Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Based on this analysis then, our project becomes less of one based on self-improve-
ment or even collective self-improvement, and more about the creation of new worlds
and futurities for which we currently have no language. In addition, the “new” worlds
mayexistwithinthisworld.Forinstance,atthe2005WorldLiberationTheologyForum
held in Porto Alegre, Brazil, indigenous peoples from Bolivia stated that they know an-
other world is possible because they see that world whenever they do their ceremonies.
Native ceremonies can be a place where the present, past, and future become copresent,
therebyallowingustoengageinwhatNativeHawaiianscholarManuMeyercallsarad-
ical remembering of the future, a beyond that where we currently live. Thus, as Alexan-
der Weheliye (2009) notes, global oppression is not complete. In fact, perhaps one way
global oppression perpetuates itself is through its appearance of universality, which can
cloud us from seeing those spaces in which liberatory praxis does exist.
Alternatives to Confession for Dismantling Settler Colonialism/White
Supremacy
There is no simple antioppression formula that we can follow; we are in a constant state
of trial and error and radical experimentation. In that spirit then, I offer some possibilit-
ies that might speak to new ways of undoing privilege, not in the sense of offering the
“correct” process for moving forward, but in the spirit of adding to our collective ima-
giningofa“beyond.”Theseprojectsofdecolonizationcanbecontrastedwiththatofthe
projects of antiracist or anticolonialist self-reflexivity in that they are not based on the
goal of “knowing” more about our privilege, but on creating that which we cannot now
know.
As I have discussed elsewhere, many of these models are based on “taking power by
making power” models particularly prevalent in Latin America (A. Smith 2005). These
models, which are deeply informed by indigenous peoples' movements, have informed
the landless movement, the factory movements, and other peoples' struggles. Many of
these models are also being used by a variety of social justice organizations throughout
theUnitedStatesandelsewhere.Theprincipleundergirdingthesemodelsistochallenge
capital and state power by actually creating the world we want to live in now. These
groupsdevelopalternativegovernancesystemsbasedonprinciplesofhorizontality,mu-
tuality, and interrelatedness rather than hierarchy, domination, and control. In beginning
to create this new world, subjects are transformed. These “autonomous zones” can be
differentiatedfromtheprojectsofmanygroupsintheUnitedStatesthatcreateseparatist
communities based on egalitarian ideals in that people in these “making power” move-
ments do not just create autonomous zones, but they
proliferate
them.
These movements developed in reaction to the revolutionary vanguard model of or-
ganizing in Latin America that became criticized as “machismo-leninismo” models.
