Notes on 'race'; decoloniality in praxis

Abstract

Taking cue from Mignolo and Walsh’s concept of decoloniality, this paper presents an experiment and exploration in Korean Thought to think ‘race’. It is a snapshot of an ongoing project of thinking/living decolonially to contribute to the growing literature that challenge the imperial status of Western Thought. The aim is not to call for cancellation nor indict a sense of morality to those who engage with what is conventionally offered in Western academic institutions. Instead, the goal is to participate in an exercise of epistemological considerations through the use of thought paradigms considered ‘Subaltern’, of the global South, indigenous, of the ‘margins’; namely that of ‘Other’ to the Western intellectual tradition. It effect, Western thought is displaced from the pedestal of the ‘universal’ and laid amongst a constellation of many thought systems. There are three expositions presented in this paper. First, the concept ‘race’ under Western episteme is examined. ‘Race’ is defined as the imposition of subject-object relation through the colonial power matrix. The ways in which this relation manifest is traced on structural and phenomenological levels using the particular example of ‘Asians’ coded under the ideology of Yellow Peril in Aotearoa and more broadly, the West. The second and third chapters offer ‘decolonial alternatives’ through which the subject-object relation can be transcended. Korean concepts of 인 (仁), ‘in’, is used to rethink ontology, and ‘habitus of 한 (韓);(恨), “han”’ , for exposition of decoloniality that is already in praxis. In sum, the paper calls for those who are racialised to locate ourselves in the spheres of liberation and sovereignty, one which can be done through tracing the thoughts of ancestors particular to one’s whakapapa (cultural lineage). Through claiming this thinking/doing/living, the capacity to hold multiplicities, differences, and orientation towards expansion can be accessed.