Reimaging Africanized Bodies in Eurocentric Spaces

Abstract

The forthcoming discussion examines Re-Imaging Africanized Bodies in Eurocentric Spaces. My discourse on Re-Imaging positions me to consider the implications of reconstructing representations of Africanized bodies in education by providing a comprehensive conversation on a neologized term I refer to as the Image Matrix. My reference to Africanized bodies situates me within the duality of my African-Caribbean ancestry and the lingering trauma of the colonial project to dominate African bodies through dehumanizing efforts to civilize the sub-human native constructed within the European imagination. By Eurocentric spaces, I acknowledge boundaries engineered by colonizers to demarcate themselves from the colonized ‘other.’ These boundaries legitimize racial binaries defined by logical and illogical, rational and irrational maintained within established Eurocentric spaces. Throughout the paper I will provide poignant sketches of my African-Caribbean experience and my pedagogical practice within secondary education. I will give attention to my unscripted conversations with grade nine African-Caribbean males and their lived experiences as a point of convergence synthesizing my discussion. I will draw upon Anti- Racist Theory with particular attention to M. Banton’s discourse on Social Darwinism; R. Miles, W. Omi, and H. Winant’s work on defining race as a social construct to substantiate my discussion.