Abstract
In this talk I engage with the concept of blackness within the semi-peripheral context of Serbian feminism. Drawing on my experiences as a Roma feminist of over two decades and the results of desk research tracking the digital traces of the Audre Lorde’s work as a representative of American feminism, I propose a conceptualization of blackness in geopolitical terms. I view semi-peripheral context as both validating American —and thereby Western—imperial blackness, and as being part of the European white enclosure, which subjugates it through familiar processes of mastering, whitewashing, and symbolic “negroization”. In comparison to empty and tokenized but nevertheless legitimate and inspirational, American feminist blackness, the racialized “gypsified” Roma subjectivity is relegated behind semi-peripheral margin into the mahala, a color line marked by inferior Roma mahala-blackness, characterized as a place of permanent crisis, inviting the semi-peripheral feminist civilizing mission. Resistance to the masterful readings of American and Roma mahala-blackness will be illustrated through the recording of my performance “Little Sister Outsider”, presentation at the launch of the Serbian translation of Lorde’s book “ZAMI: A New Spelling of My Name” held in Belgrade in 2022 with the support of the informal platform “Black Sheep Academy”.
About the speaker
Jelena Savic is a PhD candidate at Uppsala University's Centre for Gender Research, specializing in the intersection of Critical Digital Humanities and Critical Romany Studies. Her research draws from theories of whiteness, decolonialism, and critical race theory. With an MA in Philosophy from Central European University in Budapest, Hungary, she has a background in dehumanization studies at the intersection of scientific racism, sexism, and speciesism. Jelena also graduated from the Department of Andragogy at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade, Serbia. Being of Serbian Roma origin, Jelena has been engaged in Roma and feminist movements for two decades. In 2019 she contributed a chapter to the Routledge publication "The Romani Women’s Movement: Struggles and Debates in Central and Eastern Europe”.
