Introduction
Melissa F. Weiner and Antonio Carmona Báez
Part I: The Space of Decoloniality
1. Untold Histories and New Waves of Black Resistance in the
Netherlands
Mitchell Esajas
2. From the Hollow of the Lion: A Testimony of Revolt at the
University of Amsterdam
The University of Colour (Amandla Awethu!, Tirza Balk, Inez Blanca
van der Scheer, Emma van Meyeren, Alfrida Martis, and Nguyễn Nam
Chi)
3. Decoloniality and Black Heritage Tours
Jennifer Tosch
4. Colonialism Begets Coloniality: A Case Study of Sint Eustatius,
Caribbean Netherlands
Teresa E. Leslie
5. InterNational Anti-Racism Group vs. the Netherlands’ Sesame
Street, 21st Century Blackface, and Public Television
Gloria Holwerda-Williams
6. Reclaiming Our Voices: The Anti-Black Pete Movement from a Black
Woman’s Perspective
Jessica de Abreu
7. On Agency and Belonging
Quinsy Gario
8 Hymn to the Night, from Fear to Freedom
Teresa Maria Díaz Nerio
Part II: Decolonial Dutch Episteme
9. Layers of Emancipation Struggles: Some Reflections on the Dutch
Case
Kwame Nimako
10. Catching the Dutch Double Bind
Lianne Leonora
11. Acknowledging the Non-Ordinary Dimensions of Decoloniality: The
Case of the Kingdom of the Netherlands
Francio Guadeloupe
12. White Innocence in the Netherlands
Gloria Wekker
13. White Order, Corporate Capital, and Control of Mobility in the
Netherlands
Egbert Alejandro Martina and Patricia Schor
14. “Activism” and (the Afterlives of) Dutch Colonialism
Guno Jones
15. Decoloniality of Memory and Anti-Black Racism
Artwell Cain
16. Decolonizing the Islamic Other: The Changed Conditions of
Critical Thinking
Halleh Ghorashi
Conclusions: Smashing the Pillars
Melissa F. Weiner and Antonio Carmona Báez
Melissa F. Weiner is associate professor of sociology at The
College of the Holy Cross.
Antonio Carmona Báez is president of the University of St. Martin,
at Philipsburg, Sint Maarten.
This is a tour de force in Decolonial Studies. The myth of Dutch
tolerance is demolished. Dutch political complicity with
racial/colonial domination is very well analyzed and made explicit
in this book. A must to read!
*Ramón Grosfoguel, University of California, Berkeley*
This book enacts its political commitments in its own methodology,
bringing together more practice-based contributions with more
theoretically-oriented contributions. This juxtaposition enriches
both conversations and serves as an example of how theory can be
lived beyond the university, as well as how scholarship can take up
an ethical and political commitment.
*Noah De Lissovoy, The University of Texas at Austin*
For too long the Netherlands has been considered an innocent and
benevolent country, without apparently a significant colonial past
or a racist present. This volume not only completely shatters this
illusion, but also demonstrates the significance of multiple
contemporary efforts to critically engage and decolonize Dutch
society, culture, and political life. The impressive theoretical
breadth of the text makes it an essential one not only for Dutch
and European Studies, but also for decolonial thinking, the study
of social movements, the study of Caribbean and African diasporas,
and for the critical engagement with race, racism, and other forms
of dehumanization in the contemporary world. In short, this
text places Dutch anti-racist and decolonial activism at the
forefront of debates and scholarship on decoloniality today.
*Nelson Maldonado-Torres, Rutgers University*
Smash the Pillars is a wonderfully curated collection that shakes
the very roots of contemporary Dutch colonial practice. A stellar
group of contributors present powerful personal, political, and
theoretical accounts of antiracist activism and analysis. This book
is a ‘must read’ for anyone interested in antiracism and
decoloniality.
*Woody Doane, University of Hartford*
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