Queer Internal Colonialism:
Aiding Conquest through Borderless Discourse
The idea of internal colonialism has been popular in both social science writings
and political discourse. This paper attempts to provide a new way to think about this
concept in the realm of sexual communities. Specifically, I engage the topic of racism in
the queer community, arguing that white gays and lesbians are active participants in
larger U.S. internal colonialism of people of color by their denial of race differences
along sexual orientation lines and by their use of racist political rhetoric to further sexual
rights for their group.
I begin by offering an introduction into the concept of internal colonialism. I then
describe queer theory’s project to discuss the borderless experiences of queer nationhood
through sexual citizenship. Subsequently, I discuss the possible uses and misuses of this
ideological and theoretical claim. The fourth section of this paper describes racism in the
queer community and makes an argument for understanding white queer racism as a kind
of internal colonialism.
Internal Colonialism: Oppression Within and Without Borders
The concept of internal colonialism was developed by dependency theorists in
Latin America as a Marxist critique of imperialist development models and to account for
the racialized impoverishment of indigenous peoples (Gutiérrez, 2004). A broad social
science definition of internal colonialism has meant separate economic, political, and
social developments for different groups living in one society (Hind, 1984). It has been
used to describe circumstances as different as the Russian Revolution, Irish experiences
under British rule, and the subjugation of Southern Italy by its Northern counterpart [see
Gouldner, 1978; Hechter, 1975; Gramsci, 1957].
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