Brown Identities, Complicities, and Complexities: Towards Brown-Black Solidarities

Abstract

Complicities and complexities in racialization simultaneously create possibilities and foreclose opportunities for cross-racial solidarities. In this auto-ethnographic paper, we share our learning and theorizing of Brown-Black solidarities since we filmed a webinar titled, “Brown Complicity in White Supremacy: Towards Solidarity for Black Lives” (SultyDee, 2020), one of several efforts towards Brown (South Asian)-Black solidarities in North America. We begin by situating ourselves in this conversation by troubling conceptions of “Brown” that flatten power asymmetries within the diaspora. We then theorize the inevitable complexities and complicities of the relational racialization of Brownness from anti-racist and anti-colonial framings and explore conceptions of Brown-Black solidarities. Finally, we draw on webinar feedback and our ongoing work in education and in communities in the Greater Toronto Area to offer a framework for strengthening Brown anti-racist orientations towards Brown-Black solidarities. This framework intends to examine intersections between white supremacy, anti-Black racism, caste oppression, and settler colonialism in a white settler state.

Transnational Black feminism: L.O.V.E. as a practice of freedom, equity, and justice in English language teaching

“…Solidarity building is a process that stems from trust, hope, agreement, and allyship. Power asymmetries, such as proximities to Whiteness and anti‐Blackness sentiments within and between minoritized communities, complexifies solidarity building (Shah & Chanicka, 2023). However, Liu and Shange (2018) theorized empathy in social justice movements led by minoritized communities by arguing the need for thick solidarity .…”