The Grounds of Encounter: Racial and Colonial Discourses of Place

Abstract:Bridging Black and Native Studies, this essay juxtaposes the speeches of late-nineteenth century social reformers with Black and Indigenous place-making practices to show that white settler spatial imaginaries depict both Black and Indigenous peoples as placeless within the lands currently called the United States. Moving beyond an analytical separation of Black and Native Studies, it employs a relational approach that reveals how racial and colonial discourses of place are co-constitutive in historical practice. The association of past and present in this essay is an invitation to consider the recursive and repetitive production of white settler spatial practices and imaginaries as ongoing sites of struggle.