Introduction: Why "Oppositional Conversations"?

by Oppositional Conversations Editorial Board

Between 2013 and 2015 “we” (the editors and staff) published three issues of Oppositional Conversations. Why do we revive its publication with this issue on Identification now in the late fall of 2020? Because we find Oppositional Conversations to be indispensable to our own welfare as we go about our lives and livelihoods as Intellectuals, scholars, teachers, and activists of color. And we think, in this season of prolonged crisis, there are many others who will join us as readers and contributors to find innovative ways to combine the two words “oppositional” and “conversation” that will be sustaining for everyone in the shadow of looming catastrophes.

Can a space be produced where ideas interact, engage, and transform us in the midst of upheaval to allow the “new” to enter the world? Can that “new” transform the standard narratives and orthodoxies that now perpetrate and exacerbate our current crises—including historical injustice, economic and social harms and reparations, and human unsustainability—in ways that open possibilities for the dialogical reciprocity and community we truly desire? We want to find out, but we cannot do this alone. We cannot do this without you. Join us.

Many thanks,
Oppositional Conversations Editorial Board


O. Hugo Benavides
Bobby Cardos
Peter Dimock
Zine Magubane
Maurice Stevens
Cally L. Waite