Decolonizing Academia

Rodriguez is a powerful writer who transforms her essays and nonfiction prose into poetry. What does it mean to decolonize? How do we go about this? First and foremost, this is not something we can define as white people. Academia is inherently a colonial institution. In social justice communities, it's often en vogue to say we're going to "decolonize" something without following the leadership of Indigenous, Black, and Latinx people. We think curating syllabi to be conscious of our oppression of others is enough, but it isn't. We often lack the self awareness and consciousness of how our syllabi, simply as a matter of existing, creates a colonial structure and power dynamic within an academic setting. Rodriguez carefully illustrates the micro- and macro-aggressive ways white people and others play into the system in seemingly innocuous ways that results in oppression, othering, and discrimination of Indigenous peoples. I am a white woman and don't want to mischaracterize the themes in this book as it's not my lived experience, but please go read this if you're in academia or tangential to it. We are often unaware of the gravity and power that we have in the classroom and academic fields, and Rodriguez holds up a necessary mirror to whiteness and colonialism.