Theorizing about Injustice: Legacies of Colonialism and Postcolonial Theories

In my paper I will argue that while postcolonial theories generally attempt at fostering justice, they for the most part refrain from normative justice theory. Instead, they focus their energy on addressing the many forms of injustice that European colonialism has produced, and that Western imperialism keeps producing, as well as on possible ways of undoing these particular forms of injustice. Doing so, they at least implicitly make the point that producing justice theory may not be a suitable tool for this task. I will discuss two examples of post- and decolonial theory accounts of global injustice: work by Frantz Fanon and by Aníbal Quijano. Both authors have inspired and influenced many others in their respective fields, and both of them focus on colonial difference constructions and on the many ways in which colonial racism has become institutionalized.