Abstract
Scaffolding poetry, drawing, and narrative fragments from lived experience, I offer mishritata (mixedness) as a way to make meaning of multiply minoritized identity through the “doing” of dissertation research with one’s communities. Conceptualized as an orientation, mishritata is an indigenized embodied borderlands positionality that recognizes and celebrates the mixedness of the Queer Desi/South Asian experiences: an interplay of histories and contexts, of people and places, and of structures and systems that organize them across borders, both real and imagined.
Highlights
That time when . . . I learned to hate my name because most people I went to school with would butcher it and call me “Dirt” or “Duck”
That time when . . . I realized I was attracted to other young boys and men, and cried in shame
That time when . . . I was taught to live in fear that this secret would somehow write itself on my face and body and I would let it slip
Summary
In each of the four aforementioned experiences, the ways of making meaning of multiple minoritization were operationalized simultaneously through four key entanglements—self, social relations, institutions, and structures/systems. The very relations that anchor and provide comfort can simultaneously be toxic and violent; sometimes this relationship is with the self This calls forth the dimension of space: Counterspaces are not absolute. An important aspect of mishritata is recognizing those structures that, through their lack of visible impact in our lives, cultivate an unconscious and perhaps unintended consequence of exclusion. An example of this is the lack of consciousness around Indigeneity and Indigenous histories as we contemplate our kathās and where we go from here. How do we in our multiple marginality understand and practice solidarities with those who face their own histories and contemporary experiences of marginalization and erasure? Tending to the structures of anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism becomes critical for a mishritata orientation
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
