distance screeching

A feeling when conditions from the past are haunting us and still make noises in our heads, although they seem to be distant. Can apply to historical conditions. Past events influence today’s minds and actions. E.g. our own past, as well as societal, institutional pasts inevitably shape theories and how we look at them. What we teach and learn today is intertwined with our past. Echoes reproduce power structures and reach into the present. The original sound can deform, how it is heard from a distance changes (e.g. become shriller). Although today many look on colonialism more critically, it still shapes institutions, worldviews, actions. It is visible in the books resting in our libraries, in the accessibility of institutions (Decolonising Knowledge: What Is Decolonisation? | Rolando Vázquez Melken 5:24), how history is told by western museums. We must recognize and draw attention to this screeching (e.g. as one can see in the actions Mwazulu Diyabanza does in Museums (Gimlet)). We need to question who owns, who tells stories, defines, has power, whose voices are being heard? To decolonize we must recognize that power structures are still active. We must question the sounds from the past without denying they exist, but by reshaping how we perceive them and making sure they are not repeated, by making sure they are not echoes.

Sources:
Decolonising Knowledge: What Is Decolonisation? Rolando Vázquez Melken. 2021.
Gimlet. I Want To Report A Theft.

“I still have a distance screeching.”

“I think you got distance screeching.”

“These theories are distance screeched. *”

*However, colonial power structures should be labeled as such as clear as possible. The proposed term should be seen more as an additional visualization.

by l;;;; December 10, 2023

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