My close friends know that I love to DJ. I find that DJing is an incredibly meditative practice that requires me to be somewhat in sync with the music, the energy of the participants who are dancing, and myself. Doing is a skill, which if done right, can teach you about how to synthesize between human beings of different backgrounds, and bring harmony to a room.
In the Native American world, we are compelled to honor the wisdom of our tribal elders and traditions. It is orthodoxy. But many Native activists ignore, disparage, and vilify the wisdom of other people's elders and traditions—particularly the wisdom contained within Western Civ. I find it extremely easy to honor my tribal ancestors just as much as I honor Shakespeare and Socrates. They're all part of me.
I'd like to hear a call and response session between conservative and woke, sacred from Western culture calling to wokes unified with all of creation—respect for people, integrity, respect for life; respect for the living, telling your story honestly, listening to others. That session might create whole people like Sherman Alexie (previous post). I like Dr. Tony Nader's Consciousness is All paradigm which includes us all and helps us grow together.
Decolonizing knowledge begins with deracializing the self. Racialization of the self is the first barrier to self-discovery. You do, like Malcolm, have to make a hajj. But if you have accepted a racial self, you should have intuitively known that self was not everything you are or could be. You had to know that there was a journey of discovery to be had, a hajj, all the while. Every slave knows he is not free and that freedom requires the courage necessary for escape from that which reduces you.
'Decolonization' has a flaw in that it re-inscribes racial self against racial other. To make believe that the history of knowledge and all journeys towards wisdom and self-determination are some sort of racial power struggle is an error. It puts you back in a box that requires X from one race and Y from another. That battle can never deliver victory for the self. Specifically for black Americans to define themselves in comparison to white Americans is such an improper battle.
The alienation of the WEIRD is real. The inability for people to recover control of themselves 'off-the-grid' shows a gap in our educations. Yet this is, from my perspective, another symptom of the same problem of defining oneself as a product of a flawed environment.
"A lonely place to be, so I learned to depend on me.."
In the Native American world, we are compelled to honor the wisdom of our tribal elders and traditions. It is orthodoxy. But many Native activists ignore, disparage, and vilify the wisdom of other people's elders and traditions—particularly the wisdom contained within Western Civ. I find it extremely easy to honor my tribal ancestors just as much as I honor Shakespeare and Socrates. They're all part of me.
This was beautifully written and really moving to me. Thank you for sharing it, I think you’re pointing to some deep, unifying truth here.
I'd like to hear a call and response session between conservative and woke, sacred from Western culture calling to wokes unified with all of creation—respect for people, integrity, respect for life; respect for the living, telling your story honestly, listening to others. That session might create whole people like Sherman Alexie (previous post). I like Dr. Tony Nader's Consciousness is All paradigm which includes us all and helps us grow together.
Decolonizing knowledge begins with deracializing the self. Racialization of the self is the first barrier to self-discovery. You do, like Malcolm, have to make a hajj. But if you have accepted a racial self, you should have intuitively known that self was not everything you are or could be. You had to know that there was a journey of discovery to be had, a hajj, all the while. Every slave knows he is not free and that freedom requires the courage necessary for escape from that which reduces you.
'Decolonization' has a flaw in that it re-inscribes racial self against racial other. To make believe that the history of knowledge and all journeys towards wisdom and self-determination are some sort of racial power struggle is an error. It puts you back in a box that requires X from one race and Y from another. That battle can never deliver victory for the self. Specifically for black Americans to define themselves in comparison to white Americans is such an improper battle.
The alienation of the WEIRD is real. The inability for people to recover control of themselves 'off-the-grid' shows a gap in our educations. Yet this is, from my perspective, another symptom of the same problem of defining oneself as a product of a flawed environment.
"A lonely place to be, so I learned to depend on me.."