Decolonial work

How do you deal with racism in the workplace? What are strategies for challenging individual and institutional racism? For the second decolonial learning session of the pan-decolonial collective Aralez, I offer analysis and experiences to combat racism in a professional context. For this, I engaged with the participants in a deep dive to understand racism. I deal with the distinction between racism and discrimination, but also between individual and institutional forms of racism. This is done on the basis of practical examples. In the second part, the participants themselves went to work to reflect together on strategies and perspectives for action regarding anti-racism in the workplace. Please note this session is in Dutch.

Diversity is always part of decolonization, but decolonization is not always part of diversity. How do these two approaches relate to each other, how do you apply this to the curriculum and what does this mean in the context of internationalization? For the Think Global Festival hosted by the Hogeschool van Amsterdam I was asked to give a keynote about “Decolonizing the curriculum”. In this keynote I discuss the dimensions of colonialism and the differences between the concepts of ‘diversity’ and ‘decolonization’ in theory and practice. Please note this keynote is in Dutch.

Activist magazine Desde el Margen has featured an article on The Uprising and has asked me to write a reflection piece to introduce the film. Check out the English version of my contribution. “Two years ago I made a decision. I wanted to express my unapologetic voice in service of the decolonial struggle. As a musician I was used to using my voice. But I always felt the constraints of navigating white spaces as a woman of color when it comes to this topic. I was born and raised The Netherlands, where I currently live, as a daughter of Indo-Caribbean parents, Suriname (a former colony of The Netherlands) to be specific. Growing up as a minority in the west, I always had to make white people feel comfortable to get my message across. It meant I had to limit myself in expressing my authentic thoughts. Freedom of expression is a privilege of the colonizer.”

Never thought I would be invited by the Royal Society for Music History of The Netherlands to discuss whiteness and institutional racism in the music industry, but on December 12th 2020 this was the case! Check out my contribution to their Musicological Expo 2020 on Music and Whiteness in The Netherlands. “Thank you to KVNM for inviting me to share my perspective on Music and Whiteness in The Netherlands. A perspective I would like to illustrate based on an experience that has shaped my thinking and doing as an artist of color in a predominantly white society.”