Full Description
Offering a bold critique of the limitations of the reparations and land back movements, When We Are Kin envisions a Black and Indigenous future rooted in real solidarity, a future that exists beyond the confines of the liberal imagination.
Current advocates of reparations for slavery and land back often fail to scrutinize racial capitalism and settler colonialism, instead accepting that their destinies will be forever tied to US empire. But as scholar Kyle T. Mays insists in When We Are Kin, we can and should demand a kind of repair that goes beyond a white supremacist idea of what justice can be.
In a series of short essays, Mays traces the history of alliances between Black and Indigenous movements; outlines the limitations of certain demands for reparations, including cash payments, that do not fundamentally critique racial-settler capitalism; and interrogates contemporary land back initiatives that displace Black residents. Along the way, he asks, What does solidarity look like between Black and Indigenous peoples in the United States? Can we find ways to co-belong and co-resist on Turtle Island?
Drawing on the Anishinaabe philosophy of mino-bimaadiziwin (the good life), Mays argues that we can resist as kin only when we center the land in building our collective futures.
Contents
INTRODUCTION: BLACK FREEDOM AND INDIGENOUS SOVEREIGNTY
CHAPTER ONE: BLACK AND INDIGENOUS MOVEMENTS FOR JUSTICE: A BRIEF HISTORY
CHAPTER TWO: REPARATIONS AND ITS DISCONTENTS
CHAPTER THREE: LAND BACK AND INDIGENOUS CLAIMS TO URBAN TERRITORY
CHAPTER FOUR: TOWARD MINO-BIMAADIZIWIN: ENVISIONING BLACK AND INDIGENOUS CO-RESISTANCE AND CO-BELONGING
