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Dear Critters,
I thought I
would share my two cents on this:
As a
descendant of those who lived through the brutalities of
colonialism and continue to suffer its consequences, and as
someone from the so-called ‘third world’, I found this article
highly offensive and insulting as a person, as a scholar of
development, and as an author who has published in the same
journal (a well-respected one for critical development
studies). The article is utterly reprehensible, historically
inaccurate, poor written, conceptually weak, and morally
disgusting, for a million different reasons. This article has
caused a lot of stir among various disciplines, groups, and
organizations in the last couple of days. Some members of the
editorial board (e.g. Vijay Prashad) have publicly threatened
to resign if the article is not retracted. How it made through
the peer-review process or the managing editor is surprising
and suspect, as far more robust articles are routinely
rejected. Many folks are writing letters of complaint to the
journal about the piece, calling for a retraction and an
apology. Even more are tweeting about it [If you’d like to see some of
the tweet thread on this, here’s one example among many
circulating now: https://twitter.com/Farhana_H2O/status/907440614144462848].
The article s
eems like a
faux ‘shock’ piece to manufacture controversy and very much
conforms to click-bait practices. Perhaps the journal
wanted ‘debate’ but it’s facing a lot of heat instead. Either
way, it’s disgusting in my opinion.
The author
in question (a political scientist at Portland State
University) has published white supremacist drivel in the past
(e.g. supporting ethnic cleansing), and has made a name for
himself in doing so. We all know there are plenty of colonial
apologists in academia as well as overt and closeted white
supremacists who enable/promote/encourage such success; many
more support it through silence and enabling such behavior to
go unchecked. Perhaps that is why there is an urge amongst
many to write a response. However, a well-known postcolonial
scholar has recommended *not* downloading it (as that will
only increase its stats & popularity; obtaining it
elsewhere like on this list is great), or citing it (unless
you have to demonstrate it’s ludicrousness, as again that will
increase its citation metrics), or responding to the author
directly, as these will take away the power since the author
thrives on controversy. Perhaps writing to the journal to
retract it is better. There are many other sites where
meaningful interventions can be made about decolonizing,
postcolonial critique, etc. (e.g. recent TIBG special issue on
this, etc.). Nonetheless, the fury that many of us feel, given
current state of the world where white supremacy reigns, does
seem to warrant some sort of collective response to such
ideologies. I don’t know what shape or form that would be, but
I thought I’d throw it out there in case folks want to do so.
I’m too weary to write something but would gladly support and
join in such an effort.
Apologies for the rant,
it’s been a very long and hard year.
Best,
Farhana
*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*
Farhana Sultana, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Geography
Thank
you - I have it now (what a wonderfully quick
response)
Pam
Shurmer-Smith
Hi Pamela,
Here's a copy. I share Simone's
sentiment about whether to laugh
or cry...
Kind regards,
Breffní