Cross-Coalitional Anti-Racist and Anti-Ableist Movements? Building on Maroon/Fugitive Knowledges and Global South Epistemologies

Abstract

The present essay interrogates cross-coalitional, anti-racist and anti-ableist movement building in the global north and in the global south through the perspectives of fugitive, maroon knowledges and global south epistemologies. The essay builds upon the theoretical grounding offered by LatDisCrit through its integrative bridging work across DisCrit and LatCrit theory and its prioritization of diasporic, sociopolitical engagements with sociohistorical manifestations of trans-Latinidades throughout U.S. imperial territorialities. As such, the essay relies on the use of counterstorytelling as a hermeneutic method which surfaces otherwise hidden dimensions of global south epistemologies that in this essay are operationalized as knowledges born in the struggle, regardless of whether the struggle in question takes place in global north, global south contexts, or both. The essay concludes with critical explorations on the concept of quilombo. This notion is proposed as a possibilitarian space for cross-coalitional resistance, emancipatory learning, radical agency and radical solidarity.