What is 'Decoloniality,' and why is it important?

Decoloniality is about challenging the structures that create 'Othering' by categorizing people, which then leads to disenfranchisement and oppression across generations. It involves dismantling power relations and knowledge systems that perpetuate racial, gender, and geopolitical hierarchies. This is important because deconstructing the coloniality of power requires dismantling the assumed normativity of whiteness, which can unveil hidden biases and inequalities.

What does it mean to disrupt 'white innocence,' and why is that important?

White innocence refers to the lack of awareness or acknowledgement among white individuals regarding the historical and ongoing impacts of colonialism and racism. It's disrupted by encouraging individuals to critically examine their own positionality within systems of power and privilege. Addressing white innocence is crucial because it unveils the hidden mechanisms through which racial inequality is perpetuated.

What does a 'decolonizing standpoint' mean in the context of community psychology, and why is it important?

A decolonizing standpoint in community psychology involves grounding oneself in social justice values and actively engaging in decolonial and liberatory work. It includes developing curricula, assignments, and tools that facilitate decolonial thinking, fostering critical reflexivity in relation to a sociohistorical analysis of the coloniality of power. This is significant as it enables community psychologists to address and dismantle the coloniality of power embedded in pedagogy, theory, research, and action.

What do we mean by the 'racialized coloniality of power,' and why is it important to address?

The racialized coloniality of power refers to the ways in which colonial structures and power dynamics are infused with racial hierarchies. It perpetuates systemic inequalities by upholding whiteness as the norm and marginalizing non-Eurocentric perspectives. Addressing this coloniality is crucial for dismantling systems of oppression and fostering a more equitable society.

Fractured family portrait symbolizing decolonial thinking

Unmasking White Innocence: How Family Stories Can Foster Understanding

Q: What is the 'Family Portrait Assignment,' and what makes it a valuable tool?

The Family Portrait Assignment is a pedagogical tool used to encourage decolonial thinking. By examining their family's im/migration story through a critical lens, students engage in disrupting white innocence and fostering a deeper understanding of power dynamics. Its significance lies in its ability to promote critical reflexivity regarding the sociohistorical analysis of the coloniality of power.

Lena Voss in Mind & Education August 2025 • 4 min read.

"Explore how a Family Portrait Assignment disrupts white innocence and encourages decolonial thinking in community psychology."

In an era where the permanence of racism casts a long shadow over society, understanding the subtle mechanisms that perpetuate inequality is more critical than ever. Within the intricate systems of power, the legacies of racialized coloniality remain deeply entrenched, often obscured by discourses of colorblindness and historical amnesia. However, the rise of movements advocating for social justice underscores the pressing need to confront and dismantle these structures.

As allies in the pursuit of liberation, individuals with privileged positionalities must actively engage in dismantling systems of power that perpetuate inequality. In the classroom, these encounters are further complicated by the sociopolitical context, including the contradictions of purporting diversity in an increasing neoliberal education that upholds the status quo, rugged individualism, and colorblindness. Therefore, it is essential to explore pedagogical tools that challenge the coloniality of power embedded in whiteness.

This article delves into the implementation of the Family Portrait Assignment, a pedagogical tool designed to facilitate decolonial thinking among students. By examining their family's im/migration story through a critical lens, students engage in disrupting white innocence and fostering a deeper understanding of power dynamics within community psychology. Drawing from a critical discourse analysis of student essays, this exploration offers insights into decolonial pedagogy and its potential to promote social change.

What is Decoloniality and Why Does it Matter?

Fractured family portrait symbolizing decolonial thinking

Decoloniality challenges the structures that organize and categorize people, creating forms of Othering that perpetuate disenfranchisement and oppression across generations. Decolonization involves dismantling power relations and knowledge systems that reproduce racial, gender, and geopolitical hierarchies. Therefore, deconstructing the coloniality of power requires dismantling the assumed normativity of whiteness.

The ongoing project of decoloniality disrupts the racialized coloniality of power in thinking, being, and doing. Liberation psychology emphasizes deconstructing discourses and ideologies that hide the workings of power, privilege, and oppression. Decolonization is not solely a theoretical concept but an active practice of dismantling the coloniality of power that sustains oppression.

Transnational and multidisciplinary lenses.
Grounded in critical race theories.
Methodologies that challenge legacies of coloniality.

This approach recognizes Indigenous and non-Eurocentric worldviews as legitimate forms of knowledge, offering a liberatory framework for the discipline. Community psychology can benefit from a decolonizing standpoint through a critical sociohistorical analysis that addresses the coloniality of power in pedagogy, theory, research, and action.

Towards a Decolonial Future in Community Psychology

As community psychologists, it is essential to stand firmly grounded in social justice values and engage in decolonial and liberatory work. By developing curricula, assignments, and tools that facilitate decolonial thinking, and by learning how to foster critical reflexivity in relation to a sociohistorical analysis of the coloniality of power, a decolonizing standpoint in community psychology pedagogy can be developed. Through multidisciplinary approaches, critical sociohistorical analysis, and the deconstruction of whiteness, it is possible to reflect, problematize, and deconstruct the racialized coloniality of whiteness and meaningfully engage in a decolonizing standpoint that confronts and disrupts whiteness.