African Indigenous Culture and the Quest for Environmental Justice

On August 12, 2017, in Charlottesville, Virginia, alt-right/White supremacy groups and Black Lives Matter (BLM) supporters came face-to-face regarding what to do about public monuments that celebrate key figures from slavery and the Jim Crow era. White supremacists and White nationalists did not hide their racist ideologies as they demanded that their privileged place in history not be erased. The BLM movement, which challenges state-sanctioned anti-Black racism, was ready to confront themes of White discontent and reverse racism, critiques of political correctness, and the assumption that racialized people should know their place and be content to be the subordinate other.It is easy to frame the events in Charlottesville as indicative of US-specific race problems. However, a sense that White spaces should prevail and an ongoing history of anti-Black racism are not unique to the United States. The rise of Canadian activism under the BLM banner also signals a movement to change Canadian forms of institutional racism in policing, education, and the labor market. This article responds to perceptions that the BLM movement has given insufficient attention to environmental concerns (Pellow 2016; Halpern 2017). Drawing on critical race theory as a conceptual tool, this article focuses on the Canadian context as part of the author’s argument in favor of greater collaboration between BLM and the environmental justice (EJ) movement in Canada. This article also engages with the common stereotype that Blacks in Canada have it better than Blacks in the United States.

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Indigenous Environmental Justice, Knowledge, and Law

Kalfou A Journal of Comparative and Relational Ethnic Studies ◽

10.15367/kf.v5i2.213 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 5 (2) ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Deborah McGregor

Keyword(s):

Environmental Justice ◽

Indigenous Knowledge ◽

Knowledge Systems ◽

Indigenous Worldviews ◽

Indigenous Knowledge Systems ◽

The World ◽

Innovative Approaches

This article aims to introduce a distinct conception of Indigenous environmental justice (IEJ) based on Indigenous legal orders, knowledge systems, and conceptions of justice. This is not to suggest in any way that the existing environmental justice (EJ) scholarship is flawed; in fact, the scholarship and activism around EJ have been central in diagnosing and drawing attention to injustices that occur on a systematic basis everywhere in the world. This article argues instead that such discussions can be expanded by acknowledging that concepts of environmental justice, including distinct legal orders informed by Indigenous knowledge systems, already existed on Turtle Island for thousands of years prior to the arrival of Europeans. It also suggests that environmental justice framed within Indigenous worldviews, ontologies, and epistemologies may make significant contributions to broader EJ scholarship, particularly in relation to extending justice to other beings and entities in Creation. This approach acknowledges ongoing colonialism and emphasizes the need to decolonize in order to advance innovative approaches to IEJ.

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Dynamics Of Indian Diaspora Literature: A Panoramic View

Think India ◽

10.26643/think-india.v22i2.8758 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 22 (2) ◽

pp. 507-511

Author(s):

S.SOPHIA CHRISTINA

Keyword(s):

Broad Context ◽

Indigenous Culture ◽

Indian Diaspora ◽

Panoramic View ◽

Literary Works ◽

Diaspora Literature ◽

Diasporic Literature ◽

Multiple Characteristics ◽

Indian Contribution

Diaspora Theory has affected the literature of every language of the globe with its multiple characteristics. This literature is commonly referred to as Diasporic or Expatriate Literature. Diasporic Literature is a very broad idea and a paragliding term that involves all those literary works published by writers outside their home nation, but these works are linked to indigenous culture and background. All those authors can be considered as diasporic authors in this broad context, who write outside their nation but through their work stayed linked to their homeland. Diasporic literature has its origins in the sense of loss and alienation resulting from migration and expatriation. Diasporic literature generally deals with alienation, displacement, existential rootlessness, nostalgia, identity quest. Migrants suffer from the pain of being away from their homes, their motherland memories, the anguish of leaving behind everything familiar agonizes migrants ' minds. The diasporic Indians, too, are not breaking their ancestral land connection. There is a search for continuity and an astral impulse, an attempt to search for their origins. Settlement in alien territory leads to dislocation for them. Dislocation can be seen as a rupture with the ancient identity. By debating characteristics of expatriate or diasporic literature, the article tried to examine the reflection of Diaspora Theory and its multiple aspects in literature. The Indian contribution to diasporic literature was also evaluated in English.

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