i know about activism fatigue, but what’s happening in kashmir is terrifying. after 70 years of colonial oppression, modi’s government has scrapped provisions in the indian constitution that guaranteed a measure of autonomy and allowed the jammu and kashmir legislature to define permanent residents (in essence, who could buy land and property in the valley). with this unconstitutional presidential order, we can expect complete annexation and settler colonialism in kashmir, as hindu settlements begin to encroach on and change the muslim-majority demographics of the region. think palestine. all of this is happening under the cover of a complete media and communications blackout that has cut off kashmiris from the rest of the world. what has been most striking though is the reaction from ordinary indians, most of whom have broken into a cheap nationalist dance and can be found, on social media, using the white man’s vocabulary of ‘islamofascism’ and ‘islamic terrorism’ to describe kashmiri resistance to half a million indian troops stationed on their land and the torture, rape, disappearances and mass graves that have come to embody their brutal occupation. there’s something particularly rancid about the racism of people of color. it’s unsettling on so many levels. as we remember toni morrison today, we should pay attention to language and the violence it can enact. from her nobel lecture: ‘it is the language that drinks blood, laps vulnerabilities, tucks its fascist boots under crinolines of respectability and patriotism as it moves relentlessly toward the bottom line and the bottomed-out mind.’ one can feel it. #standwithkashmir