Tuck And Yang's Decolonization Is Not A Metaphor

This weeks readings focused on revolution and decolonization. Tuck and Yang’s piece ‘Decolonization Is Not A Metaphor,’ focused on how decolonization at its core is about the repatriation of Indigenous land and life, and cannot be simply used as a metaphor to acknowledge and address other social issues that call for a reversal in our standing social fabric due to the complex and intertwined issues between ‘settler-native-slave’ (2012). They also state that in using decolonization as a metaphor it makes possible for the settler to move towards innocence, as these other discussions either ignore or do not center Indigenous peoples and their struggles with the settler and the recognition of their sovereignty at the center of their dialogue (Tuck & Yang, 2012). Thus, in using decolonization as a metaphor, this invasion defeats and destabilizes the possibilities of decolonization as it re-centers whiteness and extends innocence to the …show more content…
Her examples rely upon Sudanese activism, in which the Western media portrayed Sudanese populations are rioters, as opposed to places like Greece and Istanbul, that were also entangled in activism, were simply discussed as ‘protests’ (Rakia, 2013). The reading discusses how destruction of property is a powerful tool; property is highly valuable to the elite, especially in the USA (Rakia, 2013). Thus, property becomes more important than a Black man or woman’s life, due to the historical racialization of property (Rakia, 2013). Therefore, when a Black body, destroys property, the act, and its results are painted across all Black bodies opposed to said individual, and is characterized as something violent, and backwards (rioting – the world itself having a negative connotation) as opposed to White bodies who are labeled by an individual basis and as ‘peaceful protesters’ (Rakia,