Colonizers Tactics Endure: Learning from the University of Denver’s response to the 2024 Solidarity Encampment

• In Event: Beyond the National Spotlight: Denver’s Palestine Solidarity Encampments, Organizer and Decolonial Perspectives, Institutional Responses, and the Limits of Free Speech

Abstract

The DU4 Palestine solidarity encampment which took place Spring 2024 at the University of Denver, demonstrated how academia embraces a culture of colonial practices and violence when challenged or threatened. Further, it is a case study in how colonial harm does not just look like police raids and physical violence, but also comes in the form of more subtle and institutional based harm. As an individual with american-indigenous descent and who holds generations of wisdom and trauma in the fight against colonizers, I found myself incredibly sensitive to how the tactics brought against students and community in the encampment mirror those which colonizers have used against the indigenous peoples of Turtle Island for centuries. These tactics included: forced isolation, forced identification, emotional abuse, financial sabotage, and revoking access to basic resources (food, water, electricity, healthcare, etc.). The University of Denver leveraged a settler colonial system of ‘land ownership’ and sanctity of property as justifications for their violent actions and abuse of power.

I argue that this was not done maliciously but we are manufactured for generations in a society rooted in settler colonialism. Educators and individuals with power in academia need to learn from harmful actions of the University of Denver and other encampments across the world and critically reflect on how we and our institutions bring harm within our communities, maintain injustice, and continuously uphold a violent legacy of colonization. If we do not recognize that systems of oppression permeate in every aspect of our culture, colonialism will continue. We will fail to recognize these stories of violence and injustice in ourselves and in others. We need to shift away from policy and practice which prioritizes property, control and power; and step towards a future wherein the land holding universities and places of learning are not weaponized against its inhabitants and these institutions are not allowed to do harm to communities.

Author

• JoJo Carranza, University of Denver