Empowerment

This collection of essays, interviews and film addresses the empowerment of people marginalised by racist dominant structures - People of Color, Black persons, non-White migrants and ethnic minorities. By focussing on empowerment these pages demonstrate an important part of empowerment processes themselves - the stepping beyond a complete occupation with the problem of disempowerment and discrimination. This dossier thereby extends the canon of writing that documents empowerment in practice, explores what it means, and explains how it works.

Jihan Jasmin S. Dean and Hanna Hoa Anh Mai administrate the »Move On Up«-email-list, a PoC-Empowerment mailing list. They write about the list’s background, share voices from the list with thoughts on the »Move On Up«-idea and describe some of the challenges a virtual community of color faces.

Sabina Iqbal shares in her contribution her experiences as a Deaf Asian Muslima in the UK. With a perspective on the intersection of gender, »Race«, religion and ability based discrimination she describes her life’s path, those individuals and institutions that supported her in achieving her goals, and touches upon the strategies necessary for the empowerment of Disabled People of Color.

Miran N. and Raju Rage document a process of empowerment, namely a conversation about self-determination between two trans-masculine femmes of color who also talk to their younger selves. Empowerment is understood as a form of healing justice.