L.E. Ikenga – To understand the ideological goals of the so-called “Squad” of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley, one needs to understand the academic theories labeled colonial and postcolonial studies. Many of us “people of color” who have direct or indirect ties to other parts of the third world have seen this nonsense being peddled many times before.
What we are witnessing, despite the veneer of watermelon politics, is not just Marxism, or Alinkyism, or socialism, or communism, or Black Pantherism, or eco-fascism. We are seeing iron-fisted colonial and postcolonial theory acting itself out on the national stage.
The study of European colonialism and its aftermath, post colonialism, is a combination of all of those leftist social, economic, and environmental projects rolled into one, presented under the auspices of a systematic academic canon. It uses insider academic jargon to bemoan the aftereffects of having once been dominated, and against their will, culturally transformed by a European colonial power. Hence, the terms “colonialism” and “postcolonialism.” Continue reading