When the Subaltern Speaks, Who Listens and How? Black/Brown Bodies in Informal Learning Spaces

• In Event: The Paradox of Balancing Well-Being in Predominantly White Informal Learning Spaces: Legitimizing Black/Brown Autoethnographies

Abstract

Purpose
When Spivak (1993) discussed oppression faced by the subaltern that prevented her from speaking, she also spoke about who will listen to the subaltern and how, especially if possible, without benevolent imperialism. Subaltern usually refers to those who are affected by the oppressive forces of colonialism and are situated politically and geographically outside of the privileges afforded by the power structures of colonialism. In this paper, I discuss how Brown and Black bodies in informal learning spaces in the U.S. experience settler colonial oppression, much like a subaltern would in a land that was once colonized or in a land that the colonizers have settled into and claimed as their own through invasion. Grounded in a critical, postcolonial autoethnographic narrative, I explore the experience of leading a writing retreat in a predominantly white space, and how our Black and Brown bodies were subjected to settler colonial narratives and associated oppression. I discuss the implications for voice and silence when negotiating settler colonial ontoepistemologies and materialities that show up in our informal learning spaces and bleed into our formal learning spaces.

Perspectives
This autoethnographic narrative is grounded in postcolonial and critical discourses. Colonialism has its multipronged effects across the world. Within the context of U.S. colonialism is usually understood as settler colonial invasion of indigenous land (Tuck & Yang, 2012). Yet, colonialism, when taken a broader view, is more than land invasion. It is invasion of the mind, body, spirit, social structures, and infrastructures, including structures of formal and informal education (Loomba, 2002; Minh-ha, 1989; Mohanty, 2004; Mutua & Swadener, 2004; Smith, 1999/2012). Additionally, places from where the colonizers have departed are not free from its colonial effects. Those spaces are forever marked by the ways of the colonizers, and often privileged due to the imprinted colonial supremacy. Further, uprooting people as slaves, brutally removing them from their own lands, and subjecting them to dehumanizing forms of existence is another byproduct of colonial agenda. Thus, when national and global colonial agendas intersect, the material effects of such intersection are experienced by the colonized subjects, or the subaltern, which in the U.S. are often Black and Brown bodies.

Methods and Data Sources
Informed by Chawla (2014), Pathak (2013), and Boylorn (2012), this postcolonial critical autoethnography will juxtapose my experience of being a Brown educator in a predominantly white informal learning space experiencing and bearing witness to overt oppression and the ways in which colonializing ontologies and discourses manifest effortlessly and materially with presumed innocence of whiteness.


Significance
AERA’s 2018 call specifically highlights the importance of introspection, alternate methodologies, and listening and learning from those who have been traditionally silenced. The pervasive nature of how colonial oppression continues to maintain its dominance and proliferate is damaging to minoritized educators’ well-being, especially when they voice concerns and how they are listened to. This paper highlights ways in which such colonial forces function in informal learning environments and how educators of color navigate those spaces, thus documenting an otherwise silenced social history.

Author

• Kakali Bhattacharya, Kansas State University