SYLLABUS AS LIVING DOCUMENT
Black Diaspora and Indigeneity in Turtle Island / Abya Yala (the Americas)
CRES 185D, Summer 2015
Instructor: Sandra Harvey
Sharvey1@ucsc.edu
Session 1: T/TH, 9-12:30
UCSC Office hours: Tuesday and Thursday, 12:30-1:30 pm, and by appointment
Course objectives: We often take for granted the notions of indigeneity and diaspora as a priori terms that describe nations and people, their relationships with each other, and their relationships to the spaces or land to which they “belong.” This class begins to examine the binary idea of indigenous, or Native, on one side and diaspora on the other. We will do so by exploring the relationship between histories of settler colonialism, genocide, chattel slavery, proletariat labor, and our ideas of who is considered indigenous and who is considered part of a diaspora. In the “Americas,” we will discuss how colonialism and postcolonial nationalism continue to take part in shaping our ideas about these categories. We will also examine what sort of politics is made possible in claiming either status. For example, what sorts of claims can a nation, a pueblo, or a community make from the position of indigenous? Autonomy? Sovereignty? Recognition? Reparations? And how do nations “authenticate” their status? We will then explore transnational indigenous struggles and the notion of global indigenisms. We ask how have local movements coalesced and in what ways have they not. What role do the ideas, policies, and institutions of Human Rights have in the struggle for Black and Indigenous sovereignty? Finally, we ask whether we can imagine new cosmologies of freedom or sovereignty that take into account our entangled histories.
Week I: Introduction: The Ideas of Indigeneity and Diaspora
Tue, 6/23
Introduction to what we mean when we say “indigenous,” “native,” and “diaspora.” What epistemological traditions have shaped our thinking on what it means to be “native” or part of a “diaspora”? Do the two terms rely on each other for definitions? How? In what ways does our history of colonialism give rise to these two terms?
Required Reading:
Saidiya Hartman, Lose Your Mother, Prologue & Chapter 1 “Afrotopia” (3-48)
Kyle Mays, “The Political Discourses of Black Indigeneity, And Why itMatters” Blog
Suggested Reading:
Stuart Hall “Cultural Identity and Diaspora”
Amos Beyan, The American Colonization Society & the Creation of the Liberian State: A Historical Perspective
Thur, 6/25
Cont. on settler colonialism. In what ways does settler colonialism give rise to these two terms? What have Native thinkers argued about the idea of indigeneity? Of diaspora? Of movement?
Required Reading:
Andrea Smith, “The Colonialism that Never Happened and the Colonialism that is Settled” (Blog)
Tiffany Lethabo King, “Labor’s Aphasia: Toward Antiblackness as Constitutive to Settler Colonialism” (Blog)
TmJ. Tallie, “Failing to Ford the River: ‘Oregon Trail,’ Same-Sex Marriage Rhetoric, and the Intersections of Anti-Blackness and Settler Colonialism” (Blog)
Suggested Reading:
Andrea Smith, “Queer Theory and Native Studies: The Heteronormativity of Settler Colonialism”
Week II: Colonialism/Settler Colonialism, Slavery & the Political Economy of Indigeneity and Diaspora in the Americas
Tue, 6/30
What are some of the material and ideological consequences of colonialism and slavery in the Caribbean and South America? How did these histories give rise to indigenous, diasporic, and creole subjectivities? How are these subjectivities both racialized and gendered? What role do ideas and material relations of modernity and modern labor play in shaping the colonies?
Required Readings:
Sylvia Wynter, “1492: A New World View”
Walter Mignolo, “Delinking: The Rhetoric of Modernity, the Logic of Coloniality and the Grammar of De-Coloniality”
Suggested Reading:
Kyle T. Mays, “Can We Live—And Be Modern? Decolonization, Indigenous Modernity, and Hip Hop” (Blog)
Thur, 7/2
Continued questions from Tuesday. What are some of the material consequences of settler colonialism and slavery in what we call North America? How did these histories give rise to indigenous versus diasporic subjectivities? What does it mean to be creole in the US? How are these subjectivities both racialized and gendered? What are the material consequences of binaristic thinking? How does the settler colonial state regulate subjects’ relationship to either indigeneity or diaspora? We will focus on The Five Civilized Tribes of the US.
Required Readings:
Circe Sturm, Blood Politics, Ch 7 “Challenging the Color Line: The Trials and Tribulations of the Cherokee Freedmen”
Suggested Readings:
Joanne Barker, Native Acts: Law, Recognition, and Cultural Authenticity, Part III, Ch 6 “Of Marriage and Sexuality”
“Congressional Black Caucus Attacks Soveriegn Status of Indian Nations”
“Katimih o Sa Chata Kiyou (Why Am I Not Choctaw?) Race in the Lived Experiences of Two Black Choctaw Mixed-Bloods” Robert Keith Collins
Week III: Discourse of Disappearance and Formation of the Postcolonial State (or Nation)
Tue, 7/7
What are some post-colonial and anti-slavery movements and how have they moved through and moved around the ideas of indigeneity and blackness? What impact has the discourse of “disappearance” had for the construction of the post-colonial nation? Is the “indigenous” the only group that is not creolizable? How did blackness become fixed to “diaspora”? In what ways has blackness been reasserted as indigenous?
Music: Somos Cubanos, Los Van Van (In class)
Video: Dr. Bettina Ng’weno: Afro Colombian Citizenship Struggles: Separate or Equal Legal Standing? (In Class)
Required Readings:
Shona Jackson, Creole Indigeneity, Introduction
Suggested Readings:
Indigenous Resurgence in the Contemporary Caribbean, Chapter 3, “‘Ocama-Daca Taíno’ (Hear Me, I Am Taíno): Taíno Survival on Hispaniola, Focusing on the Dominican Republic”
Alixia Arrizon, Queering Mestizaje, Excerpt “Negro? Prieto? Moreno? A Question of Identity for Black Mexicans” NYT Article
Thur 7/9
Guiding questions continued from Tuesday. What does it mean to be sovereign? To be autonomous? What do we mean by a politics of recognition? How have histories of Black and Red resistance, often with a claim to some form of sovereignty, been shaped by and also shape ideas of indigeneity and blackness?
Film: Burn! dir Gillo Pontecorvo (In class)
Required Reading:
Franz Fanon, Black Skin, White Mask, Chapter 7, “The Black Man and Recognition”
Glen Coulthard, Red Skin, White Masks, Chapter 3, “Essentialism and the Gendered Politics of Aboriginal Self-Government”
Week IV: State Recognition of Native Nations in the Contemporary
Tue, 7/14
Contemporary Movements for Native Sovereignty, Global Indigenisms, and Human Rights.
In what ways do ideas of indigeneity in the Americas connect to notions of global indigenisms? What are the geopolitics of indigeneity and diaspora? How are transnational indigenous struggles coalescing (or not) in the struggle against colonialism and settler colonialism?
Audio: Steven Salaita, “Indigeneity, Palestine, and the Demands of Civility” (Listen before class)
Required Readings:
Suggested Readings
Krebs & Olwan, “’From Jerusalem to the Grand River, Our Struggles are One’: Challenging Canadian and Israeli Settler Colonialism”
Waziyatawin, “Malice Enough in their Hearts and Courage Enough in Ours: Reflections on US Indigenous and Palestinian Experiences under Occupation”
Thur, 7/16
How are Native Nations/Pueblos fighting for recognition and autonomous governance in the contemporary? What are the political economic factors that influence the struggle for recognition? How does the state regulate indigenous sovereignty? What can we garner from last week’s discussion on sovereignty to complicate our understanding of and participation in contemporary struggles? This class focuses on the Amah Mutsun struggle for federal recognition (Guest Speaker ??)
Required Reading:
Valentin Lopez, “Healing from Historical Trauma: The Journey of the Amah Mutsun”
Jennifer Wadsworth, “The Lost Tribe: Amah Mutsun Native Americans”
Kim Tallbear, “The Political Economy of Tribal Citizenship in the US: Lessons for Canadian First Nations?”
Joanne Barker, Native Acts: Law, Recognition, and Cultural Authenticity Part 1, Recognition, Ch 1, “Of the ‘Indian Tribe’”
Suggested Readings:
Amah Mutsun’s Open Letter to Pope Francis
Waziyatawin Angela Wilson & Michael Yellow Bird, For Indigenous Eyes only: A Decolonization Handbook, Chapter 1 “Beginning Decolonization”, Chapter 11 “Decolonizing Tribal Enrollment”
Week V: New Cosmologies of Freedom, Alcatraz, Maroons & Quilombos
Tue 7/21
In what ways can we reimagine a struggle for sovereignty that takes into account our entangled histories?
Film: “Daughters of the Dust” dir Julie Dash (In class)
Audio: “Black Tracking Through Afrofuturism” Podcast (Listen to before class)
Suggested readings:
Jody Byrd, The Transit of Empire, Introduction
Mark Anderson, Black and Indigenous, Ch 6 “Political Economies
of Difference: Indigeneity, Land, and Culture in Sambo Creek
Sylvia Wynter, “Unsettling the Coloniality of Being/Power/Truth/Freedom: Towards the Human, After Man, Its Overrepresentation—An Argument”
Dory Nason, “We Hold Our Hands Up: On Indigenous Women’s Love and Resistance” (Blog)
Donna Hightower Langston, “American Indian Women’s Activism in the 1960’s and 1970’s”
Troy Johnson, “Alcatraz”
Adam Fortunate Eagle, “Alcatraz! Alcatraz! The Indian Occupation of 1976-1971”
Thur 7/23
Class Summary and Group Roundtables and Presentations
Midterm Project Due End of Week III
Final Project due last day of Class
Black Diasporas and Indigeneity 