Against Colonialism and Fascism: The Politics of the Human

What is the relationship between colonialism and fascism? How did Black and Jewish writers understand the politics of the human in the aftermath of World War II? In this latest salon, we turn to the historical legacy and theoretical contributions of two marginalized European subjects (French and German) who were processing colonialism and fascism shortly after World War II. We will put Black Martinican Aimé Césaire’s essay “Discourse on Colonialism” (1950) in conversation with Hannah Arendt’s chapters on racism from Origins of Totalitarianism (1951).

Césaire was a poet and politician Martinique who helped found the négritude movement in Black French literature and was colleagues with Frantz Fanon and Léopold Senghor. His poetry and political work would inspire a new generation of Black writers in the Caribbean.
For more info read: https://www.thenation.com/article/at-the-living-heart/

Hannah Arendt was a German Jewish (and eventually American) philosopher who would go on to describe the connections between racism and anti-Semitism by looking at European colonial expansions in the 19th century.
For more info: https://www.washingtonpost.com/gdpr-consent/?destination=%2fnews%2fmonkey-cage%2fwp%2f2016%2f12%2f17%2fhow-hannah-arendts-classic-work%2f%3f&utm_term=.b3056a4dbaf0

This conversation will give us some opportunities to ruminate on the histories of racism, constructions of the human, and colonialism.

Note: We hope to create an atmosphere where this conversation can provide a safer space and we want to prioritize LGBTIA, African descended people, indigenous* folks (formerly colonized), Asian descended people and womxn*. For information on that refer to https://saferspacesnyc.wordpress.com/