Yellow Power and La Raza: The theory of internal colonisation and the articulation of racial realities during the Long Sixties

In recent years, scholars like Morgan Adamson have investigated the way activists of colour in the sixties and seventies used of the theory of internal colonialism as a language for articulating racial realities. In doing so, Adamson and others have complicated the notion that use of the theory of internal colonialism represented a turn towards a cultural nationalist politics that was ill-equipped to navigate the heterogenous realities of the communities activists sought to represent. This thesis furthers our understanding of internal colonialism as a language for articulating racial realities by comparing and contrasting the way internal colonialisms was used by the Asian American and Chicanx movements in two movement-related papers. In doing so, this thesis showcases the malleability and expansiveness of internal colonialism as a lexicon for articulating minority difference and remedies both the lack of comparative research and the tendency to draw primarily on the experiences of...Show moreIn recent years, scholars like Morgan Adamson have investigated the way activists of colour in the sixties and seventies used of the theory of internal colonialism as a language for articulating racial realities. In doing so, Adamson and others have complicated the notion that use of the theory of internal colonialism represented a turn towards a cultural nationalist politics that was ill-equipped to navigate the heterogenous realities of the communities activists sought to represent. This thesis furthers our understanding of internal colonialism as a language for articulating racial realities by comparing and contrasting the way internal colonialisms was used by the Asian American and Chicanx movements in two movement-related papers. In doing so, this thesis showcases the malleability and expansiveness of internal colonialism as a lexicon for articulating minority difference and remedies both the lack of comparative research and the tendency to draw primarily on the experiences of black American activists. Despite differences in the material and cultural conditions of their respective communities, Asian American and Chicanx activists used internal colonialism to make sense of their own oppression and to position themselves within a larger, colonial, American context. In their use of the theory, Asian American and Chicanx activists were undeterred by internal differentiation with their respective communities along the lines of class or ethnicity. Instead, internal colonialism proved flexible enough that such differences could be incorporated within the framework and help inform the articulation of racial realities.Show less

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Yellow Power and La Raza: The theory of internal colonisation and the articulation of racial realities during the Long Sixties