“I had never been at home in the world”¹: A case for Black-Indigenism

Abstract

In this article, I argue that the Black experience in the United States settler colony is one primarily based in a systematic erasure of indigeneity from the enslaved African. Understanding the Black condition as a manifestation of White America’s historical response to indigeneity, I consider the marginalized perspectives of Black decolonization work that has pushed and continues to push back against the centuries-long history of settler colonialism in the region known as North America. Placing Black and Indigenous decolonizing histories and practices in conversation with each other is part of what I call Black-Indigenism and is inspired by the work of Sylvia Wynter. Wynter and others recognize Blackness as an integral factor in the argument for Indigenism that informs and furthers the aims of Indigenist and Indigenous decolonization educative work and movements.

Keywords:

• Educational theory
• socio-political conditions
• critical theory

Notes

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Hartman, 2007, p. 44

2 I have found that Wynter’s works have variant spellings of poiesis and autopoiesis. For the sake of consistency, I will use the spellings featured in this note, unless they appear otherwise in a quotation

3 Smith has long claimed that she is of Cherokee descent, but numerous Cherokees and others have refuted her claims. Reading Smith’s analysis years ago influenced my thinking about Blackness and indigeneity within the United States, which is why I include it here. Smith’s inclusion in this work, however, is not an endorsement of her claim to indigeneity.

4 Quite interestingly, Forbes’ work highlights the anachronizing that tends to happen when applying our current understandings of terms like negro, Indian, native, and black to centuries-old primary documents. His study addresses ways historians have erroneously assumed that primary documents discussing Indigenous Americans were discussing African-descended peoples. Further, Forbes (1993) closes his book by noting that, rather than discussing Indigenous Americans and the descendants of Indigenous Africans in the Americas as two distinct groups, these two populations are, in fact, connected, as both groups “merged together” in various ways over time, even though people may “look” more Indigenous African or American, or a group’s ancestry may “lean in one direction or the other” (p. 270). While fascinating points worth further exploration, I continue to use the commonly understood categorizations of Indigenous American and Diasporic Black ancestry to avoid already-prevalent practices of co-opting Indigenous identity without engaging Indigenous communities in the matter.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kelly Limes-Taylor Henderson

Kelly Limes-Taylor Henderson is an assistant professor of education at the University of North Georgia and is interested in non-dominant conceptualizations of education.