and I learned some Spanish.
It's like, well all right, and that's a third colonial
language that struct the towers.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
Yeah, exactly. And this will we get into this sort
of discussion about like actually postclualism and anti colonial struggle
and how you go about anti clualism, right, because there
(25:25):
is one of their different approaches. One could take different paths.
I suppose we could follow. There's an anticlonal approach where
we could say, you know what, let's just try and
recreate pre colonial society. Right, so everybody tries to learn
the languages that they feel as though they might have
(25:45):
spoken if not under clonal system, if not, if clual's
history had not happened. And then we try to re
implement those languages and reimpose those languages and mantle certain
institutions and structures and whatever the case may be, try
to basically erase the impact of colonization from history. And
(26:11):
then there's another path where we recognize, well, maybe we
cannot undo colonization, and truthfully we can't write. But going forward,
how do we intend to dismantle and to rework and
(26:34):
to create a new you know, taking from the past
to build the future, but not being bound to that past.
How do we, for example, let go of certain binds
(26:58):
on language, or certain ways of communicating, or certain ways
we organize systems, or certain customs and roles and obligations.
And I'm varying a bit from the intended topic of
psychology of colonization, but I do want us to think
(27:22):
about whether what role we regardless of what role we
see ourselves in this discussion, how do we pursue an
anti colonial future? What does that look like? What path
should we be taken? And how might that path chafe
against our current identity? How amight that path chafe against
(27:43):
our current privileges, our current comforts. Yes, we are, as
workers all oppressed and exploited, but at the same time,
as we recognize there are certain privileges that some have
over others, whether it be in the realm of race
or gender, or ability or language. And if we are
(28:08):
going to be pursuing artechulan, so we have to ask ourselves,
how might those privileges be affected? And have we truly
confronted our comfort level with those privileges being affected. I
think that's part of the broader effort of decolonizing the mind.
And when I speak about in my video and why
(28:30):
Revolutionary's therapy, the idea of like really truly breaking down
a lot of these ideas that we have about ourselves
and about the world and questioning all of it, deconstructing,
reconstructing all of it. But then when I get too far,
of course, sincere called the colonization thingification. So let's turn
(28:52):
our attention now to those things. Let's discuss this situation
of the colonized in this case, and and that defined
by the images and myths that surround them and tell
them who they are. The colonized have no way out
(29:12):
of their condition within the colonial order. They aren't free
to choose between being colonized or not being colonized. They
just are colonized. And so Candice understands this in her
whole life, She's had to grapple with the negative portraits
of herself. They were created by the colonizer, all the
images that were used to support the clonal situation that
(29:34):
raised the colonizer and humbled the colonized, That justified the
colonizer's privilege, that painted the colonized as inerate and the
colonizer as active. That made it seem as though the colonizer,
as the colonizer, was doing the colonized a fever, that
(29:56):
their labor was actually and the employment was actually necessary,
that it was charity that the colonizer was bringing to
their otherwise lazy masses. Being exposed to that kind of
message and from a young age, really does a number
on people, not just in the realm of colonization, but
(30:20):
in other spheres as well. We see that with patriarchy,
of course, how messages from an early age affect how
boys and girls and others perceive themselves and perceive the
world around them and perceive others. In the clear context,
(30:42):
this means that some who are colonized end up internalizing
and accepting wholesale the messages that they're receiving. So kind
of thinks to herself, perhaps the colonizer's right. Perhaps we
are lazy, perhaps we are shifted, perhaps we are timid
and week, and this degrading portrait ends up being accepted.
(31:05):
It's usually one of the final steps of colonization, the
colonization of the mind. Once the colonize begins to tolerate
rather than resist colonization, all they can really look to
do is attempt to assimilate, which is impossible by a
design does mean that Candice won't try. She sheds the
(31:25):
memories of her ancestors and the practices and institutions of
her culture. She embraces the colonizers will and all these
institutions is right and just. The colonizers salve, and the
colonizers whip the colonizes God and the Colonizers' school. Her
children are sent to these schools built by the colonizer
(31:45):
to erase and replace a people's history, traditions, and language.
She and her kin are imbued with double consciousness. She's
trapped in the sun, in place, performing for the colonizer,
in a home country that don't feels foreign. Double consciousness
(32:07):
is a particularly useful concept, first coined by WB. Du
Bois in the Souls of Black Folk in nineteen oh three.
He was speaking specifically about African Americans, but the concept
does apply in other contexts as well. Double consciousness is
(32:29):
the dual self perception experienced by subordinate peoples in an
oppressive society. It is looking at yourself through your own
eyes and simultaneously looking at yourself through the eyes of
a racist society, looking at who you are, and also
(32:50):
looking at what the dominant society sees and thinks of
who you are. Of course, the voice concept was further
built upon, and you know, people speak about her things
such as triple consciousness, and in some ways the idea
of double consciousness can't be tied with the conversation of intersectionality.
(33:16):
But they are those who experience that double consciousness, and
rather than reasserting their view of themselves and their people,
they accept the negative view held by the dominant society.
They surround themselves the language of that dominant society. Candace's
(33:39):
world from the street signs, the documents to the courts,
the bureaucracy, needy industry, or use the colonizing language. While
her mother tongue, the one used tenderly by her ancestors,
the one that sustains in a most feelings, emotions and dreams,
is he valued and degraded. Candace loses far more than
(33:59):
she gains by history a culture future she rejects herself,
self love, and liberation itself. She rejects herself, self love
and liberation itself, a tending to model herself after the colonizer,
or rather crush herself into conformity. She gains self hate, shame,
(34:21):
and alienation. She sees her own people through the eyes
the coldinations and accusations of the colonizer. She's atomized, estranged
from her people, and rejected by the colonizer, utterly defeated.
But then he offers another path, an alternative mindset in
(34:42):
the colonized who refuses. You see, like Candace, not knows
that there will never be emancipation within the colonial relationship.
But unlike Candace, they know that there is no liberty
in a similation. Revolt is the only way out. An
absolute condition requires an absolute solution, and there can be
(35:05):
no compromise. Deliberation is a process of self recovery and
autonomous dignity. They must shake off the force images and
boldly attack the institutions of oppression. But even in their
resistance that still bears the traces of colonization. They still
share some of the values, techniques, and methods of the colonizer.
They still speak the language the colonizer can understand to
(35:28):
be truly emancipated, that must work to rebuild a new,
authentic and self assured identity for themselves and the other people,
that must reclaim and transform that which the colonizers consider negative,
must take pride in all their wrinkles and moods, never
shying away from their colonization, but accepting it as a
(35:52):
fact of their experience and their history, and yet overcoming
that colonization is the risk of continuing to define yourself
in relation to protest, in relation to revolt, and in
relation to colonization. At some point, maybe not now, but
(36:14):
at some point that we'll need to move beyond that
means of definition. What that future looks like is anyone's
guess and also up to everyone to help build. I
hope you appreciated this. Sometimes be under and dive into
(36:36):
the minds of the colonizer and the colonized. The fight
is not over. The psychological, political, and economic consequences of
colonization are still fell to this day. The mentalities and
conditions that discussed still exist in very extents today. Hopefully
this helps us to better understand colonization's impact on us,
(36:57):
so that we can deconstruct that LEVI them together to
create a FREEO and motevos and what humane world. Next time,
I'll be discussing the rule of national liberation in the
struggle for freedom and what precisely that would enter you
as I didn't have time to get into it in
(37:18):
this part.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
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Speaker 2 (37:35):
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Speaker 1 (37:41):
Thanks for listening.
Welcome to it can happen here. I am Andrew of
Thetube channel Andrewism, and today I like to take some
time to discuss nations, clonalism, and the people that constitute them.
That is of course quite broad, but in the end
I hope that folks are able to come away with
a sense of at least my version of the anarchist
position on nations, the impact of colonization and the psyches
(00:28):
of individuals within nations, and the role of national liberation
in social revolution. Today I'm joined by me Mia.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Who oh boy, A great topic. Interesting topic.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Yeah, indeed, indeed, indeed, I think part of what makes
the topic so interesting is because of how for lack
of a better term, how wiggly some of these terms are,
how hard to pin down some of these definitions are.
It's very important to be clear at the outset what
(01:03):
you mean by a nation, what you mean by national liberation,
that sort of thing. So what is a nation? What
comes to mind for you? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Oh god, yeah, I knows, have pre prepped an answer
to this. I have a very difficult time conceiving of
a nation as something that's separated from a state, which
I know is something a lot of people try to do.
For me, it's just been sort of permanently welded to
(01:39):
the nation state in a way that makes it hard
to sort of think about without conjoining the two.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
That's fair. That's fair. I think that that really is
part of what we're going to end up discussing, because
for one, you know, as we'll see, a lot of
nations were formed through the process of colonization and through
the process of incorporation into the global you know, superstructure,
(02:10):
global system. And secondly, it is seen to be the
ultimate aim of a nation, the greatest accomplishment of a nation,
to eventually establish their own state, to have a state
of their own. We call nations that don't have their
(02:31):
own state state less nations, the Kurds being one of
the most notable examples. But it really is commonly seen
that the ultimate accomplishment is for the libration of your people,
is that you establish a state to rule that people
for themselves. Of course, what for themselves actually means becomes
(02:54):
quite clear, as in many cases foreign rulers and the
practices of foreign rulers just take on a local face.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Yeah, there's a there's a Curtis joke that goes roughly,
getting your own nation state means that you speak, your
police torture you in your own language.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Oh that's fantastic, that is I like that. I like that.
And language really is one of the aspects of what
it is to be a nation, and it is not
it's not necessarily the only aspect or primary aspect, but
it is one aspect. For example, what is considered the
(03:37):
Basque nation, uh, those in northern Spain and part of
southern southwestern France. I believe their identity is not entirely,
but quite significantly tied to their language, because it is
a language that is completely distinct from any other language
(04:00):
found in Europe or really anywhere else in the world.
The language is just one aspect the nation. A nation
I mean not in the sense of a state or
a country or political constitution, but in the sense of
an imagined community of people. An imagined community of people.
(04:21):
I think that imagined aspect of it is quite important
as well. Student see, but an imagine the community of
people formed on the basis of a common language, history, ancestry, society,
or culture, who are conscious of their autonomy. So it's
not enough that a group of people merely share a language,
(04:42):
or share history, or share ancestry, or share society, or
share culture. It's important that firms we defined as a nation,
that they are conscious of the fact that they share
those things in common, and that they use that consciousness
to develop some sense of an imagine shared identity, imagined community,
whether or not each individual in that community knows all
(05:04):
the other individuals in that community. Nations are not necessarily
geographically bound, like you know certain conceptions of nation maybe,
but rather often diasporic, and some nations even united under
a banner of nations, such as in the case of
Pan Africanism, which is a form of nation movement or
(05:28):
pan nation movement that seeks to unite the thousands of
ethnic groups and also the diaspora of the consonants of
Africa in response to the exploitation of outsiders. In fact,
the Pan Affic nation is really a quintessential example of
(05:48):
how colonism creates nations while exploiting them. And although Native
America and populations retained slightly more of their heritage than
the placed African population in North America, though this is
not to deny what was lost their force displacement also
(06:11):
created something of a shared ethnic identity, which is where
you see movements like Red Power popping up during the
heightened Soviets era. Prior to the process of colonization, they
were distinct in their cultural groupings. This group would be blackfoot,
this group would be Cree, this group would be Sioue
(06:36):
or something right, this group would be Sue. But then
as they had the shared experience of colonization, they can
to develop a sense of shared identity against those that
were colonizing them, a sense of solidarity that transcended their
previous cultural distinctions and designations. Not that those designations don't
(06:57):
still exist, but many have adopted a sort of of
panor nation above that as a vehicle through which they
can undertake their struggle. However, mere opposition between a colonized
group and a colonizing force is not the only way
that clonism creates new nations. Also through social stratification, through hybridization,
(07:21):
through the imposition of new religions, through new education systems,
new languages, and new administrative boundaries. All of those are
ways in which cluonism can develop unations. For example, the
case of the meets, a cultural intermingling and intermarriage between
(07:42):
two radically different groups ended up with the birth of
the new nation of the meets in the unique colonial
history of Canada and as we've see in nations or
often the targets of subpraction and of subjugation and Eurasia,
African peoples were stolen from the constant and thoroughly stripped
(08:03):
of their languages, histories, and cultures, and continues to be
oppressed throughout much of the so called New World. In
the United States, African Americans faced centuries of systemic racism.
In Brazil, the afric Brazilian population also faced similar historical discrimination,
similarly in Colombia and so on and so on. Indigenous
(08:26):
nations across the world also continue to be denied their
autonomy as minorities within a domineerian state. Palestinians and Israel
have faced a long standing conflict due to the raisia
of their self determination. Colds and Released, as I've mentioned,
spread across several countries and do not have a country
(08:47):
of their own, so they have historically sought independence or
at least autonomy. Aboriginal Australians have faced struggles related to
land rights, cultural preservation, and self governance, and although New
Zealand has made progress in recognizing the rights of the
delicious Mari people. Marian New Zealand have also dealt with
issues related to land ownership and cultural preservation, whether be
(09:12):
the Armenians under the Ottoman Empire in the past, or
the current subjugation of Hawaiian in Puerto Rico under the US,
or the Tibetan population still under the firm of the
Chinese state. Really could go on and on. I really
could go on and on. Across the world, struggles have
been an arbi and fought by nations for the liberation
(09:35):
and much of the suffering a struggle is thanks to
the process of colonization. Our present national borders and demographics
were largely shaped and dictated by the colonization and conquest
of a few nations from Europe. But what is colonialism Exactly?
As one anthropologist, Chris quote Right put it, colonialism is
(09:58):
the establishment and control of a territory for an extended
period of time by a sovereign power over a subordinate
and other people which are segregated and separated from the
rule and power. He goes on to say that features
the colonal situation and include political and legal domination over
the other society, relations of economic and political dependence, and
(10:18):
institutionalized racial and cultural inequalities to impose their dominant physical
force through raids, expropriation of labor and resources, Imprisonment and
objective murders. Enslavement of both the indigenous people and their
land is the primary objective colonization. Through colonization, theseive cultures
(10:40):
must be destroyed either strict crushed, emptied, subsumed, cooperated, or dismantled.
And since colonism relies on a dichotomy of superiority and inferiority,
the colonialists must impose their own culture over the native population,
from language to dressed daily practice, that culture, which, by
(11:03):
the way, becomes native through that process of colonization. And
that already gets into the whole discussion of what makes
something native, what makes a people native. There are two
definitions that I balance or try and dance between, one
being indigenity through land relationship and the other being indignity
(11:25):
through colonial relationship. And so I'm referring to the indignacy
through colonial relationship when I say that a culture or
people becomes native through that process of colonization, because prior
to colonial inclusions, there was no non native to define
themselves against. They just will. You'll need to define yourself
(11:49):
as native to a place when an outsider or an
invasive force is pushing you out of that place or
trying to dominate you within that place. The old forms
of colonization are largely over, but the spirit of colonization
still linkers. It is a specter in the spheres of
(12:12):
culture and politics and economics. The colonial complex created the
world we see today and left quite the impression psychologically
on both the colonized and the colonizer. French Tunisian writer
Albert Mami wrote but against it to be a very
(12:36):
essential work on the relationship between the colonizer and the colonized.
That work, that book is called The Colonized and the Colonized.
It was published in nineteen fifty seven, and it was
written and of course in a very important time, in
a time when many national liberation movements were quite active.
(12:56):
And so this work is often held up with other
important words in that anti colonial milieu, including France phen Noons,
the Direction of the Earth, Black Skin, White Masks, and
A's discourse on clonialism. In the book The Colonized and
the Colonized, now mean he spent some time discussing the
(13:19):
psychology of both, and he splits the condition psychological conditions,
the colonizing the colonized into four parts, the colonizer who accepts,
the colonizer who refuses, the colonized who accepts, and the
colonized who refuses. So first there's the colonizer who accepts.
(13:51):
I've called that colonizer Christopher for obvious reasons, that being Columbus.
And so the Christopher accepts his role as a colonizer,
he becomes a colonist. That means he has to accept
the fact that his position of privilege is non legitimate.
(14:13):
So the any way he could really enjoy his position
would be to absolve himself of the conditions, of the guilt,
of the conditions under which he was attained. That's why
Christopher forcifies history, creates racist mythology, rewrites laws, and attempts
to whitewash his legacy. That's why he emphasizes his superiority
while castness, persions and the colonized. He has to do
(14:33):
whatever it takes to justify his evils, to uplift himself
to the skies while grinding those below him underground. Deep down,
Christopher knows all this semester, but he can't admit that
to himself. He has to keep degrading the colonized, and
so just as the colonal situation manufactures the colonized, Christopher
the colonialist is also transformed. Now he chairs on torture, discrimination,
(14:59):
and massacre. He becomes a reactionary, a conservative, and a fascist,
But the condemnation that he carries in his heart can
ever truly be raised. It pisses him off that he
relies on the colonize to maintain the colony, even though
he came looking for profit and already has a homeland.
But he has to direct his anger somewhere, so it
becomes a racist, and not just any racism, a racism
(15:23):
so fundamentally ingrained in his personality. Racism built on three
major components. One there exists some major gulf between him
and the colonized. Two that he can exploit these differences
to his benefit, and three that these differences are absolute
and cannot be changed. Therefore, he's able to remain separate
(15:45):
from the community the colonized by holding any social mobility,
and he's able to continue to justify superiority because honestly
circular logic. Right, these people are inferior because they aren't
at my level, and they answered my level because I
keep them in it, because I keep them in their
inferior position, and on and on and on. Added bonus,
of course, he gets to feel good about himself. While
(16:07):
doing so, he becomes a humanitarian. Surely the colonize needed
him to bring the light of civilization. Look at them,
so stupid and servile. All this is natural and e tonal,
So he has nothing to worry about. It is divine
(16:27):
grace that has brought him to this place. It is
a manifest destiny that he continues this tradition. And I
mean if he enjoys a couple of perks in his
quest to civilize them, well, surely is just justice. Colonized
should be grateful Christopher benevolent master of the natural order,
(16:51):
no question. And really, this is why missus there was
right to say. The colonization dehumanizes even the most civilized man.
It inevitably tends to change him who undertakes it that
the colonizer, who, in order to ease his conscience, gets
into the habit of seeing the other man as an animal,
(17:13):
accustoms himself to treating him like an animal, and tends
objectively to transform himself into an animal. No offense to animals,
of course, I'm just Cootins. There. On the flip side
of the coin is the colonizer who refuses John. You see,
(17:38):
not every colonizer becomes a colingless. John tries to resist
the role, but he is still a colonizer. He tries
to ignore his position of privilege, but he kind of
escaped mentally from a concrete situation. He kind of refused
the ideology of crinalism while continuing to live with actual relationships,
(18:01):
while continuing to benefit from the privileges he half heartedly denounces. See.
Colonial relations can't be boiled down to individual feelings, so
it doesn't matter much materially if John accepts or rejects it.
It doesn't matter if he feels guilty or not. His
(18:22):
identity is fundamentally defined in relation to colonization. He's still
part of the oppressant group. He shares in their good
fortune and will likely share their faith. Makes it clear
that the truth is between colonizer and colonized. There is
only room for forced labor, intimidation, pressure, police, taxation, theft, rape,
(18:44):
compulsory crops, contempt, mistrust, arrogance, self complacency, swinishness, brainless elites,
degraded masses, no human contact, but relations of domination and
submission or shin the colonizing man into a classroom monitor,
an army sergeant, a prison guard, a slave driver, and
the indigenous man into an instrument of production. Even if
(19:09):
John is a leftist, a progressive trying his best to
assist the national liberation, to colonize people's he's still in
a rough situation. Of course, not many colonizers have actually
been you know about it like that. But even if
John was to create a world or colonization, it maybe
hard for him to picture his situation change in all
(19:30):
that much. He's accustomed to privilege, and so equality is
probably going to feel like oppression. You can't imagine not
being who he is with the comfortable domination of his
culture and language. He's never had to accommodate others before.
He's never had to think, oh wait, maybe I should
try and learn their language, try and incorporate elements of
(19:53):
their cultural mores. He still holds the subtle vessiges of
the racist ideology that his country was built on, and
he will have to fight his own class interests and
his own fellow colonizers. Revolution would require the decimation of
his current identity and the rebooth of another. And that decision,
(20:18):
that gargantuan task maybe too challenging for some people to undertake.
So Mia, what do you think of the position of
the colonizer who accepts and the colonizer who refuses.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
One of the things that I think is interesting about
this is that the original concept of privilege was something
that came out of like this specific kind of analysis
was about like like it was it was it was
about French settlers in Algeria, and you know, it was,
it was, it was, it was. It was originally something
(20:54):
along basically along these similar lines where it's like it
doesn't really matter what your ideological beliefs are if you're
sort of like a French settler in Algeria, like you
just automatically have privilege that like other people didn't. And
this has been sort of like I don't know, I like,
the original sort of context of what this analysis was
(21:17):
has been sort of worn down. But I think I
don't know, Like I think I think it is colonizers,
like this is this is a structural position, right, like
you know, the sort of you can't sort of individualism,
you're way out of a structural condition. Yeah, And I
think that's something people sort of have this incredible capacity
to sort of believe about themselves and it's just not
(21:39):
really true. And that's something that's very difficult to sort
of like actually substantively confronts. But I think it's why
this analysis of stuff.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Is useful exactly exactly. It's not enough to just say, oh, well,
I don't think this is right, I think this is wrong.
That hasn't changed any thing materially. It's when you act
to challenge, to dismantle, to confront, and to act in
(22:10):
solidarity with those facing these challenges in a material way
that any of it really matters. I think it was
particularly Poltin, and of course Mami is writing this, and
Cesaire wrote in a time when colonization is really at
(22:33):
or rather the confrontation against colonizations really added zenith. And
so for those of us in the twenty first century
in twenty twenty three now who are looking back, were saying,
we might think, oh, well, surely this is a data analysis,
a dated way of looking at these relationships. But upon
(22:55):
further inspection it really continues to be quite topical when
you look at, for example, self proclaimed allies. Looking at
how Mami discusses the colonizer who refuses really gives you
a sense of I think, at least how far you
(23:19):
need to be willing to go in your allyship versus
how far most people have reached even today. We can
ask ourselves and those who maybe see themselves a bit
in the colonizer who refuses, Ask yourself how far I
(23:40):
mean you may recognize your privileges even while still you know,
enjoying them, But how far might you be willing to
go to see an end to this system? We speak
about how the loss of privilege can make equality feel
like oppression, but truly grappling with that, what would it
(24:04):
mean for, for example, English to no longer be the
dominant language, you know, what would it mean for us
to get used to will in which we might have
to learn another language? And then I've been thinking about recently,
(24:25):
even while occupying the position of a colonized subject, I
speak English, and that is a privilege. I speak English natively,
and I mean I'm trying to learn another language. I'm
trying to learn Spanish, which is another colonized language.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Yeah, that's of one of the other things is like,
you know, for me, it's like, okay, you have English,
it's this colonial language.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
You have Chinese, which.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
Is like also colonial language, and I learned some Spanish.
It's like, well all right, and that's a third colonial
language that struct the towers.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
Yeah, exactly. And this will we get into this sort
of discussion about like actually postclualism and anti colonial struggle
and how you go about anti clualism, right, because there
(25:25):
is one of their different approaches. One could take different paths.
I suppose we could follow. There's an anticlonal approach where
we could say, you know what, let's just try and
recreate pre colonial society. Right, so everybody tries to learn
the languages that they feel as though they might have
(25:45):
spoken if not under clonal system, if not, if clual's
history had not happened. And then we try to re
implement those languages and reimpose those languages and mantle certain
institutions and structures and whatever the case may be, try
to basically erase the impact of colonization from history. And
(26:11):
then there's another path where we recognize, well, maybe we
cannot undo colonization, and truthfully we can't write. But going forward,
how do we intend to dismantle and to rework and
(26:34):
to create a new you know, taking from the past
to build the future, but not being bound to that past.
How do we, for example, let go of certain binds
(26:58):
on language, or certain ways of communicating, or certain ways
we organize systems, or certain customs and roles and obligations.
And I'm varying a bit from the intended topic of
psychology of colonization, but I do want us to think
(27:22):
about whether what role we regardless of what role we
see ourselves in this discussion, how do we pursue an
anti colonial future? What does that look like? What path
should we be taken? And how might that path chafe
against our current identity? How amight that path chafe against
(27:43):
our current privileges, our current comforts. Yes, we are, as
workers all oppressed and exploited, but at the same time,
as we recognize there are certain privileges that some have
over others, whether it be in the realm of race
or gender, or ability or language. And if we are
(28:08):
going to be pursuing artechulan, so we have to ask ourselves,
how might those privileges be affected? And have we truly
confronted our comfort level with those privileges being affected. I
think that's part of the broader effort of decolonizing the mind.
And when I speak about in my video and why
(28:30):
Revolutionary's therapy, the idea of like really truly breaking down
a lot of these ideas that we have about ourselves
and about the world and questioning all of it, deconstructing,
reconstructing all of it. But then when I get too far,
of course, sincere called the colonization thingification. So let's turn
(28:52):
our attention now to those things. Let's discuss this situation
of the colonized in this case, and and that defined
by the images and myths that surround them and tell
them who they are. The colonized have no way out
(29:12):
of their condition within the colonial order. They aren't free
to choose between being colonized or not being colonized. They
just are colonized. And so Candice understands this in her
whole life, She's had to grapple with the negative portraits
of herself. They were created by the colonizer, all the
images that were used to support the clonal situation that
(29:34):
raised the colonizer and humbled the colonized, That justified the
colonizer's privilege, that painted the colonized as inerate and the
colonizer as active. That made it seem as though the colonizer,
as the colonizer, was doing the colonized a fever, that
(29:56):
their labor was actually and the employment was actually necessary,
that it was charity that the colonizer was bringing to
their otherwise lazy masses. Being exposed to that kind of
message and from a young age, really does a number
on people, not just in the realm of colonization, but
(30:20):
in other spheres as well. We see that with patriarchy,
of course, how messages from an early age affect how
boys and girls and others perceive themselves and perceive the
world around them and perceive others. In the clear context,
(30:42):
this means that some who are colonized end up internalizing
and accepting wholesale the messages that they're receiving. So kind
of thinks to herself, perhaps the colonizer's right. Perhaps we
are lazy, perhaps we are shifted, perhaps we are timid
and week, and this degrading portrait ends up being accepted.
(31:05):
It's usually one of the final steps of colonization, the
colonization of the mind. Once the colonize begins to tolerate
rather than resist colonization, all they can really look to
do is attempt to assimilate, which is impossible by a
design does mean that Candice won't try. She sheds the
(31:25):
memories of her ancestors and the practices and institutions of
her culture. She embraces the colonizers will and all these
institutions is right and just. The colonizers salve, and the
colonizers whip the colonizes God and the Colonizers' school. Her
children are sent to these schools built by the colonizer
(31:45):
to erase and replace a people's history, traditions, and language.
She and her kin are imbued with double consciousness. She's
trapped in the sun, in place, performing for the colonizer,
in a home country that don't feels foreign. Double consciousness
(32:07):
is a particularly useful concept, first coined by WB. Du
Bois in the Souls of Black Folk in nineteen oh three.
He was speaking specifically about African Americans, but the concept
does apply in other contexts as well. Double consciousness is
(32:29):
the dual self perception experienced by subordinate peoples in an
oppressive society. It is looking at yourself through your own
eyes and simultaneously looking at yourself through the eyes of
a racist society, looking at who you are, and also
(32:50):
looking at what the dominant society sees and thinks of
who you are. Of course, the voice concept was further
built upon, and you know, people speak about her things
such as triple consciousness, and in some ways the idea
of double consciousness can't be tied with the conversation of intersectionality.
(33:16):
But they are those who experience that double consciousness, and
rather than reasserting their view of themselves and their people,
they accept the negative view held by the dominant society.
They surround themselves the language of that dominant society. Candace's
(33:39):
world from the street signs, the documents to the courts,
the bureaucracy, needy industry, or use the colonizing language. While
her mother tongue, the one used tenderly by her ancestors,
the one that sustains in a most feelings, emotions and dreams,
is he valued and degraded. Candace loses far more than
(33:59):
she gains by history a culture future she rejects herself,
self love, and liberation itself. She rejects herself, self love
and liberation itself, a tending to model herself after the colonizer,
or rather crush herself into conformity. She gains self hate, shame,
(34:21):
and alienation. She sees her own people through the eyes
the coldinations and accusations of the colonizer. She's atomized, estranged
from her people, and rejected by the colonizer, utterly defeated.
But then he offers another path, an alternative mindset in
(34:42):
the colonized who refuses. You see, like Candace, not knows
that there will never be emancipation within the colonial relationship.
But unlike Candace, they know that there is no liberty
in a similation. Revolt is the only way out. An
absolute condition requires an absolute solution, and there can be
(35:05):
no compromise. Deliberation is a process of self recovery and
autonomous dignity. They must shake off the force images and
boldly attack the institutions of oppression. But even in their
resistance that still bears the traces of colonization. They still
share some of the values, techniques, and methods of the colonizer.
They still speak the language the colonizer can understand to
(35:28):
be truly emancipated, that must work to rebuild a new,
authentic and self assured identity for themselves and the other people,
that must reclaim and transform that which the colonizers consider negative,
must take pride in all their wrinkles and moods, never
shying away from their colonization, but accepting it as a
(35:52):
fact of their experience and their history, and yet overcoming
that colonization is the risk of continuing to define yourself
in relation to protest, in relation to revolt, and in
relation to colonization. At some point, maybe not now, but
(36:14):
at some point that we'll need to move beyond that
means of definition. What that future looks like is anyone's
guess and also up to everyone to help build. I
hope you appreciated this. Sometimes be under and dive into
(36:36):
the minds of the colonizer and the colonized. The fight
is not over. The psychological, political, and economic consequences of
colonization are still fell to this day. The mentalities and
conditions that discussed still exist in very extents today. Hopefully
this helps us to better understand colonization's impact on us,
(36:57):
so that we can deconstruct that LEVI them together to
create a FREEO and motevos and what humane world. Next time,
I'll be discussing the rule of national liberation in the
struggle for freedom and what precisely that would enter you
as I didn't have time to get into it in
(37:18):
this part.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
It Could Happen Here as a production of cool Zone Media.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website
cool zonemedia dot com, or check us out on the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
You can find sources for It Could Happen Here, updated
monthly at coolzonemedia dot com slash sources.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
Thanks for listening.
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