View of Colonialism through Truths and Tales

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Recommended: Effect and impact of colonialism

This week’s readings discuss the truths about colonialism and how it has impacted different races on a global level. The tales aspect of the readings covers individual experiences of racism and how the victims now view their oppressions in order to cope with these traumas. The truth behind colonization is that it has caused the dispossession of subordinate groups from their land, their rights and their communities. The readings have examined the environments in which different communities have had to re-evaluate their social structures and approaches towards racism. These communities have found themselves falling behind in their fight to break apart from years of oppression. How has the view changed within racialized communities accepting and resisting racism brought on by their oppressors as a result of colonialism? The changes within challenging colonial discourses has allowed for oppressed groups to adapt with changes in post-colonial tactics.
In Taiaiake Alfred’s article, “Rebellion of the Truth,” the author discusses how the Canadian First Nations community in Whistler struggles with the politics of their band leaders and government in regards to the possession of their lands. According to Alfred, the Onkwehonwe community struggles with maintaining their lands financially. The leaders of the clan believed rather than preserving the heritage of their ancestors, selling the lands would give them a long-term economic benefit. Alfred explains how the clan leaders had to change their perception in order to stay afloat financially and to be able to have the freedoms of challenging the oppression of losing their land. The author explains with the following statement: “Even moderate activism, the tame and constrained legalism of t...

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... and minority groups will need to work together with any challenges that arise.
It is evident from this week’s readings and the Loomba text that racial discourses towards marginalized groups are not intended to bring invisibility amongst targeted women. The themes truth and tale bring together the experience and perceptions that colonialism conveys to the real experiences and stories of oppressed groups in a vivid manner. These experiences connect to the oppression of women and how they have developed through social discourses and concludes that change towards resistance is evolving within the changes of the environment. In order for the irregularities of equality amongst minority groups to balance out, there needs to be an adaptation in how one perceives and approaches their oppressions in order to resist and challenge the transgressions faced in everyday life.

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