White skin, black masks. Critique of decolonial reason. The need not to speak for the other.

Abstract

Gaya Makaran and Pierre Gaussens, through the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, the Centro de Investigaciones sobre América Latina y el Caribe, and Ediciones Bajo Tierra, are in charge of coordinating a compilation of texts whose common denominator is the analysis and critique of the decolonial current. The text Piel blanca, máscaras negras. Crítica de la razón decolonial, published in Mexico City in 2020, plays with the title of the work Peau noire, masques blancs, by Frantz Fanon, from whom they will take up the concept of active anticolonialism as a guide and model for the construction of a practical proposal in the face of colonialism.

The book consists of an introduction and 12 chapters. Divided into two parts, it brings together texts by 16 authors who speak from an academic but also militant approach, with the aim of enriching theoretical reflection, based on the review of experiences of participation in social movements and struggles that are ongoing. In this sense, the texts included in this book show that the empathy generated by knowing the realities of the subalterns can easily be disguised to result in speaking on behalf of and not listening to understand from the position (whatever it may be) that we have.