To Tell People the Truth: Blackness from Home

Decirle la verdad a la gente: la negridad casa adentro

This article is a critical reflection and an attempt to rethink the politics of Blackness in Colombia drawing on my experience in the Afro-student movement and my insights about the policies of representation developed within the framework of the multicultural turn. From an autoethnographic perspective, as a methodological and writing practice, I aim to disentangle power structures in social formation processes in concrete experiences. Thus, throughout this journey, I analyze the production and reproduction of discourses that define the identity of “us Afro-Colombians”; an essential Blackness. I address the biological assumption that serves as a screening pattern to label some people as “good” or “bad” in this dynamic. Also, I ponder upon the multicultural inclusive discourse and its influence on bringing about new political subjectivities, especially what Claudia Mosquera has termed “Afro privileged.”