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Decol08


has 1 film 1
Everyday racism and the making of literary and cinema racism 
Convenor:
Onookome Okome (University of Alberta)
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Chair:
Onookome Okome (University of Alberta)
Format:
Panel
Stream:
Linguistic and visual (de)colonialisms
Location:
Room 1098
Sessions:
Wednesday 8 June, -
Time zone: Europe/Berlin

Short Abstract:

Racial violence goes beyond acts of speech directed towards victims of racism. Franz Fanon argues that the racialized gaze depersonalizes and renders the black body less human. This panel addresses the concept of the racialized gaze in everyday encounters and in literary and cinematic texts.

Long Abstract:

Racist violence goes beyond and above acts of speech directed at victims. Indeed, acts of everyday racism are often so subtle that even victims of such abuses find it hard to express the anguish and pain they experience. However, the subtlety of everyday acts of racism is, as Franz Fanon points out, often in the theory of the look, the very act of the gaze between the perpetuator and the victim, which is experienced on the psychological level. In complicated ways, the procedure of depersonalization which this gaze invests in the look is also calls an imagined repertory of images of the depersonalized body that is gazed at. The gaze brings to life this broad spectrum of a pictorial landscape that remains in the subconscious of the perpetrator. This pictorial landscape has remained largely unchanged since the racial calibration of the African body in the 16th century. Fanon argues that it is this compound of blighted images that the perpetrator calls up when he or she gazes at the racial victim who is considered inferior human. This repertoire of images was generated during the meeting between Europe and Africa. It is alive and well today. Among other matters, this panel calls for panelists who seeks to problematize expressions of everyday racism and the toxicity of the relationships they create for both perpetrators and victims by examining Franz Fanon idea of the gaze. Everyday racism can be historical as it is contemporary. Panelist may work with textual archive that includes expressions of (1) everyday anti-racism against black bodies in global literary texts, especially the 21st century, (2) global cinema and (3) the vast archive of everyday experiences.

Accepted papers:

Session 1 Wednesday 8 June, 2022, -
Panel Video visible to paid-up delegates