Gloria Wekker Reader

Gloria Wekker is Emeritus Professor of Gender and Ethnicity at Utrecht University. She is the author of White Innocence, published by Duke University Press, as well as The Politics of Passion.Chandra Frank is Assistant Professor of Women’s Gender & Sexuality Studies and the 2024–2027 Taft Professor of the Public Humanities at the University of Cincinnati.Nancy Jouwe is a cultural historian and an independent researcher, writer and curator.Mikki Stelder is Assistant Professor of Cultural Studies at the University of Amsterdam.

• Acknowledgments ixForeword / Angela Y. Davis xiIntroduction: Gloria Wekker—Crafting Alternative Cultural Archives, Shaping Biracial Intimacies / Chandra Frank, Nancy Jouwe, and Mikki Stelder 1Part I: Sexuality on the MoveIntroduction / Roderick Ferguson 25“Tower of Babel on the Suriname River” (1997) 291. Sexuality on the Move 312. What’s Identity Got to Do with It? Rethinking Identity in Light of the Mati Work in Suriname 733. Afro-Surinamese Women’s Sexual Culture and the Long Shadow of the Past 934. One Finger Does Not Drink Okra Soup: Afro-Surinamese Women and Critical Agency 1135. Politics and Passion: In Conversation with Gloria Wekker / Andil Gosine 1436. The Coded Language of Hottentot Nymphae and the Discursive Presence of Race, 1917 155Part II. Black EuropeIntroduction / Gail Lewis 187“Denial” 1957. Survivors: Portrait of the Group Sister Outsider 1978. Another Dream of a Common Language: Imagining Black Europe 2099. What Happens to Black Africa in the Afro-Surinamese Transatlantic Diaspora? 22310. Afropessimism 233Part III. The Cultural ArchiveIntroduction / Sudeep Dasgupta 249“Acknowledgment” 25311. How Families Navigate Empire 25512. Introduction to White Innocence 26313. A Wind-Swept Plain: The History of Gender and Ethnicity-Thought in the Netherlands (with Helma Lutz) 29714. White Innocence: Reflections on Public Debates and Political-Analytical Challenges. An Interview with Gloria Wekker, Nella van den Brandt, Lieke Schrijvers, Amal Miri, and Nawal Mustafa 32515. Diving into the Wreck: Exploring Intersections of Sexuality, “Race,” Gender, and Class in the Dutch Cultural Archive 34316. Building Nests in a Windy Place: Thinking on Gender and Ethnicity in the Netherlands 365Part IV: Transnational FeminismIntroduction / Fatima El-Tayeb 385“Transatlantic” 38917. Naming Ourselves as Black Women in Europe: An African American-German and Afro-Dutch Conversation (with Cassandra Ellerbe-Dueck) 39118. A Letter to Audre Lorde 41119. Still Crazy After All Those Years . . . Feminism for the New Millennium 41320. “How Does One Survive the University as a Space Invader?”: Beyond White Innocence in the Academy 42721. Reading Obama: Collective Responsibilities and the Politics of Tears (with M. Jacqui Alexander and Gail Lewis) 443Contributors 465Index 467

"This impressive collection of Gloria Wekker’s work is essential reading for scholars and activists who want to strengthen their understanding of the complex ways in which the cauldrons of colonialism and the slave trade ignited forces responsible for capitalism and for the accompanying and equally tenacious structures of racism."—Angela Y. Davis, from the foreword"If you’re new to Gloria Wekker’s work, as I was, this volume of interviews, essays, letters, and more will be an excellent introduction to the Afro-Surinamese Dutch theorist and activist."—Karla J. Strand, Ms. Magazine