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This Is What ‘Decolonization’ Looks Like
Real decolonization is a physical process. It is about removing bodies from a place. (Photo by Ilia Yefimovich/picture alliance via Getty Images)
Fancy-sounding academic jargon is not a curious intellectual exercise. Words make worlds. Words make nightmares.
By Peter Savodnik
10.10.23 — International
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On Saturday, as the raping and murdering and kidnapping were happening in Israel, Najma Sharif, a writer for Soho House magazine and Teen Vogue, posted on X: “What did y’all think decolonization meant? vibes? papers? essays? losers.” 

So far, Sharif’s post has been liked 100,000 times and reposted nearly 23,000 times—by, among others, The Washington Post…

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Peter Savodnik
Peter Savodnik is senior editor at The Free Press. Previously, he wrote for Vanity Fair as well as GQ, Harper’s Magazine, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Wired, and other publications, reporting from the former Soviet Union, the Middle East, South Asia, and across the United States. His book, The Interloper: Lee Harvey Oswald Inside the Soviet Union, was published in 2013.
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