Kalendarium

CCD international seminars: The contested politics of anti-racism in Spain and Portugal: reflections from Black and Roma struggles

Silvia Maeso (Principal Researcher, Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra), Danielle Araújo (Post-doctoral researcher University of São Paulo/Collaborator Researcher CES) and Cayetano Fernández (PhD Candidate, University of Coimbra/Centre for Social Studies)

Antiracism is increasingly found at the center of legal and policy debates in Spain and Portugal, foregrounding competing understandings of this struggle. Inspired by Robin Kelley’s reflection on the American context and the Black struggles in higher education since the 1960s, in this seminar we propose to discuss the theorization of the vampirizing of antiracism as a transversal logic of control and prevention of autonomous radical anti-racist movements, often understood by the political establishment as disruptive initiatives. Since the 1990s, the strengthening of Black and Roma militants and organizations has been shaped by power relations with white-led progressive movements and parties. These power relations condition the agendas and, more importantly, the form of the struggle. The form of the struggle is not only defined by its proximity or distance to the State (Lentin, 2004) in terms of institutional and economic autonomy, but also in terms of cultural force and consciousness. This means that not all forms of struggle and resistance are framed by the logics of institutionalized politics and legislation. The seminar proposes to think of antiracism as an autonomous struggle for liberation that is, as a process of (self)love and collective healing against the historical continuum of dehumanizing and genocidal logics.

Zoom: https://ju-se.zoom.us/j/63576309458