Palestine, Blackness and the Complexity of Racism
November 2, 2014 10:36 AM Subscribe
Palestine was stunning. Palestine was devastating. In the Palestinian condition, we saw what others such as Robin Kelley, Bill Mullen and Dream Hampton have recently commented on the contradictions of the nation-state, racism and the overwhelming power of white supremacy. These are important points that one doesn’t necessarily draw from how Israel is depicted in the United States. And while scholars for some time have been arguing that the concept of race is at the center of a number of systems such as the nation-state, capitalism and modernity, racism is more often seen to be epiphenomenal, a tangent, a hindrance to be overcome, rather than an integral part of the design. And although this is an abstraction to many, it became glaringly apparent in the Israeli colonial occupation of Palestine. Racial hierarchies and forms of domination are everywhere, from the people to the land, even the ideas, and certainly the future.
While on our delegation, I couldn’t help but constantly reference Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth in my mind. This classic of African decolonization and inspiration to many global liberation struggles is central to my intellectual journey. I began the trip wanting to learn and absorb as much as possible with open eyes and a clear mind. That was abruptly halted by our 10-hour delay at an Israeli checkpoint as we travelled to Palestine from Jordan. The delay was a grueling test of the anxiety and banality of the state and its intelligence apparatus. And it operationalized numerous forms of racial knowledge in what Edward Said famously called orientalism or the colonial forms of knowing the other. In my own case, it included questions about my scholarship, political commitments, family ties, friends (especially in the “occupied territories” as my interrogator put it), and my social media presence. Here it was not enough to say that I was a U.S. citizen, because then came the next question, “Where is your father from? Where is your father’s father from?” And then the ridiculous: “Do you have a phone number for your relatives in Pakistan to confirm your responses?” It was clear that I was being interpellated as a potential Palestinian and that this was the way of regulating the Palestinian diaspora and the right to return.
While on our delegation, I couldn’t help but constantly reference Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth in my mind. This classic of African decolonization and inspiration to many global liberation struggles is central to my intellectual journey. I began the trip wanting to learn and absorb as much as possible with open eyes and a clear mind. That was abruptly halted by our 10-hour delay at an Israeli checkpoint as we travelled to Palestine from Jordan. The delay was a grueling test of the anxiety and banality of the state and its intelligence apparatus. And it operationalized numerous forms of racial knowledge in what Edward Said famously called orientalism or the colonial forms of knowing the other. In my own case, it included questions about my scholarship, political commitments, family ties, friends (especially in the “occupied territories” as my interrogator put it), and my social media presence. Here it was not enough to say that I was a U.S. citizen, because then came the next question, “Where is your father from? Where is your father’s father from?” And then the ridiculous: “Do you have a phone number for your relatives in Pakistan to confirm your responses?” It was clear that I was being interpellated as a potential Palestinian and that this was the way of regulating the Palestinian diaspora and the right to return.
This post was deleted for the following reason: It's an interesting op-ed, but injecting race and colonialism into the Israel/Palestine conflict is a recipe for a disastrous thread. -- mathowie
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