Black Lives Matter activists at the #NoDAPL encampment in August 2016. Photo: Janaya Khan
A viewing of a I Am Not Your Negro, a new documentary about race in America, prompts Kyle Mays, a citizen of the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe who also is of African descent, to look at the struggles shared by indigenous and African peoples:
It is that time of year again, where we celebrate Black history month. And I think we should celebrate it. We should celebrate the lives and deaths of those who struggled for our collective freedom. We should celebrate the achievements of those who made things happen under the storm of white supremacy. Indeed, in this current moment of political activism and discourse, under the presidential regime of Forty-Five, the Movement for Black Lives, the fight for undocumented rights and humanity, and the struggle to end the building of the Dakota Access Pipeline, celebrating our past is just as important as fighting for our future. I’m proud to exist right now, actually, because people continue to resist settler colonialism and white supremacy. In this celebration, we should also seek to recover lost histories, including the Black women, queer and trans folks who have also contributed to our collective liberation. We should celebrate the intersectional activism between people and organizations, across races and genders, and reflect on the power of working collectively to end oppression. In addition to that, we should engage in critical reflection, of the past, the current state of affairs, and imagine where we might go in the future. We might not always have answers but we certainly need to continue, in the words of Robin D.G. Kelley, to dream of freedoms, and struggle and study. But we must always do this through decolonial love, the love that Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg intellectual and artist Leanne Betasamosake Simpson describes in Islands of Decolonial Love.Read More on the Story:
Kyle Mays: Indigenous Genocide and Black Liberation: A Short Critique of I Am Not Your Negro–with Love (Indian Country Today 2/24)
Join the Conversation
