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Site of Resistance

The Site of Resistance or Space of Resistance is a term used in contexts of social justices. It is most commonly used in a voice of resistance to the dominant power of the given social or political discipline. Confrontation from the indoctrinated social groups is strengthened and bonded through the identification of the oppressor.

The phrase is open to two interpretations of direct and indirect sites of resistance. The former representing physical sites of resistance, while the latter is presented through efforts made to fight against the dominant. It has been incorporated into the language of communities hegemonised by oppressive powers. It has also been used in book titles, web articles and incorporated into a figure of speech.

Implementations

Racial Struggle

African American

bell hooks, one of the most recognised writers and activists of the 20th century gives her take on the site of resistance in her works, Marginality as Site of Resistance and Choosing Margin as a Space of Radical Openness. hooks typically writes her literature drawn on her experiences growing up as an African American woman in the United States. She describes her childhood living on the margins of society, separated by railway tracks that distinguish the poor and the wealthy.

Space of resistance is described as an abstract concept where marginalisation holds double meanings. The first being the recognition of oneself as a suppressed individual, the second as a site for confrontation to the producer of inequality. She describes, “a site of deprivation” as well as “a site of radical possibility.” She argues the site of marginality as a “central location for the production of counter-hegemonic discourse.” Not a place of despair and grief but rather an environment “one stays in, clings to even, because it nourishes one’s capacity to resist."

Puerto Ricans

Located in Chicago, Illinois, the Puerto Rican Cultural Centre (PRCC) stands a twenty-five year history of being the community’s second largest institution in support of Puerto Rican “independence and barrio autonomy.” The community practices a myriad of direct and subtle strategies to combat systematic unfairness such as the battle over the gentrification of neighbourhood. Their space of resistance is understood through material as well as metaphorical resistance. In which the former represents a physical location such as the PRCC, and the latter demonstrated through from protests to art exhibitions.

Space is described as “more than location but circumscribing zone of shared representations.” It opens an idea of evaluating space and and community in a global city, and also taking into digitisation as a consideration while evaluating the two. The struggle faced by Puerto Ricans are both material and metaphorical. It is material in their efforts to demarcate an idea special to the community, and the latter being the efforts to replicate a unique Puerto Rican culture within Chicago.

Systematic Struggle

Environmentalists

Revitalising the Commons: Cultural and Educational Sites of Resistance and Affirmation, by C. A. Bowers, uses this idea in the context of the privatisation of public grounds caused by economic globalisation. More broadly, the cause for the widening gap of uneven distribution of wealth and power. In the book, he represents cultural and environmental commons that challenge the systematic operations. The purpose of this book is aimed to influence the education system in expanding knowledge of the effects of industrial culture in West and third world countries.

A site of resistance in his interpretation represents “models of life in post-industrial cultures that can be sustained by the earth’s ecosystem.” The book argues scholars who have been indoctrinated by abstract explanations of conservatism and liberalism do not believe traditions should be carried on, however the book protests in raising the value in understanding past traditions as traditions will represent sites of resistance to the process of colonisation that is one of the most dominant traditions in the industrialised west.”

LGBTQ

Space of resistance has appeared in usage by queer people of colour as the community faces discrimination and placed on the margins of society. Entertainment owners have created physical spaces such as clubs and meeting spots as “strategies for survival in the face of hate.” The feeling of neglect is felt amongst the community as they experience harassment from their day-to-day lives, causing personal traumas because of their uniqueness to the norms of society.

Co-owner of Maracuyeah, and Co-founder of Cutn Paste, host parties to provide a space of resistance. The parties are hosted at discreet places and generally through word of mouth to enhance protection especially in a rise of attacks in gay bars . The events are curated and organised to serve as a shield for members of the queer community as a shield from their daily attacks where individuals are bonded like a thread through music.

Resistance Through Locations and Mediums

Modern Resistance

Parties

Maracuyeah located in Washington, DC, founded by Kristy la aRT is a party that showcases “latinx, queer, femme, POC, trans, immigrant, and gender non-conforming identities and art.” In the same city, Cutn Paste, founded by Precolumbian, is the “city’s biggest queer dance party.” Both events are hosted for Latinx, queer, questioning and trans people of colour (QTPOC). The two founders are friends and share the same Peruvian roots. Motivated by the lack of spaces welcomed to queer individuals, they invented their own. Precolumbian describes these spaces as an escape to the harassment the community receives during the daytime to a place where their identities are celebrated and appreciated.

Both Kristy la rAT and Columbian relate the mistreatment and the horrible attacks that have occurred in LGBTQ nightclubs to “economic violence and symbolic violence. La rAT says its due to the representation of worthlessness of the community that has incurred the ideologies to treat the community badly. Columbian then addresses straight people for self-education and mindful of their attitudes. Their events promote partner-dancing where both founders feel are important to the human healing for these oppressed individuals of this community.

Reggae

Reggae is regarded as a space of resistance as the producers of such music struggle bondage from racial discrimination to personal troubles. Enslavement is described both externally and internally from emotional difficulties to a real-world social norm one adheres to such as the way of speech and style. Reggae also acts as a liberation from the illusion of western entertainment, as well as a force to relieve the lives of those who are suppressed and to enlighten those who are unaware of the inequalities. An artist describes reggae as “one of the few genres in pop music that has a way of liberating people in a different level of consciousness, with yourself, the world, and because it’s coming from a black perspective its conscious about the black life, black reality, black consciousness in a global context.” Reggae is then described as a way of life, “we grow up in different kinds of music. Rebellion means being, in the midst of all kinds of music we combine every song to this heartbeat, this is why reggae music connects the heart. A reference to Rastafari is made to address it as the bedrock to reggae as it provides a platform for redemption.

In describing an internal and external bondage, “the essence of reggae music is freedom. we’re all in bondages in some way, to dress a certain way, to comb our hair. you can be slaves to something externally and eternally, true freedom is freedom from inner bondage, physical reality is not the ultimate reality, there is a universe within yourself. freedom is when you are free from negative impulses within yourself. the impulse to want to take all the attention. ego is your inner self.”

Music through parties is also described as a site of resistance as owners use this medium to unite queer individuals of colour in a town lacking queer-specific nightclubs and events.

Web

With the internet becoming a tool for contribution and participation, blog sites and forums allow individuals to express particular protests on subjects. For example, Blogging Feminism: Web(sites) of Resistance is an online blog of "journal of feminist theories and women's movements, through the publication of Barnard Centre for Research on Women at Columbia University. Although it is outdated, the last published issue being spring 2007, it has wide-ranging topics such as gender inequality in television and woman's rights.

Academics

Academia

In the book, The Third Space as a Critical Engagement, author Paul Routledge stresses the importance of a third space representing the negotiation between academia and activism. In a section devoted to “Academia as a Site of Resistance,” he promotes the new perspective of viewing the academy as space of scholars representing different disciplines from an amalgam of geographical backgrounds rather than a “monolithic institution.” He quotes bell hooks in arguing the intertwining of teaching and possibility of political action which engages in acts of resistance through critical pedagogies.

Following this idea, Routledge also writes to argue academia serves as a site to study past political and social struggles for the act of constructive criticism. He raises the issue of academia already seen as a source of power of knowledge and a site for elitists. He proposes the closure of this gap through the third space, with the example of using “time and place of the academy for solidarity work that is free, creative, and not directed at profit.”

Literature

Author Edouard Louis was interviewed by a reporter on Literary Hub on his new book, The End of Eddy. The title of the article is called, “Éduoard Louis on Class, Violence, And Literature as a Space of Resistance.” In this interview, it is understood Louis’ interpretation of literature as a space of resistance through his life experiences and his outlook on the world. Louis sees the world filled with fiction, he gives an explanation to this describing his family as one to be ashamed of its own economic status, therefore their wants to be viewed invisible. He further explained he wanted to engage in literature as a medium for others to know his story rather than reading and watching stories of others on television and newspapers. He viewed literature as a space of truth, also.

Louis wrote about his struggles throughout childhood dealing with his sexuality, speech, and intended to fill his book with the anger for violence, domination, and exclusion. His parents were upset when they found out Louis had disclosed all information about their lives, including their poorness. Louis said literature reminded them of their place in the world. To Louis, literature was an expression of resistance as he provides full honesty to what would otherwise be suppressed by the people of his town and family in Northern France.

Locations Reimagined as Sites of Resistance

National Museum of African American History

In a Huffington Post, writer Lance Hosey titles the article, “The Space of Resistance.” He describes the subject of the piece, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, as an example of a site of resistance in architectural forms The piece begins with the idea of political myths, illustrating the dramatisation of historical events of governments to maintain their status of the authority and their status quo. Hosey provides an example of this through the founding fathers of the United States, often portrayed as symbols of “universal freedom and equality,” yet forgetting complexities of socioeconomic forces.

As the phrase, “political construction,” coined by Hosey serves as an “attention to a social or political grievance,” the NMAAHC stands as a rare example of a permanent, formal structure that showcases many traits of political construction. The architecture of the building is much inspired and made with African ties. Max Bond, who was a designer on the team, selected many materials that have association with African American labour. He writes this idea of material justice in which can also be used in reverse to avoid selecting materials that have such historic ties. Other references apparent in the architecture include the resemblance of an African headdress to the tier-shaped design of the building, as well as the Corona signifying both slavery and independence. This site honours significant thought-leaders as hooks' words were projected onto a wall at the museum that writes, "people resist by telling their story.” Whilst, President Obama has described the museum, a place “to understand how protest and love of country don’t merely coexist but inform each other.”

Aboriginal Tent Embassy

In 2015, the Australian government gave threats to close aboriginal communities in Western Australia caused by funding cuts in the government. A protest was formed and individuals charged to the parliament carrying pieces signifying aboriginal roots. The aboriginal community has suffered oppression socially and economically through displacement of the individuals in this population. The inclusion of urban areas was executed through assimilation and is continuing today as well. In 2015, the federal government of Australia announced a $534 million cut towards Indigenous programs for the following five years. It has also forced communities to leave their remote places to relocate to larger places.

The Aboriginal tent embassy has been regarded as a space of resistance because of its defiance against aboriginal oppression and dehumanising violence from colonialism. The “states’ attempts to appropriate and configure particular lands are challenged by opposing forces that seek to re-appropriate them and to create alternative counter spaces.” One of the most obvious examples of this statement is the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, it was built in front of the parliament to represent the displaced nations, and the placement of this embassy was a symbol of the nation’s feeling of alienation in their own homes. However, this space has become a location for the people of the same community to convene and provide support for each other, space where they have control. It writes, “remote homelands facing closure today are not just spaces of continued colonial violence, but also spaces of resistance and struggle against assimilation and dispossession.”

Courtroom

The courtroom has been reimagined as a space of resistance because of the famous event of the life sentence to Nelson Mandela in 1964. In the book written by Awol Allo, The Courtroom as a Space of Resistance reflects Mandela’s statement before the Justice de Wet in Pretoria's Palace of Justice. The author uses this to addresses the resetting of the margins as the site of visibility and hearing. Mandela’s became a symbolic meaning to the courtroom. He “used the law as his sword and shied…he invokes it while undermining it, uses it while subverting it, and claims it while defeating it. Wise and strategic, Mandela skilfully reimagines the courtroom as a site of visibility and hearing, opening up a political space within the legal.”

The trial showcased the insurable indignation of black people and the laws and legal institutions that permits this ideology. This book that reflects on the impact of the Rivonia trial describes resistance as a “counter-conduct against the modalities of power that constitutes and regulates the subject.” Contributors to the book promote the idea of unlimited space of resistance, from streets, classrooms, and even courtrooms. All also argues resistance to always involve the speciality of discourse and locations. Mandela used this space to confront the state and address issues Robin Island where Mandela and numerous other prisoners were held. The event placed the “defendant to filter stories of oppression and indignation into court of public opinion.”

Historical Sites of Resistance

Trafalgar square

On Monday, February 8, 1886, a riot occurred in London. The London United Workmen's Committee and H.F. Hyndman's revolutionary Social Democratic Federation held a public meeting at the same time at Trafalgar Square. Though it was warned the two leftist organisations may crash, no precautions were made by the authority. While the meetings were completed with no disturbance, a riot of five thousand who were present was ensued along “Pall Mall, St James's, and Piccadilly throwing stones, smashing club windows, looting shops, robbing occupants of carriages, and terrorising people.” On Sunday, November 13, 1887, a riot occurred at the same location again with ten-thousand protestors fighting against the Metropolitan Police and British Army for unemployment of the poor.

Because of these events, these incidents have been named, Black Monday and Bloody Sunday. Between 1886 and 1887, the square has been recognised as a rallying point for social change caused by economic injustices. Although past commissioner of London, Sir Charles Warren prohibited meetings to be held because of these two events, it has been revoked since then and Trafalgar Square has been recognised as “a centre of national democracy and protest.” Mayor of London praises the rallies and demonstrations held at weekends for political, religious and general issues and supports this democratic tradition, and gives access to the square for such causes.

Liberation Square

Midan al-Tahrir, also known as Liberation Square in central Cairo of Egypt, is known to be a place for resistance as protestors often converge to protest “unemployment, poverty, corruption, police brutality, election fraud, and political stagnation.” Between the end of January and beginning of February of 2011, two million civilians of different economic statuses and geographical locations converged to impeach the then sitting leader, President Mubarak. Midan al-Tahrir has also endured several protests such as the 1977 bread riots, in which civilians of the country protested President Sadat’s increase of prices for basic necessities. In 2003, the people came together again to protest against the war in Iraq.

The Liberation Square situates in a populated location with major transportation stations that connect different parts of Cairo, proximity with significant national, political, and educational institutions. It is also nearby famous restaurants, hotels, and stores. It is recognised as a location where citizens of varying backgrounds can commence, representing a “blending between the old and new, the West and East, and the national and the global, as well as the mixing of different genders, classes, and religious groups.”