Template:Did you know nominations/Decolonization is Not a Metaphor

Decolonization is Not a Metaphor

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... that the title of a paper calling for the return of the United States to Indigenous sovereignty has become a slogan for pro-Palestinian protestors?

Source: Combination of Indigenous sovereignty was never ceded, and the continued presence of settlers is essentially illegitimate. [1] and [2] which explains how "Decolonization is Not a Metaphor". The paper itself as a primary source also supports the first part of the hook.

Reviewed:

Created by Chess (talk). Number of QPQs required: 0. Nominator has fewer than 5 past nominations.

Chess (talk) (please mention me on reply) 05:29, 13 December 2024 (UTC).

Thus far, I have been unable to verify that the paper "calls for the return of the United States to indigenous sovereignty." Neither of the two sources you cite above appear to support the statement, they just say the paper calls for a stricter interpretation of the meaning of the word "decolonization", which is a very different thing. Gatoclass (talk) 22:28, 13 December 2024 (UTC)

@Gatoclass: That's a very good point. What about "views the United States as fundamentally illegitimate?" Chess (talk) (please mention me on reply) 22:39, 13 December 2024 (UTC)

Again, you would need a source for that statement. Gatoclass (talk) 22:47, 13 December 2024 (UTC)

@Gatoclass: This is very verbose, but what about that the title of a paper describing the continued presence of non-indigenous in the United States as being illegitimate has become a slogan for pro-Palestinian protestors? The claim that settler presence in the United States is supported by the source, the only thing I've done is explained "settler" as being "non-Indigenous" because the average person would be more likely to understand that. Chess (talk) (please mention me on reply) 05:46, 14 December 2024 (UTC)

Again, a quote from a source confirming the hook statement would be required at minimum. But these suggestions thus far all look a little tortured to me. How about keeping it simple and straightforward, something like:

ALT4: ... that the title of a 2012 academic paper, "Decolonization is Not a Metaphor", has been adopted as a slogan by pro-Palestinian protestors? Gatoclass (talk) 06:20, 14 December 2024 (UTC)

@Gatoclass: Sure, that works. Chess (talk) (please mention me on reply) 06:22, 14 December 2024 (UTC)

Having looked a little more closely at the article, I'm not sure your interpretation of the paper is accurate. Certainly, it's a difficult text to come to grips with - at least for me, as it contains a lot of academic jargon that tends to obscure the authors' meaning to a non-professional in the field. But for example, you state: "Tuck argues that ... because the existence of settlers on stolen land is illegitimate [it] must be redressed by decolonization". Did he really say that? Because I would have thought that if he had, the paper would be more notorious than merely influential. On the other hand, if he is only saying that that's what decolonization must mean, he is simply defining a term rather than arguing in favour of it, and there is a world of difference between the two.

However, since most of the article is sourced directly to the paper itself, without clarifying quotes, it's hard to know whether your interpretation is accurate. I'm not even entirely sure if the paper itself doesn't count as a primary source here, which might also be problematic.

So, is there any chance you could provide some actual quotes from the paper, or better still perhaps, reliable secondary sources that have written about it, in order to clarify the point? Because I think it's obviously an important distinction to get right. Cheers, Gatoclass (talk) 06:54, 14 December 2024 (UTC)

@Gatoclass: The article is far from perfect and I welcome suggestions to improve it as I'm less experienced than I should be with writing from scratch.

I looked into this when you raised it the first time. The closest thing in the text I can find right now is We don’t intend to discourage those who have dedicated careers and lives to teaching themselves and others to be critically conscious of racism, sexism, homophobia, classism, xenophobia, and settler colonialism. We are asking them/you to consider how the pursuit of critical consciousness, the pursuit of social justice through a critical enlightenment, can also be settler moves to innocence - diversions, distractions, which relieve the settler of feelings of guilt or responsibility, and conceal the need to give up land or power or privilege. (emphasis mine)

So, the authors explicitly acknowledge a need for settlers to give up land. Likewise, page 10 of the paper criticizes decolonial scholars that enable "settler moves to innocence". I will likely have to make the article more directly explain what Tuck and Yang said, with better inline citations.

Also, Eve Tuck is a woman with she/her pronouns (at least on her website). Chess (talk) (please mention me on reply) 07:51, 14 December 2024 (UTC)