Being Skeptical About "Internal Colonialism"

Extract

Internal colonialism has beeome a popular term in academic parlance. Although suggested in the writings of Lenin, it was probably first developed by the Mexican intellectual Pablo Gonzales Casanova, who employed the term in his Democracy in Mexico to describe the relationship between the Mexican Government and the Indian population. In the United States it has since been used to characterize the status of virtually every minority. The charge is made that blacks, Mexican- Americans, Indians, and even women have been colonized. Virtually all culturally pluralistic societies— outside the socialist bloc—are now stigmatized as instances of internal colonialism.